A Class at Savour School and a Melbourne Adventure

Earlier this year, I attended the Cake Bake and Sweets Show in Sydney where I was lucky enough to win a voucher from Kirsten Tibballs. The voucher was for a class at Savour Chocolate and Patisserie School in Melbourne which she is the owner of. After the show I excitedly went online to book myself a spot in a class where I was faced with the decision of choosing which class I wanted to do the most. In the end I was tossing up between the Chocolates and Pralines Level 1 and the Entremets/Gateaux Classes. In the end I chose to participate in the Entremets class which took place two weekends ago. My mum and I decided to make a trip out of it and spend a long weekend in Melbourne, exploring all it has to offer (mainly food related) as it is the food capital of Australia.

We started our adventure in South Melbourne where we had a look though the South Melbourne Markets which had an amazing fresh foods section offering fresh meats and seafood, homemade pastas, dips, olives etc, fresh fruit and baked goods. We also went to Chefs Hat where I stocked up on some equipment I wanted that is hard to find at home. This store was amazing and I only wish my budget and suitcase were larger so I could have bought so much more. After that we walked across the road to Bibelot, a concept patisserie by Chez Dre, where we had our first dessert of the day.  I chose the Tonka, Apple and Cinnamon Petit Gateaux as well as an Iced Chocolate and Mum had the Salted Caramel Eclair and a Rose Lemonade. It was a lovely spot and the food was wonderful and was my favourite patisserie of the whole trip.

Our Selection of Desserts

Tonka, Apple and Cinnamon

Salted Caramel Eclair

After this we headed back into the city where we did some more shopping before getting on another tram down to South Yarra. First on our list was the famous Burch and Purchese and after we got a little bit lost we finally found it, ready for our second dessert of the day. I decided to try the Chocolate, Pear, Hazelnut and Caramel as I had thought about making it myself at home earlier this year as my first entremet. Mum couldn't resist the look of the Chocolate, Caramel, Honeycomb and Popcorn and we were definitely not disappointed. After we had finished eating, we ducked back inside to buy some chocolates to take home for the rest of the family. Although choosing from the wide selection on offer made both decisions quite difficult.

Next up we headed up the road to our last stop of the day - Luxbite. We decided to get takeaway so that we could eat them after dinner that night. I tried the lollybag cake which I have been looking forward to for so long and it was even better than I expected. Mum tried the Blue Calpis which was also really yum. I didn't get any photos of these desserts as we were too excited to try them after dinner.

For dinner we went to Taco Bills for Mexican which was really great and being our first savoury meal of the day (oops...) it was exactly what we were looking for.

The next day it was time for my class at Savour School and I was super excited. As I walked though the front door I was a little bit nervous but so happy because the time had finally come. We got our recipe books and aprons first and met our teacher - Paul Kennedy. When we finally got into the kitchen, I was in awe. The equipment was state of the art and I just wanted to learn how to use it all. I could have spend months just constantly learning there. We spent the whole day learning and cooking and it was one of the most valuable experiences of my life. We made two different Entremets - Banana Milkshake made with a honey madeleine, banana cremeux, caramelised walnuts, banana mousse and a yellow glaze with chocolate decorations as well as a Coffee and Praline one made with a hazelnut and coffee daquoise, praline sponge, cardamon and tanzanie 75% chocolate cremeux, coffee mousse and a chocolate velvet spray with chocolate glacage and chocolate decorations.

My favourite was the banana one as I do not like coffee but everyone else who tried it absolutely loved it as well.

Banana Milkshake Entremet

Coffee Praline Entremet

Inside Banana Entremet 

Inside Coffee Entremet 

        

Spreading praline sponge for baking

Spreading honey madeleine for baking 

Daquoise ready for baking

Banana cremeux ready for freezing

 Assembling the banana milkshake entremet

 Moulded chocolates to decorate the banana entremet

Making chocolate garnishes 

Glazing the banana entremet

This class taught me so many skills that I can use in the future to continue creating my own entremets and I would recommend this class to anyone who is interested in this kind of thing. I can't wait to get the opportunity to complete another class.

After the class I stocked up on some new equipment and chocolate from the retail store at savour and then Mum and I finished the day with Turkish for dinner and skipped dessert in order to save my cakes to take home and share with my family. 

Sunday was our last day in Melbourne and to finish we headed down to St Kilda where we visited Cacao Fine Chocolates and Patisserie where we had brunch. I had a wonderful Raspberry and Custard Danish and an Iced Chocolate and Mum had Avocado and Toast. On the way out the door I got a Lemon Meringue Eclair to take with me which I enjoyed before our flight home later in the day. The eclair was one of the best I have ever had.

Melbourne certainly lived up to its reputation being the food capital of Australia and there are so many more places I can't wait to visit to sample their delicious food. See you again next time Melbourne!