Food Portfolio

I had a job interview the other day where I was required to bring in a portfolio of my best baked goods. I had fun putting together the portfolio and reminiscing about all the different things that I’ve made so I decided to share it on the blog!

I’ve been baking for a long time, so this is by no means my entire collective work of baking, but mainly the photos that actually turned out well, or ones that I actually had time to take photos of.

They’re mostly just photos at this point, only a few recipes to previous things I’ve made on the blog, but if you are dying to know how to make something, let me know in the comments! I’ll work on a post with the recipe and instructions 🙂

I did go to school for baking at George Brown College here in Toronto, so a lot of the products are from that time!

When we made the apple tart above in class, we had to make it during week 7 I think it was. At that time, I think I was the only one who made my tart with a rose in the middle. Fast forward to our exam week when we had to make the tart again - nearly half the class had roses in the middle of their tarts. I actually got the idea for the rose from the below photo of a caramel apple cheesecake that I made. Pictured above is a coconut cloud cheesecake that I made for one of my family birthdays a little while back. This was pre-pastry school, so I did’t have any of my piping tips yet for the whipped cream. 

Chocolate Feuillantine Tart

Hazelnut Mocha cake with an Italian Meringue Buttercream. I learned this day that I am not a fan of eating, or masking with Italian Meringue Buttercream. 

This lemon tart is a bit special. First of all, we got to use a blow torch, which was pretty cool. Second of all (and more importantly) this lemon tart was the protagonist behind the first conversation that Nick and I ever had. I sent one home for him with his sister Anita, who I went to school with, and he messaged me on facebook later saying thank you. It was essentially the first one-on-one conversation we’d had and we’ve talked nearly everyday since 🙂 

The two cakes above, were the first that we ever masked at George Brown. I thought mine were pretty good considering that I had never masked a cake before. I think most people were probably thinking along the same lines, and were decently happy with what they had done. Our chef, on the other hand, was not too happy. She tore us all a new one as she ripped our cakes to shreds with her critiques. To be honest though, we all needed that, and I think my cakes turn out much better now thanks to her not sugar coating things for us.

I had a proud baking moment when my chef confused my cake with hers 😉

Look at those nice straight layers.

Plating of the Opera cakes that we made 

My carrot cakes with what were deemed as “sexy little carrots” by my chef. 

I made this rhubarb lattice tart over the summer. Click here for the full post!

Gateaux St. Honore - pretty delicious, but SO time consuming to make!

Passionfruit mousse cakes. The mini ones on the gold plates were just too cute!

The pumpkin pie & pistachio macarons that I’ve made. Get the recipes here and here. 

Creme caramel - the first thing we ever made at GBC.

Coconut Meringues.

Piped shortbread cookies and linzer cookies

The chocolates. The bane of my existence. The most frustrating thing you will ever make. They turned out quite pretty though and man, was the passion fruit ganache that we filled them with ever good! 

The beautiful lattice crust on my pear jalousie. 

These Paris-Brest were delicious when filled with a praline pastry cream.

Cream puffs!

Delicious, buttery, ever-so-time-consuming croissants

Quinoa burrito bowl. Nom

Tuna avocado cups.

Homemade pasta done old school on my crank operated pasta machine.

Every year, my dad’s side of the family gets together to make nearly 1,000 cappelletti. We eat them on Christmas Day, New Years Day and Easter as the second course to our huge feasts. It’s one tradition that Christmas would never be the same without. 

We all made rye breads this one week in class and then had to plate a sandwich using the bread we had made. I was essentially the Hermione Granger of the class, so I made little toothpicks with flags on them the night before and researched plating options. I guess you could say that it all paid off when our chef literally stopped class and made everyone come over to my table to look at my sandwich. I like to think that Hermione would have been proud. 

Brioche a tete.

Challah, which quickly became a favourite of my friend Ben. I actually owe him a loaf for his birthday. Better get on that. 

Black olive fugasse and mini ciabatta loaves. This fugasse bread was so good that I ate that entire loaf in one night, sometimes dipping it in herbed olive oil, and sometimes just shoving chunks into my mouth at a rapid fire pace. Unfortunately, I am not kidding you. This was during the bread portion of our schooling, and I think it’s safe to say that  I ended that section a few pounds heavier than when I started. 

Pain au lait. They were cute and small and tasty. That is all.

A mini, or I guess you could say slider, pulled chicken sandwich that I made with the pain au lait. Look at that bbq sauce dripping enticingly down the side there. 

Pretty damn proud of how French these baguettes look. And how freaking tasty they were. God, bread is good. 

Lastly, just a humble, but very affectionate, cup of hot chocolate.

Let me know what picture you would love to see a recipe for!

xo, tess.