semester #2...done!

Well I have officially survived my second semester!  I had my written exams Wednesday and yesterday, and now I am DONE!  It actually feels a little weird, I felt like this semester flew by.  I did well on my exams for Pastry Techniques and Cookies and should be getting A's in both of those classes, but I'm not so sure about Basic Cakes.  I got a B on the practical for that class (my buttercream was way too cold....), and since I already had an absence, the Chef told me there was a slim chance of getting an A in the class, even if I did well on the portfolio and written exam.  But I will have to hold out until grades are posted to find out....

Our last two days of class before finals were pretty fun in Pastry Techniques and in Cookies because we were pretty much done with the semester.  In Pastry Tech, we made souffles... and they weren't nearly as scary as I thought.  Each group made a cheese souffle, a fruit souffle, and a chocolate souffle.  My group made peach for the fruit souffle, and it was my favorite of the day.  Our cheese souffle didn't come out quite right because SOMEHOW the oven got turned off twice while it was baking - and that is pretty much fatal.  It tasted okay, but it just didn't have the volume it should have.

Peach Souffle

Cheddar and Herb Souffle

Milk Chocolate Souffle

Then in Cookies class, we were allowed to choose from a lot of different techniques to just learn or practice something new.  It was a very fun and relaxed class.  Some of the options were piping with buttercream, writing with chocolate, and color flow with royal icing.  Now I get plenty of practice piping with buttercream at work these days, so I chose color flow.  I had only ever tried it once before, so I was excited to experiment some more.  Unfortunately, I forgot to go back at the end of the day and pick up my dried masterpieces, so they got trashed. 

After my Cakes practical, I was a little bummed about getting a B, so I got creative at home and made myself some comfort food.  I had some heavy cream that needed to be used up, so I made my go-to peanut butter mousse, and then I made a quick flourless chocolate cake (I picked flourless instead of regular cake because I could eat it immediately, warm out of the oven, instead of waiting for it cool, but it is also a great option for people who are gluten-free) and a chocolate sauce to go on top.  Yum!  I felt better immediately :)

And then this week we had some family visiting for a few days, so I made a white chocolate cheesecake with a salted caramel sauce.  The recipe I used called for about double the amount of graham cracker crust that I usually use for a cheesecake, and I wish I had cut it in half.  Other than that, I wouldn't change anything.  And I will definitely be making that salted caramel sauce again to use for other recipes.

survived my first practical!

and it was crah-AZY!  I am talking cutthroat, chaotic, stressful craziness.  Let me give you a little background....  So our practical exam for Pastry Techniques was this week, and most of us had never had a practical exam before (non-written, hands-on, etc).  So all we knew going into it was that we would have three hours, undetermined groups, and have to make multiple recipes from memory.  Oh, and that SEVERAL people cried last semester.  Not to mention that it's 15% of our grade.  Needless to say, we were all terrified.  We already have enough trouble sharing the mixers and other tools between 6 groups, and this exam was individual, so I brought everything I could carry from home, and I am so glad.  I am talking all my mixing bowls, all my utensils, a hand mixer, anything I could think of.   And it's a good thing because some people showed up an hour early to pick the "best" spots and hoard all of the equipment. 

So we started the exam and I was so relieved to get a great group (the test was individual but we had groups that we had to share counter space, ovens, stove burners, and stand mixers with).  This was a huge plus because we all get along really well and we were able to communicate about who was using the stove next, etc with no problems.  Not the case for all the groups, just saying...  We had to make three mini tart shells (the dough for these was the only thing we made ahead of time), and fill one with ganache and one with caramel pastry cream.  Then we had to make pate a choux and pipe and bake eclairs and cream puffs.  We filled those with the caramel pastry cream we made and dipped them in ganache.  Last, we made a swiss meringue and piped it on top of the pastry cream tart and torched it.  All from scratch.  Chef gave us the ingredients but we had to know the process to make each recipe from memory.  All in three hours.  Actually the time limit wouldn't have been so bad if we didn't have to share the stove burners.  For example, my group had two burners (one behind the other, so you have to lean over the other person to use the back one - not great for those of us that are 4'11") between the three of us and we each needed to use it four times during the three hours - once for pate a choux, once to make the caramel and then the pastry cream, once for the ganache, and once for the meringue. 

All in all, it wasn't as bad as I expected for me, but much worse for some people.  My group was the only group to finish on time, and some people finished at least an hour and a half late (you lost 1 point for every 5 minutes late).  I ended up getting an A even though something went terribly wrong with my tart dough and it puffed up like it thought it was a cake.  And now that it's over, I feel a little more confident going into my practical exam for Cakes this week.  A little. 

I was so flustered and nervous that I forgot to take pictures of my final products before Chef cut and tasted them, though...sorry!

I did get a bunch of pictures of the petit fours we finished up in cookies class the next morning though!  I had so much fun in this class.  We had pretty much everything made up from the week before, so we had plenty of time to get creative with our decorating. 

In cakes class, we didn't make anything :( because we prepped for the Grand Buffet the next day (all semester all the classes freeze their leftovers, and then there is a buffet open to the public for $20 each and they get to come eat all of our goodies.)  But our mini-entremets from last week were set so we got to taste them and I got a picture of ours.  So freaking good!

Stenciled jaconde filled with lemon cremeux, chardonnay-soaked blueberries, and topped with a lemon creme anglaise bavarian

Also, I have gotten braver about taking pictures of my cakes at work.  I have been working less hours (whew) now that Easter is over, so I am having way more fun again and less exhausted.  I have been learning all of the decadent desserts and cakes this week and even did my first airbrushed cake!

Alrighty that is all for now because I am supposed to be using this day off to work on my portfolios for cookies and cakes that are due this week and study for my cakes practical!  I'll let you know how it goes!

rough week, still good food

Well between working long hours every day and frustrations at school, this hasn't been a stellar week for me.  But I don't want to vent too much on here, so I will keep it short and sweet with a quick update on recipes from this week.


First, in pastry techniques class, we made mousses to pair with our cakes from last week.  My group made cream cheese mousse for the red velvet cake.  The mousse was good, but I wouldn't trade it for good ol' cream cheese icing.  There are just some recipes that you want to be dense and creamy, not light and airy.  The other mousses were chocolate, peanut butter, vanilla, strawberry, and black currant.  The black currant was my favorite by far, especially combined with the lemon cake.  Strawberry was the runner-up.  And actually, they were delicious combined too.  This was my first time tasting anything with black currant in it, and if you haven't tried it, it is tart and sour but I just loved the flavor.  It's the purplish-colored one in the pictures. 

I don't have any pictures for my other classes because we didn't finish any of our products this week.  In cookies class, we started our petit fours.  We made the cake, the buttercream, and marzipan, but we have to finish assembling, glazing, and decorating them next week. 

In cakes class, we had been moving so quickly this semester that we pretty much gained an extra week and so we got to get creative this week.  We made a coconut flavored stenciled jaconde and cut it to fit into molds, which we then filled with combinations of all the leftovers of the semester we could find in the fridge.  My group chose lemon cremeux and chardonnay soaked bluberries.  I may have sampled a blueberry or two...yum!  Then we made a lemon creme anglaise bavarian then went on top.  They have to set up till next week, so I will have pictures and tales of yumminess then.  I am super excited to taste those, can you tell?

Last but not least, I was finally able to sneak a picture of one of the cakes I decorated at work...the very popular Strawberry Peach Sensation!  Ooh-la-la!  This was actually my first time making one of these so I was pretty proud of myself.