Hockey and CHOCOLATE!
As most of you either know or can guess, much of my life revolves around cake and other sweet things. As part of the Faculty of the French Pastry School in Chicago, even more things now turn into an excuse for creating something out of sugar, cake, or chocolate. This week’s Chicago Blackhawks’ Stanley Cup win was no exception. In anticipation of the big win, Chefs Jacquy Pfeiffer and Sebastien Canonne, Deans and founders of the School, conceived of the idea to create a 50-pound replica of the coveted Stanley Cup out of chocolate.
Although I am by no means a hockey fan, the project was of interest to me just from the perspective of how it would be achieved. My small role was to come up with a technique using gum paste to adorn two life-size hockey sticks (made of chocolate) with what I am calling “gauzey tape stuff” that provides friction for the player to grasp the stick as well as an area with which the puck comes in contact. Sounds easy enough, but upon close inspection of the hockey stick model provided to me, I discovered that the “gauzey tape stuff” is textured.
Fortunately for me, the School’s supply of textured rolling pins included one that would create just the right effect for the gauze. I started by passing my paste through the KitchenAid pasta attachment in order to achieve a perfectly consistent thickness in the paste. Then, applying consistent, even pressure, I added the textured effect to the paste with the selected pin. With my omnipresent ribbon cutter, I rolled through the paste to cut an even-width strip comparable to the width of the actual “gauze” on the stick. As I rolled this strip up, I brushed off the excess powdered sugar from the back side then was ready to attach it to the stick.
Using egg white as my glue, I started on what would be the back side of the stick and steadily unrolled the gum paste strip, overlapping just enough to create the look of tape. The finished result was exactly what I had hoped for. This little one-hour task was but a tiny part in a wonderful project in honor of a winning team.
If you would like to learn more about how to create decorative finishes to showpieces or cakes, visit the French Pastry School’s web site for more information about its new L’Art du Gateau program which launches August 30, 2010.
