The one thing I looked most forward too in superior patisserie was the thought of playing with sugar. Sugar that is heated to untouchable temperatures and then pulled, blown or poured. It is an amazing thing to watch. For years I have been captivated with the food challenges on the Food Network channel, channel 55 at home. The channel is usually left on at home, even by my mother who does not cook, but loves to watch it. Let's face it, the Food Network knows what they are doing, even if their show personalities annoy the hell out of you!

This week we have learned about sugar. It is so cool. On Wednesday was my first go at pulled sugar. We made roses. The sugar is hot in your hands, but you just breath through the pain and continue working with it. You make about 15 petals. First pulling the petal shape then flicking the wrist to break the sugar from the mass, then reshape it in your hand giving it depth and movement. Then to assemble the rose, you use a blow torch to heat the petal ends and attach to the 'bulb' of the rose - a tightly rolled petal. It was the coolest thing to do.

The next day, we tried again with the sugar flowers. This time the sugar was not as painful. It was not as hot - I guess the hands get used to it after awhile. We also had our first go at poured sugar - for sugar show pieces. It as pretty cool as well. The sugar is heated again to ungodly temperatures and poured onto a silpat mat - a grease proof mat. There it cools down to the shapes you have outlines with shapes. You can add color and shine. You can cut the semi - set sugar with a knife, pipe the sugar and the possibilities can go on and on. That same day we had a demonstration about sugar. We learned techniques. It was a great demo.

Today we did another type of sugar - pastillage. I don't like this stuff. We have to come up with a drawing. I could not think of anything, until I was rolling it out - a light house from Australia popped into my head - my muse. We made the pastillage - combinations of lemon juice, gelatin and powered sugar. Then we rolled it out and made our shapes. The pastillage has to dry for a few days. Then you can assemble the pieces and paint color. I have a week or so to come up with a back round - hopefully I can make it look good.

We will be continuing working with sugar for the next two weeks. And the final week is the Afternoon Tea Party. It should be fun, but I have no idea what we are doing. The sugar work will be a blast. I just hope I don't get tired of it like chocolate. Stay tuned.