A Whirlwind of Pastry Making
Sometimes I get in the flow and forget the world around me. I was so immersed as a two-day pâtissière (female pastry chef), I neglected to document progress along the way. It might have something to do with the level of multitasking involved in mentally remembering things like: which pastries needed pâte à choux while I had my dough out, was the glaze on my Tarte Tatin going to burn while I was molding the ladyfingers, how many millefeiulle layers are needed in total for two variations, did I use the right technique on the Paris-Brest or should it be remade, whether I made the right amount of minuscule meringues, blueberries and raspberries to cover all the tarts and tartlets, are the Canelés too dark, are there enough croquembouches for the tower after accounting for the ones in the Saint-Honoré and did I remember to use a brush on the profiteroles to make more realistic indentations? I was beginning to be as frazzled as a real pastry chef.
Essentially I was attempting the mignardise aesthetic. Derived from the French word mignard (cute or delicate)— mignardises are miniature bite-sized confections made to look like full-sized deserts with precise French pastry craftsmanship and curated artistic presentation. Mine, however, were mignardises of mignardises.
The Pastry Portfolio
Renowned French pastries were researched to decide which ones were feasible to create. Then I organized by color and picked a balanced selection of muted jewel tones. With my analog printed idea board of pastry photos, I dissected how to make them and ordered a few molds (ladyfingers, madeleines, tiny meringues and fruits, choux puffs, bombe and tart bases) to speed up the process. The ambiguous macaron mold with various sizes came in handy for domed pastries. I even borrowed a couple of aspic moulds from my Victorian Terrace House to use as forms.
This was my second foray at polymer clay, so I had a bit more confidence. I knew how to wield an icing syringe, how to use liquid polymer for jellies and pot a crème, to use polymer clay glue in between the millefeiulle layers before baking, and how nail polish top coat makes fruit glaze. I also knew how to throw a dud in the trash. Once again, egg carton cubbies held the various pastry components along with gold foil paper punch outs and tiny paper lace doilies for a streamlined assembly. The exciting part was piecing together the pastries according to my printouts and having a somewhat realistic French pastry appear.
Staging the Sweets in the Vitrine
It is a fine art to fill a vitrine with French pastries, much less a miniature vitrine with miniature French pastries. I had to focus on eye level placement from the street, balance colors, shapes & sizes, and mix structural cakes with more delicate ones. Once I liked the arrangement and checked for fit, the glass and mirrors were cleaned with Q-tips. A long tweezer tool aligned the tiny gold-bordered printed placards and the corresponding pastries next, putting the best ones towards the front. They are all held in the case by museum wax and if the militaristic spacing wasn't perfect and pastries needed to be moved, the wax left a residue that required the big bad Q-tip. The smaller vitrine has pastries along the bottom row. All was going well until I saw two variations that were left out, as I had put them aside for the smaller vitrine and forgot. Wedged them in and the case was closed!