Baking and Pastry Arts - Pastry ESL at Vancouver Community College

Throughout the program, students develop professional skills for fine pastry production including foundational baking, plated desserts, cake design, and chocolate and confection work. Specifically students in this program will learn the following:

• Health, sanitation, safety
• Use of bakery equipment including scales, mixers, proofers, and ovens
• Knife skills
• Theoretical baking principles and processes
• Ingredients and methodology
• Biscuits and muffins
• Pie dough and straight dough
• Fermentation, leavening, gluten development
• Aeration and emulsification
• Yeast doughs, quickbreads, loaf cakes
• Cookies, pies, tarts
• Croissant, Danish, and puff dough lamination
• Cakes, cookies, sponges
• Buttercreams, glazes, ganaches
• Dessert plating and presentation
• Composition, use of colour and texture
• Pastries, slices, squares
• Deep-fat frying
• Yeast doughnuts, cake doughnuts, French crullers
• Use of seasonal fruits and other ingredients
• Crème Brule and ice cream
• Chocolate and confection making
• Chocolate tempering
• Truffles and moulded chocolates
• Aerated confections and fruit jellies
• Caramel and sugar work
• Dessert cakes, layered cakes, entremets
• Mousses and fillings
• Piping skills
• Icings and decorative techniques
• Wedding cake design and assembly
• Flower-making and rolled fondant
• Marzipan figurines and airbrushing
• Consistency and accuracy
• Environmental conditions
• Daily production planning
• Standard math functions
• Retail bakeshop management
• Professional etiquette and personal hygiene
• Troubleshooting and problem solving
• Ingredient and equipment suppliers
• Merchandising, inventory, and cost control
• Waste management
• Menu design
• Catering
• Effective communication