C-razy!

Well, the bakery couple did not disappoint with their teasing, and the wife said she felt like crying when she opened her box and saw my cheesecake. But they agreed it tasted very good, and their family ate all of it, which I take as a real compliment.

Meanwhile, we made about a thousand things today, but I wrote my name on my box this time, and when I got home, just shoved it in the fridge.

Theme of the day, Petit Fours, manifested as:

• A weird tricolor Italian "cookie," with thin layers of almond-based cake, dyed red, yellow, and green (lost me right there), then layered with raspberry marmalade and topped with chocolate ganache. (Dee and I made the green layer.) There are several of these pieces in my box in the refrigerator, which I believe will go untouched.
  
• A three-layer mocha chiffon cake—mine and Dee's—filled with chocolate buttercream frosting, cut into tiny pieces. Looks really freaking good, but needs more coffee flavoring. Also, I choked on the decorations, and basically ended up sprinkling a mix of cocoa powder, powdered sugar, and chopped hazelnuts on mine. Dee did some very precise piping on her half in chocolate fudge icing, taken from the bakery couple, who made:
• A three-layer chocolate chiffon cake, enhanced with chocolate fudge icing, with Dee's and my chocolate buttercream frosting underneath their top layer of icing, then decorated with beautiful chocolate buttercream flowers. I think they wished they did not have to share.
• A two-layer yellow chiffon cake, with vanilla buttercream frosting and fresh strawberries in between. This looks very tasty to me, though is not the prettiest, and did not make it home in one piece.
• Chewy coconut macaroons. Both the bakery couple and Dee made these. But one batter was too thin, and the other too thick, so they mixed them together, and I did not grab too many of these on my way out.
• Lemon cookies. One student got in trouble for making them really, really huge, but I think she was coming apart at the seams because she's suddenly getting a divorce. I tried to soothe her as only a fellow divorcee could, but I ultimately backed off 'cause she looked like she was about to do some serious damage with her pastry bag. She did not work with a partner today, but did have a fab new hairdo.
• Sugar cookies, which I made. They're frankly nondescript, but not bad (actually pretty good), but certainly no match for the ones from Columbine cafe. I think I was supposed to make a lemon glaze for them, but Chef Nola was completely undone at this point, so when I mentioned their plainness, she told me it was my choice to make them. Okay.
• Another very nicely piped cookie from the restaurant lifer (who says he doesn't eat sweets but kept picking at my mocha chiffon cake scraps, and also told me today he was the man), but I have no idea what it is.