This cake is called Autumn Leaves.
You know, one thing I love about French cakes is that they all have names, and these names trademark them so that no one can ever ever make a cake and call it Feuilles D'Automne if it isn't this exact recipe with this exact finished look. In fact, this is not even a Feuilles D'automne because the fans on the top aren't big enough and don't cover the entire cake in a big flourishy mound. They are so particular about their traditions that it's borderline insane.
I often sit in class and wonder what it feels like to come from a country that has such a long and rich history that centuries later the people of that country feel so strongly about its traditions that if you change the presentation or flavour in a cake and call it the traditional name then you may as well be spitting on their mothers, and their mothers' mothers.
But anyway...this is the cake, not shiny on top, tempered chocolate all shiny and nice stuck around it instead...It's three layers of meringue piped and baked (dried) between layers of chocolate mousse. Plain inside, fancy pants outside.
Ah yes, yet another shiny chocolate cake. I promised there would be more and I know I wouldn't let you down. The interesting thing about this class is that we did two cakes with a frozen jelly creme brulee incorporated in them.
The shiny traditional and named Vanessa does it so traditionally by enclosing her vanilla creme brulee layer in between two very traditional chocolate mousse layers, enrobed in a blindingly shiny chocolate glaze.
Vanessa's odd little nameless green friend, he of the hidden apricots, chooses to brandish his frozen gellified pistachio creme brulee layer of TOP of the delicious crumble-like type one would normally have as the finished final layer of a cake. Very odd, and yet oddly delicious. 
We also learned how to make a palm tree out of a carrot, half a canteloupe and some grapes. Hilariously cheesy actually, but I didn't make one. I stuck with the flowers and critters. See also the apple swam and the apple butterflies. You can turn an apple into just about anything. 
a mango spinach confused (apparently) salad, an asparagus and spinach ravioli for the pasta course, then for the main it was bison, beet rolls, beet compote and a rich mushroom meaty gravy. Dessert (my genius) a strawberry mousse encasing a frozen rhubarb surprise middle. Lovely. This may be the last time I've felt like I was capable of making things look good in the kitchen....sigh. How life continues to beat you down.....but anyway....
