Lu Xinyi had expected that the judges would ask for difficult desserts but not as this difficult as this. She already had an idea of what to make using the mandarin oranges, but damn, croquembouche and baked Alaska were both time-consuming and difficult to make. One should at least have advanced skills in pastry and baking to be able to produce such desserts.
However, would she accept defeat that easily? No way!
Starting to move on her kitchen counters, Lu Xinyi threw her mandarin oranges in water and let it sit for an hour. She also took several ice cream flavors from the freezer and set them aside to soften a little. She then took a medium-sized bowl that was almost the size of the sponge cake she would make later.
Lightly brushing the inside of the bowl with vegetable oil, Lu Xinyi lined it with a plastic wrap and made sure there was overhang before setting it aside for later use.
She then started preparing the ingredients she needed for croquembouche and baked alaska.
Croquembouche should be the first one she should serve as soon as possible because of the risk of collapse if it's left too long, particularly under room temperature. Humidity and the high temperature was the biggest problem she could face on making one.
Compared to croquembouche, making baked alaska was easier than it sounds.
Baked Alaska was a dome-shaped ice cream cake covered with meringue. Right before serving, the cake was either torched or baked in the oven briefly to create a golden brown color on the meringue. The meringue would act as a barrier so the ice cream wouldn't melt in the process. It made a beautiful showstopper for any dinner party or special occasion.
The best thing was the leftover could be returned to the freezer and kept for a week, unlike the common ice cream cake that needed to be eaten at once.
The baked alaska consisted of three parts: the sponge cake, ice cream, and the soft marshmallow-ish Swiss meringue topping. Since there were several ice cream flavors and variants that the academy prepared, Lu Xinyi knew that she only needed to work on the sponge cake and the meringue later.
First things first, she needed to start working on the first part on making croquembouches, the pastry cream.
Lu Xinyi gathered all the ingredients she needed at once and started working. In a small saucepan, she warmed the milk over low heat until it just began to steam.
Meanwhile, in a bowl, she whisked together the egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch, and flour until completely smooth. When the milk was steaming, Lu Xinyi added half the milk to the egg mixture while whisking continuously to blend and to prevent the eggs from curdling.
She then added the milk and eggs back into the hot milk in the saucepan, stirring constantly. She let the custard heated up for a minute or two until it was thick and reached 170-degrees Fahrenheit on her digital thermometer.
Once she reached her desired consistency, she removed the saucepan from the heat and stirred in vanilla extract. Now, her cream was ready to be chilled for two hours and used later for her profiteroles.
Moving on, she started to make the choux for the croquembouche and baked alaska's sponge cake at the same time. Preparing two batches of ingredients, Lu Xinyi started to make the chocolate sponge cake for her baked alaska.
In a large mixing bowl, she sifted together the cake flour, cocoa powder, three ounces of sugar, baking powder, and salt and whisked to combine them. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, she whisked together oil, water, and egg yolks and poured them into the flour mixture she made earlier; combining the two by whisking until it turned smooth.
Once it's done, she poured in the batter on a round cake pan and baked it in the oven.
Lu Xinyi stopped for a while to wipe the sweat on her temples before washing her hands to continue with her next dessert. Damn, not an hour had passed; and she could feel her body aching already.
She easily made the choux batter. Transferring it to a piping bag, Lu Xinyi piped it on her baking sheet. The crowd went nuts and started talking again after seeing what she'd done. Unlike Han Yixin who spooned her prepared choux dough into twenty small rounds on each baking sheet, Lu Xinyi piped hers in low, almost puddle-like ones which wouldn't produce ball-shaped later.
"What is she doing? Does Lu Xinyi really knows how to make croquembouche?" the youngster asked the old man again. This time, the old man answered him excitedly.
"No, what Lu Xinyi doing is acceptable. She chose to make profiteroles not round instead opt to shape it like an egg with a flat side. It would make stacking the profiteroles easier later."
"Ohh, so that's why." The young man nodded.
After piping, Lu Xinyi tapped down any points or peaks with a moistened finger before baking the profiteroles in another oven.
While the sponge cake and the profiteroles were in the oven, she started removing the skin of the mandarin orange with a peeler, making sure that only the skin was removed. In just minutes, the mandarin oranges were left with its white inner skin.
The sponge cake was cooked faster than the profiteroles so Lu Xinyi took it out first from the oven and let it cool down in a wire rack. As the sponge cake was ready, Lu Xinyi checked the ice cream she'd left earlier. She scooped the vanilla flavor into the bowl she lined with a plastic wrap and flattened the top with a spatula, before adding a raspberry sorbet layer next and then lastly the chocolate ice cream.
In the end, Lu Xinyi was able to make an ice cream dome with three layers of different flavors. Leaving enough space at the top of the bowl, she brought it back to the freezer to harden.
At this rate, Lu Xinyi was halfway through to finish her Baked Alaska; but she was far from finish for Croquembouche and Mandarin Orange dessert.
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