Two days of chocolate bliss at Puratos University

Our chocolate cake.  The pink bows didn't turn out the way I envisioned it to be. Oh well, I'm sure it tasted good naman.

I’ve been in blogging hiatus.  There was just too much to cook, bake, eat, meet, shop, run around for, it was one of the things that I had to sacrifice to get more time to be holiday crazy.   Seriously, I also didn’t feel inspired to write.  Maybe I’m just completely worn out.  It’s now January and the madness has died down considerably. Thank God!  Just finished a foodie project and thankfully this spurred this break from my writer’s block.

I have been having friends over and trying recipes we both haven’t been doing but I still miss going to cooking classes.  I’m sure I’ve attended enough of them through the years  but surely there’s still something exciting to learn.

Shienna, the chocolatier showing us how to make pralines from scratch

When Puratos, a food company which imports both compound and Belgian chocolate (there’s a difference apparently) posted a facebook ad for their Carat chocolate course, I was excited.  I’m in love with chocolates (who isn’t?).  It’s my Achilles heels!  I’ve dreamed of becoming a chocolatier (no kidding).  I’ve made molded chocolate giveaways a few years ago but never really learned how to make it properly.  I guess, I was just content with buying my Meiji and Baby Ruths or getting from Ate, Kirkland’s Chocolates of the World (at $10, it was worth every bit).  The course was a steal at P5,000 considering it was good for two.  The only problem was, how to get there.  Their plant is in FTI Taguig.

I’ve never drove by myself to FTI so as expected, I got lost. Thankfully, I was with my nephew who I brought along, so at least I didn’t get lost alone.  Anyway, found FTI at last, with still a few minutes to spare but whew! The drive time from the house to FTI took more than 2 hours.  This, I thought to myself, better be worth it.

Cupcakes covered with chocolates, isn't it obvious which ones were decorated by a pro and which ones were decorated by the newbie? ;)

Thankfully, it turned out we were just 4 in the group.  The place was spacious for 4 but I don’t think more than 10 would fit comfortably.  We started with being just onlookers to what Shienna, the chocolatier was doing.  There was a bit of hands-on chocolate molding and cupcake decorating. Without realizing it, we stood up the whole day and went home with this realization:  working as a chocolatier wasn’t as easy as I thought but I’m telling you, the smell of chocolate is the best perk-me-up!  Actually, can’t stop tasting it while working on it.  Got to taste their natural Belcolade Belgian chocolate, too. OMG.  This is bad. It's so addicting.

Double chocolate drink.  Even the decor was made from chocolates.  Be still, my heart!

Second day, we were given a free hand to make whatever we wanted to create with chocolates. Best of all, we get to bring everything home.  Yey!!!    My nephew and I were a team and made A LOT of molded chocolates and pralines. Actually, we knew we had to decorate a cake but we didn’t plan how to go about it so we just continued on making pralines and molded chocolates for 3 hours.  When the cake came, I panicked.  I worked for half day on molded chocolates and didn’t once thought of starting making decors for the cake.  Our other classmates, being cake professionals, were already working on their cake since the day started.  Haha.  Oh well, we’ll just have to wing it.

That's us, trying to make a presentable cake as fast as we could.  We got too caught up making the pralines

Working with pralines at least taught me some valuable lessons.  First, water and chocolates don’t mix so be obsessive about drying molds.  Second, as with anything, it requires patience and a lot of practice.  Lastly, as with drying the molds, never use a mold unless it’s totally clean of everything, including leftover chocolates!

And here they are!  Can’t say its all perfect but even the imperfect ones are soooo good. 

The finished pralines.  I love their polycarbonate molds.  It really turned out perfectly shaped... well, at least most of them.  

Best of all, we got to bring home 10 kilos of white chocolate.. yes, 10 KILOS!  I’ve  probably used more than half of it already for my holiday baking but I still have more than enough to practice my new skills.

After two days of chocolate bliss, I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of eating chocolates but, seriously, I have to find a different second career.  I’ll never survive working as a chocolatier.  The boss will certainly fire me on the very first day for eating all my creations!

Cake done by a classmate.  Oh, she's a pro at this!  

Couldn't get more sinful than this, Sinfully

When was the last time you entered a store and wouldn't want to leave it, ever?  This is probably the reason why Sinfully, the offsite branch of the Makati Shangrila patisserie didn't provide dine-in facilities in their store.  No one would wanna leave.  

Whoever thought of putting the chocolatier and all the chocolates in front of the store, in full view of the malling public is a genius!  The chocolates, I swear, called out to me to come into the store and buy them all.  Haha.  

We looked at everything and couldn't decided which ones to try.  If only I could take all of them home. *Sigh*.  So finally we decided to skip the chocolates and tried two mini cakes instead, Desire and Endless Summer (I think that's what its called) and tried to find a bench where we can vent out all out ooohhhhs and aaaaahhhhhs.

                                               Desire at its finest

                   Endless Summer

Between the two, we both agreed we loved Desire more.   Its layers perfectly blend and compliment to make each forkful a perfect bite.  The chocolate sponge bottom supports a layer which reminds you of a Ferrero rocher chocolate piece, topped by a thick rich caramel layer and finished with a dark chocolate mousse, all enrobed in a thin and shiny dark chocolate icing and topped with exotic fruits such as a physalis (my current obsession), a bunch of cranberries and a strawberry holding a blueberry. Miraculously, even with all these, the cake wasn't cloyingly sweet.  Definitely a piece of heaven on earth!

No doubt about it, I'm coming back for the chocolates but for now, I'll just dream and drool.