Sicilia

So the first cake in Paco Torreblanca's book looks really elegant and refined, yet simple. From far away, my boyfriend said it looked like a piece of tile one would put on their floor or bathroom wall..haha! It looks like the entire cake has been dusted heavily with powdered sugar, but I'm guessing that is not the case, since there was no mention of 10x anywhere in the assembling of the cake. My guess is that the light cream of goat yogurt (which sounds interesting) gives the cake its rough-looking texture. Paco mentions in this book that he usually makes his cakes between 3cm-3.5cm high and no more and that the first centimeter is the cake itself, the 2nd centimeter is the cream, and the last centimeter is the mousse. He believes this is "...not only for aesthetic purposes, but for practical order and pure logic as well."

As a garnish, there is a fresh thyme sprig, a hole in upper left-hand corner of cake which is filled with red fruits jam, and a single cube of sicilia fruit cream. I only wish I could import the picture in the book to this blog because this cake is breath-taking.

While I'm reading the recipes, a few thoughts and questions come to mind, which I will try to wade my way through on my own.

• What is Fruits of the Forest puree made up of? Dessertprofessional.com lists fruits of the forest puree as containing strawberry, raspberry, black currant, and blueberry

• What the heck does q.s. stand for? This I couldn't find on the web so I asked my pastry chef and he says it is a immeasurable unit that stands for "to taste", such as salt or pepper would be in a called for in a recipe

• What is NH pectin and its properties? Better used in watery or fruit substances, gives a firm shiny gel with a pleasant texture, coating made from this is re-usable and can bear many successive remeltings and gelifications while preserving its quality (cuisine-french.com)

• What is a Rhodoid sheet? Created by Rhone-Poulenc in 1936, it is a plastic containing acetate, transparent, smooth, and fireproof, name is contraction of Rhone-Poulenc and celluloid (speedylook.com)

• Is there a difference in the baking properties and/or flavor of organic white sugar as opposed to granulated cane sugar? This was a toughie...all I could find was that organic white sugar is unprocessed sugar made from sugar cane or beets (terencelau.com)

• What is type 45 flour??? I felt like a dummy cuz I eventually found the answer to this in the glossary. This is pastry flour...French flour type numbers are a factor 10 smaller than those used in Germany because they indicate the ash content (in milligrams) per 10 grams of flour. The ash test is to determine the amount of mineral elements present in the flour, thus indicating the amount of bran still remaining in the flour after the milling process. ASH: this is determined on a 4gm sample in a silica dish which is incinerated overnight at 585 C. After cooling, the dish and ash are weighed , the ash brushed out, the dish re-weighed and the weight of ash determined by difference. Results are reported as a percent. (thefreshloaf.com)

• Why does the recipe call for mineral water specifically? This I have not found the answer to yet...but if anyone knows, I'd love your input.