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.