Entremets (Cakes)

My temporary burnout has ended, thanks to Chef Dimitri Fayard of Chicago's Vanille Patisserie. In France, a layered mousse cake is called an entremet, and over the past couple of weeks I have learned the differences between several mousses with regard to texture, flavor, and ingredients, as well as how to successfully construct various layered cakes. Each cake we made contained a minimum of three components - sometimes more - and they were each built over the course of a couple of days. Besides the cakes from our books, we were fortunate enough to have enough time to make two cakes that Chef Dimitri sells in his bakery. We also made puff pastry from scratch to construct a Pithivier - an intricately-decorated French cake that gets its shape and pattern designs from the use of a blade. We filled the Pithivier with frangipane, and made apple turnovers with our leftover puff pastry scraps. Nearly everything from this course was absolutely delicious. See below for pictures and details...

Nougat Mousse Cake:

pistachio dacquoise

passion fruit and apricot gelee

nougat mousse
clear glaze

Hazelnut Chocolate Cake:

hazelnut dacquoise sprinkled with caramelized hazelnuts

chocolate biscuit

chocolate mousse

hazelnut mousse

chocolate mirror glaze

Coconut Passion Cake:
coconut dacquoise

candied pineapple

coconut mousse

passion fruit mousse

clear and colored glaze

Raspberry Silk Cake:

almond dacquoise

raspberry gelee

hazelnut crunch

white chocolate diplomat mousse

Pithivier:

puff pastry

frangipane

Apple Turnovers:

puff pastry

apple compote

Chef Dimitri's Sophia Cake:

flourless chocolate biscuit

craquant praline

vanilla cremeux

chocolate mousse
chocolate glaze

Chef Dimitri's Chocolate Caramel Cake:

streusel / streusel crisp

caramel cremeux

chocolate caramel mousse

dark chocolate glaze