Thanksgivukkah

As I'm sure you heard, Thanksgiving and Hanukkah overlapped this year (on the 28th of November), a rare occurrence that (apparently) complicated things for American Jews who had to have celebrations two nights in a row. Since I'm currently studying in the UK, I had class on Thursday until 6:00pm, so no chance of a proper Thanksgiving regardless of the timing of Hanukkah. So we combined both celebrations and pushed them until Saturday so that our British family (who had to work Friday) could come over, enjoy the day, celebrate Hanukkah and, of course, eat lots of turkey.

Grapefruit Tart

I love fruit curd. I usually make lemon curd tarts, but I decided to do something different and went for grapefruit. I couldn't find gelatin at the local shop and I didn't have any at home so I used a couple extra egg yolks but it didn't make it thicken quite as much as I would have liked. It would have been a fine consistency for individual tarts, but it got a little messy when we were slicing the large one. Ah well, it tasted amazing. The grapefruit has a bit less tang than a lemon curd but it was a bit more bitter...in a good way.

I made the crust out of shortbread dough, which was sweet and balanced out the bitterness of the grapefruit. To decorate, I just topped it with a bit of whipped cream around the edge and some homemade crystallized grapefruit zest. Delicious and elegant!

Hazelnut Chocolate Tiramisu

This is a twist on a classic Italian tiramisu. I used Frangelico instead of Marsala and added layers of grated bittersweet chocolate on top of every layer of sabayon. The Frangelico sabayon was a bit sweeter than the the classic Marsala so I didn't sweeten the espresso for the lady fingers as much as normal and I ended up grating bittersweet chocolate between the layers. The chocolate helped cut the sweetness a bit and upped the chocolaty-ness of the tiramisu, so it was aces in my book!

Since I figured I'd give some of the tiramisu away, I decided to use small, clear, plastic cups to make portable individual servings rather than making one large thing that I'd have to slice or scoop up. I think I may have to try this again in mini chocolate cups--it'll be delicious and cute!

Another photo!

Sweet Constructions

All the competitors, the guest judges,
and the chefs who helped the team and organized the event
(photo credit to ?)

Quite a while ago the FCI held a pastry showpiece competition. Teams of four had to create a multi-media showpiece and petit four/bonbon, all the proposals were judged and our teams advanced to the finals. For the finals each team created the showpiece and 24 pieces of their petit four. I was on one of the teams!

Our showpiece!

My team, Team Composition, created a cello out of chocolate, held up on a piece of pastillage painted to look like composition paper, perched on a poured sugar base, with pulled sugar roses. Our petit four was a very delicate lemon curd tart with blueberries.

Our petits fours (photo credit?)

Our competition was a team made up of our classmates, a team from a Level 2 class, and a team of just graduated students. All of the teams made beautiful showpieces and delicious petits fours.

We came in second (according to one of the judges, a very close second) to our classmates. If we were going to lose, I'm glad it was to them!

The winning showpiece: congrats Erin, Emma, Rozette, and Dayana!

Anyway, now that you know what happened let me tell you a bit about our showpiece. With help from Chef Michael we designed a 3-D, hollow body cello--I will take credit for the many drafts of to scale sketches and the eventual diagrams and templates.

The sketch we submitted.
As you can see we made some changes to the design,
but the fundamentals remained the same.

The body is made of chocolate sprayed with chocolate spray to give it some texture (impressive work, Sam). The stylized neck and end pin are made of unsweetened chocolate that was rubbed with a bit of oil to give it shine. The strings are made of spaghetti brushed with gold luster dust. It is supported by a beautifully thin pastillage stand and embellished with pastillage music notes (great job, Kedby). The base is made of 3 graduated poured sugar tear drops died with just a tiny drop of green to give it the appearance of glass. The roses are expertly pulled sugar (beautiful, Caitlyn). The petits fours were made by yours truly and were delicious if I do say so myself. In the end the judges thought we should have made a bonbon--we almost did but decided to show off different skills since we figured the showpiece demonstrated our chocolate work well enough. Ah well, you never know what judges will think. Even though we did lose, I'm really proud of our showpiece and petit four. We did great work under significant restraints. And it's a bit of a blessing in disguise because the prize is to make a giant version, which seems like a bit more work than prize. Regardless, I competed in probably my only pastry competition ever (I can't imagine when I'd do another one) and am proud of the result--I think that's a win!

Another picture of our showpiece

Final Exam, the Judging

The judging room.

As I mentioned before, the final exam is judged by guest judges. We had five judges come in. Each judge get randomly assigned 4-5 students--they don't know our names until after they judge us. Once they are done evaluating our food and our showpieces, we meet them and they tell us what they think.

My judge was Zac Young! 

I was the fifth person in my group to get judged and the wait to be called in was the longest 20 minutes of my life. Finally, they called me in. My judge was Zac Young--a former contestant on Top Chef Just Desserts and one of the hosts of Unique Sweets (it's on the Cooking Channel, check it out.) I was really happy to have Zac Young judging me because I really do enjoy watching him on Unique Sweets, because he seems nice on the show, and because I'm considering a career in food writing/food media.

My plate for the judge:
 (clockwise from top) a mini lemon chiffon cake, a cherry danish,
a piece of peanut butter nougat, and a lemon curd barquette.

First, he judged my plate. The plate had one of each of the four things we had to make. He said my danish was delicious and baked perfectly. Apparently many people underbake their viennoiserie--I however am "not afraid of the oven." He said my lemon curd barquette was excellent--both the curd and the shell. I'm very happy he liked the shell because I spent a decent amount of time getting them perfectly even; something that is especially difficult when they are so petit. My nougat, unfortunately, was grainy. I knew he would say that, though, so I was prepared for it. He did say that the even shape of the pieces and the smoothness of the coating made it look like they had been made by machine! He only had one complaint about the cake--he wasn't sure what was going on with the rosemary. I explained that it was supposed to match the woodland look of the piece and that it was supposed to be thyme. He got the woodsy-ness of the green herb but was still hesitant to agree with it on a cake. At which point I explained that I like the flavor of thyme with lemon--I would have infused the lemon curd filling with thyme if I'd been allowed to change flavors.

My showpiece: I know I've posted this picture already,
but I want you to have the visual while you read about the judging.

Next he moved to my showpiece. He really liked the overall look. He complimented my use of different materials. I was worried he wouldn't like the lack of sugar work, but he actually liked that I'd had the foresight not to use a material that would be so affected by the weather (summer in NYC is humid and humidity ruins sugar). His one criticism was that my piece could have used more height. I completely agree; it was a bit diminutive. Still, he said my work was clean and well executed and that the height thing is an aesthetic issue not a technique issue and he is judging on technique rather than aesthetic. He also did point out that my basketweave on the small cake was cleaner and nicer than the basketweave on the large cake--I knew that. I used an easier, quicker technique to do the large cake because, well, it was large and the intricate method was already driving me nuts from having done the small cake.

Overall, he had good input and completely fair critiques. He was kind and constructive. I'm happy with my showpiece, I'm happy with my food, and I'm happy with the judging. It was a good last class. I'm going to miss school, but at least I ended on a high note!

Final Exam, the Showpiece and the Food

My Final Exam Showpiece

These last five classes have been the most intense classes of the course, but they were worth it! I am really happy with my showpiece and the food I presented. By the way, I know I mentioned earlier that class theme was "my imagination" and my showpiece theme was "Pure Imagination"--I was planning on a sort-of homage to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.  As I started making the piece, I quickly realized that this is less Willy Wonka and more woodland--so I'm going with that!

My showpiece before I put the food on.

One of the most nerve wracking parts of the final exam is transporting the showpiece; we have to carry it down a relatively long hallway. Luckily we don't have to put the food on until we've put the showpieces where they will be judged, so we don't have to worry about it moving or falling--we just have to worry about the showpiece itself. I made my piece relatively small and decently light, so it wasn't hard for me to carry. I glued everything down with either isomalt or chocolate, so I didn't have to worry about things sliding/falling/rolling off.

My lemon curd barquettes floating down a chocolate river.

I am very happy with my lemon curd barquettes/tartlets. They came out perfectly, if I do say so myself! Everything from the tart shells to the smooth finish of the lemon curd to the fresh blueberries on top. The chocolate river (which is hard to see in this photo) came out pretty darn well as well.

My peanut butter nougat on my stand.

I love how the nougat looks and how it tastes, unfortunately the texture is slightly grainy. Also as much as I like how they look, the chocolate covering, while perfectly tempered, was not quite as perfect on the bottom edges as I would have liked. At least they were very evenly sized and coated.

My cakes, waiting to be put on the showpiece.

My cakes survived being stored--the icing didn't get smushed at all! I just piled some fresh berries on, attached my sugarpaste flowers and stuck in some sprigs of rosemary (I wanted thyme, but rosemary came instead.) As you can see I tried two different types of basket weave. The method I used on the bigger cake is slightly less refined, but much easier than the intricate two tip basket weave method I used on the small cake.

A close up of a sugarpaste flower on top of my cake.

My sugarpaste flowers weren't my finest sugarpaste work, but I do really like them. Plus I think they help tie the cake into the whole showpiece.

My nougat on their stand and more sugarpaste flowers.

As you can see, the flowers act as a sort of tie-in as they are all over the piece. I really like my candy and cake stands (even if this one is ever so slightly slanted...oops!) They give height to the piece and integrate the food well.

As you can see, I made meringue mushrooms. I used the technique we learned in class of piping vacherin meringue stems and caps, sticking the pointy end of the stem into a hole carved into the underside of the cap, and dusting with cocoa powder. However I added another element to take it to the next level. I dipped the under side of the caps in tempered dark chocolate, let it harden, and then dipped them into tempered white chocolate. At that point I let the white chocolate set until just about the cutting point (ever so slightly before it, actually) and scored it with a tooth pick so that lines of dark chocolate emanating from a central point showed through--like the gills on the underside of a mushroom cap. You could barely see this detail once I attached the mushrooms to the showpiece, but it was there and demonstrated an attention to detail that I think was pretty impressive.

My pastillage candy canes.

I am really happy with my pastillage candy canes. They came out just how I wanted them to! I also really liked my chocolate spheres. I've never attempted to make chocolate spheres before. They aren't easy. You have to make half spheres, which is rather like making a bonbon shell except instead of filling them, you unmold them hollow and stick them together with tempered chocolate. I painted them with more tempered chocolate so that you couldn't see the line where they were glued together or any smudges from where I was holding the two halves when I stuck them together. After all that work they looked pretty much perfect. Unfortunately, they ended up slightly hidden on my showpiece, but you can see one sticking out from behind the candy canes in the photo above.

Nine months of classes, five days of intense work, and it all
comes down to what the judge thinks of showpiece number 21.

Stay tuned to hear about the judging!

Final Exam, The Assignment

Yikes the final exam is going to be hard! We have to make two cakes or tarts (one 6in and one mini version), 24 chocolates, 24 petits fours, and 24 pieces of viennoiserie. We don't get to choose what we make, instead we are randomly assigned the four recipes we will make. Our final grade is the average of our grade on the written exam, the grade our chef gives us on how we are working during the final exam classes, and the grade awarded by the guest judges who evaluate our exam. The guest judges are real chefs from outside the school; they evaluate us on the taste of our baked goods and on our final showpiece.

I have to make a 6in and a 3in lemon chiffon cake with lemon curd filling and basket-weave buttercream. I also have to make two dozen cherry danish, two dozen mini lemon curd tartlets, and two dozen pieces of chocolate covered peanut butter nougat.

I'm happy about the tartlets, I'm really good at making them. I'm happy with the nougat because it's definitely easier than bonbons and it's really delicious! I'm not thrilled about the danish, because they require a lot of last minute work (as do the tartlets), but they are fine. I like the lemon chiffon cake and it's not too hard to make. I can use the same filling for the cake and the tartlets, so that's not too bad. The real problem with this set of items is that I have to do basket-weave icing on both cakes, which is difficult and time consuming and should be done the last day because it can't be touched up if it get smudged when it is stored. I may do it the second to last day and just store them really, really carefully. Hopefully that'll be okay.

We also have to make a showpiece to display our large cake and half of the chocolates and petits fours. Our theme is "my imagination". Even though it's very open ended, I'm not sure I'm thrilled with it; I'd actually prefer a little guidance. I'm leaning towards something related to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory because every time I think about the theme I start humming the tune of "Pure Imagination," the song that Gene Wilder sings when he welcomes everyone to the chocolate factory and shows them the room with the chocolate waterfall.

In the interim, we have our wedding cake project (I'll tell you more about that soon). We started it yesterday and finish on June 4th then we start our final the next class...have I mentioned yikes!

Update: Read about my final exam here.

Souffle Day

I have to say I was very nervous about souffle day. Souffles have always seemed so intimidating and the popular portrayal of them as delicate creations that collapse if you look at them wrong. They are finicky don't get me wrong, but they aren't nearly as difficult as I had expected.

We made three different souffles: a chocolate souffle, a fruit souffle, and a savory souffle (in that order). My favorite was the chocolate--not just because it was chocolate, though that helped--my least favorite was the fruit.  I'm going to explain them in reverse order of preference, so I'll save the best for last.

Raspberry souffles piped normally

We had a choice of raspberry or passion fruit for the fruit souffle. My partner and I chose raspberry, which gave the souffle a lovely pale pink hue, not to mention a nice raspberry taste. These souffles rose beautifully and looked really impressive and the berry flavor was nice. The problem was the texture; they were a bit gummy. They were gummy because they have a relatively large amount of pectin in them, which makes them very stable so they rise well. So I guess it's a trade off. I might try them again with a little less pectin, see if I can find a happy medium. By the way, because this is a relatively stiff batter (do you call it batter for a souffle? I'm not sure) we could pipe it above the rim of the ramekin. You see, typically souffle molds (ramekins or another oven safe container) are filled to the top, but not above. That gives souffles their flat top and, if done correctly, their straight necks. With these we made some the classic way, as pictured above, and some a less traditional way. We piped piles of swirled souffle mixture (perhaps that's a better term than batter) on top of a traditional souffle before baking it. That way they looked like a fancy and really impressive twist on a cupcake:

We served them with creme anglaise and chocolate sauce.

Smoked Salmon Souffle

The savory souffle we made was really flexible. It is a béchamel sauce base so you can flavor it however you want. We could use cheese or smoked salmon. I opted for the salmon because I love it but I don't get it very often. It cooks a little bit in the souffle which is nice, especially for some of my classmates who didn't like the texture of fresh smoked salmon.  It was quite good, but mine didn't rise as much as I would have liked, it just sort of domed instead. Ah well. We served them with a small side salad, yum!

Chocolate souffle with the chocolate sauce poured in.

Finally, the chocolate souffle. This was amazing. They tasted almost like a rich chocolate brownie, with a texture something like a mousse-y, molten chocolate cake. They didn't get as much hight as the fruit souffles, but they did rise nicely. We served them with whipped cream and chocolate sauce. Traditionally, just before eating the souffle you (or the server who brings it) cut a hole in the top of a souffle and pour the sauce in. It's really good! The barely sweet, slightly vanilla-y, cool whipped cream was delicious with the rich, sweet, warm, dark chocolate souffle. I'm so happy with souffle day!

Chef Jacques Torres Demos Viennoiserie

Yesterday I went to Chef Jacques Torres' demo on viennoiserie. I was curious to see what Mr. Chocolate would do. Obviously he is a brilliant pastry chef who made a name for himself before he opened his chocolate shop, but still a viennoiserie demo? Chef Jacques explained that other than chocolate, the first few units we study in the pastry program (tarts, bread/viennoiserie, etc) are his favorite things to make. I guess it makes sense when you think about it, there is something incredibly satisfying and surprisingly relaxing about making a croissant or an apple tart. Plus is there anything better than a freshly pain au chocolat?

First things first, he talked about yeast. He likes using fresh yeast. It is sold in bricks and kept cold. As he explained, it should always be crumbly...if it's not, it's too old. For both the croissant and brioche recipes he used, he mixed all the ingredients together, not bothering to make a preferment.

Next, Chef Jacques showed us how to make croissant dough (which can be used to make pain au chocolat and danish, among other things.) The procedure was, more or less, what we learn in class. He did emphasize the importance of a long fermentation--you should always let your croissant dough proof overnight in the fridge, he said multiple times, as it helps develop the flavor and cut the sweetness. This wasn't news to me, but it was nice to have the concept reinforced. What was news was that you can replace about 10-15% of the sugar in a croissant recipe with trimoline, an invert sugar. Apparently this will give it a good flavor and a nicer color when it is baked. I'll have to try this sometime--I'm really curious to see how it works.

Then he showed us the process of turning the dough. His method is to cover 2/3 of the rolled out dough with butter, then fold the dough up in the equivalent of a single/letter turn. Then roll out and make one double turn and then one single turn. That's it. Let proof overnight in the fridge, roll out, cut, bake, eat. Speaking of eating, he served fresh croissants and pains au chocolat. There is nothing better than a pain au chocolat fresh out of the oven--it's light and buttery and the chocolat is still melted. Gosh they were good.

For the bomboloni, he made a "light" brioche dough. Since the dough would be fried in oil, he explained, you don't need so much fat, so he cut down on the eggs and butter (but still added plenty). He showed us when to add the cold (but slightly softened) butter--once the gluten in the dough is developed enough that it pulls away from the sides of the mixing bowl and forms a ball. It takes a while for the butter to become fully incorporated into the dough, so you should add it cold to ensure it doesn't melt from the friction of the dough rubbing against the bowl--you should also use a sturdy mixer or you could end up burning out the motor (as Chef Jacques almost did).

To fry them, form them into tight balls and let them proof. Then drop them into a pot of 160* oil and cook until they are golden on both sides. Take them out of the oil and roll them in granulated sugar then fill them. Apparently any filling is acceptable, Chef Jurgen (who happened to be sitting in on the demo) suggested apricot jam--his favorite. Chef Jacques scoffed (jokingly, I should add) saying that apricot jam is cheap and in France they use raspberry jam. His favorite filling is pastry cream--what he was using in the demo--apparently because when you throw a pastry cream filled bomboloni at someone it will stick to them better than a jam filled one would. Good reasoning, I think!

Filling the bomboloni

Regardless of the relative merits of fillings and how they function in food fights, the pastry cream filled fresh bomboloni he served were incredible. (A shout out to whoever was in the kitchen assisting him, you all did a great job making a ton of them.)

Chef Jacques, interestingly, will not use pastry cream powder for his pastry cream, opting instead for cornstarch. He pointed out that no one really knows what is in pastry cream powder--Chefs Jurgen and Rudy tried to object but it was futile, Chef Jacques was right, they didn't really know exactly what was in it. Honestly, I couldn't taste a difference in the pastry cream, except to note that it was exceptionally smooth--partly because he enriched it with a bit of butter once it cooled slightly.

Overall an excellent demo; I learned a lot and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I can't wait to try out some of the tricks he showed us at home...and then eat the results!

Manjari Chocolate Tart with Coconut Ice Cream

Oh yum! The bittersweet chocolate custard--manjari chocolate is a somewhat acidic, bitter, dark chocolate that is mellowed out here by the addition of, among other things, sugar--in a chocolate tart shell was great on its own (seriously--I brought home some extras, so I know they were really good without all the fancy plating!) The coconut ice cream was very nice, as were the coconut creme anglaise, the chocolate sauce, and the raspberry coulis. All together they were wonderful.

Lemon Tart with Mixed Berry Sorbet

This was okay. The mixed berry sorbet was very nice, the crystalized basil leaf was good, and the basil crème anglaise and berry coulis decoration was beautiful and tasty. The problem was the lemon tart. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't great. I loved the lemon tartlets we made in Level I so much that these just didn't thrill me. I thought that they were a bit too sweet and a wee bit bland...definitely not enough lemon flavor. I really liked the crust, which was a sweet tart dough with lemon zest mixed into it, on its own (as a cookie). I think that the sweet crust, however, coupled with the sweet baked custard filling was just too much; it needed some tartness or at least something a bit savory (like a pâte brisée crust) to cut the sweet. I think that the sorbet and basil were there to add the tart and savory elements, but they just didn't cut it, in my opinion. Ah well, it was still nice and very attractive.

Orange Crepes

Sorry the picture isn't very good.

These orange crepes were filled with orange pastry cream, topped with orange segments, orange butter caramel sauce, and orange ice cream. All were very yummy. The crepes were incredible! They are not easy to make (though they aren't that hard, I think I just need practice).

Creme Caramel and "Yummy" Tuiles

Yum, indeed.

Yesterday we also finished our crèmes caramels. These are kind of like flan...I'm not a huge fan of either. That said, these were nice. We served them with orange and strawberry salad, which was delicious, and tuiles. My partner and I made the tuiles. The chef thought it would be nice to make orange tuiles with chocolate "yum"s written on them. It was not easy to write with the batter and tuiles have to be baked in tiny batches so that you have time to curl them before they harden. But in the end I think they looked pretty great.

Creme Brulee, part 1

Unfinished, cooked creme brulees.

We started plated desserts today. The unit is a little strange because each team makes some element of a dessert that we will then plate like in a restaurant, so not everyone makes everything, like we usually do. Still it's kind of fun, because it's good practice for working in a restaurant and we get to eat everything we plate. Or at least that's what the chef said...today's class was just preparing different crème caramels and crèmes brulées which we will plate next class. I can't wait!

White Cake with Raspberry Mousseline and Marzipan

This was absolutely amazing! The white cake was like a boxed white cake, but better. This type of white cake is call a high-ratio cake, because of the high ratio of sugar and fat in it. So I think you can imagine why this is so good and sweet and moist. The mousseline was really incredible too. It's a raspberry puree based pastry cream that, once cooled, is whipped with lots of butter to make it light and fluffy. The whole thing was coated in a very thin layer of buttercream (so that the marzipan will stick) and then topped with marzipan (which we made ourselves.) The flavors of the white cake, the raspberry, and the almond worked wonderfully together. Plus it's pretty! This may be my favorite cake that we have made.

Lemon Chiffon Cake

This cake was incredible! The cake itself was a lemon chiffon cake--chiffon cakes are so named because they so smooth. It was filled with lemon curd, which is one of my favorite things ever, and covered with buttercream (that I did a really good job making, if I do say so myself!) The fun part of making this cake is that we got to practicing decorating techniques. We learnt how to do basket weave, swiss dots, and a specific type of lace pattern (I'm forgetting the technical name), so I divided my cake into three sections and  tried to do each pattern. I like the swiss dots, but they are a bit boring. I love the basket weave. It's easier to do than I thought, but still quite difficult (mainly because I do not have a steady hand). The lace wasn't my favorite, but I think if I'd used a smaller icing tip and piped finer squiggles it would have looked nicer.

Basket Weave

Swiss Dots

Lace

Fraisier

Yum! This is a somewhat modernized version of a French classic. You start with a 6in (or whatever size you want, I'd imagine) cake ring lined with acetate. You put a ring of halved strawberries around the bottom edge and then take a 6in round piece of very moist and delicious white cake and squeeze it in the bottom. Now pipe vanilla mousseline (pastry cream enriched with a ton of butter!) on top of the cake and into the gaps between the berries. With a spatula, push it into all the nooks and crannies, put some sliced strawberries in the center and then fill up with mousseline. Top with another layer of cake (cut slightly smaller than 6in diameter so that the edge can be completely covered with mousseline) and spread a very thin layer of mousseline on top. Then (and this is my favorite part) roll out a disc of green tinted marzipan and put it on top of the cake. Decorate with royal icing. It's really a lot of work, but it is worth it! The light sweetness of the vanilla mousseline, the fresh strawberries, the moist cake, and the nutty marzipan are heavenly together. The only problem I have with this cake is that it is deceivingly light and very nearly healthy seeming...well I know how much butter went into that mousseline and I can officially say that there is nothing remotely "lite" about this cake. Ah well, it's worth the time and the calories too!

Passion Fruit Tartlets

How cute are these?! They are tiny tart shells are made with pâte sucrée--sweet tart dough--rather than pâte brisée--it puffs up too much to make such a small, shallow shell--in the same barquette molds we used to make the financiers. We just filled them with passion fruit curd and topped them with fresh berries, yum.

Danish, revisited

I like danish, but they aren't my favorite breakfast pastry. So I was a little disappointed that we had to make more danish after having made them already in the first bread unit. These were not disappointing! In fact they may have been the best danish I've ever eaten. The dough is moist and tender and the taste is greatly improved by a bit of citrus zest. Then we got to have fun with fillings. We used cream cheese filling (which has egg in it so it puffs up nicely in the oven), almond cream, raspberry jam, pastry cream, and fresh apricots. I personally prefer cream cheese or almond cream fillings to pastry cream and fresh fruit. We had to practice certain shapes:

The pinwheel, with cream cheese filling (technically I was supposed to put an apricot half on top, but I'm not a fan):

The bear claw, with almond cream and raspberry jam (as is traditional):

The package, with almond cream:

The two headed baby (no, that's not the real name, but I don't remember what it is), with pastry cream and apricot halves: