Easter in Portugal

It's right around this time of year that I start to crave sun like a fat kid wants cake, so you can imagine how excited I was to hop on a plane to the Algarves in Portugal! 

J made the executive decision to splash out on a suite at our hotel, Epic Sana in Albufeira. I wasn't going to complain. The view from our room was amazing!

The hotel itself is pretty spiffy. It was built last year, and it's got a very spa-like vibe to it. The entire staff was very charming, and the hotel thought of all the little extra touches that make your stay super comfortable. 

We started the next morning with my favourite part of any hotel experience, the breakfast buffet.

It's stupid how excited I get about someone else preparing breakfast for me. 

Next up, we hit up the pool for some fun in the sun.

J very wisely stayed in the shade, while I got a nice sunburn after sitting in the sun for an hour. I keep forgetting how unused to the sun my skin is after living in London. Oops. 

It was nice while it lasted as we got hit by a truly epic storm the next day.

Lucky for us, it cleared up enough during the afternoon for us to take a quick walk on the beach by the hotel, the Praia de Falesia. 

I was foolish enough to suggest going in the water. Needless to say, it was pretty freaking cold!

J finally convinced me to enjoy the sun on the sand after watching me make a fool of myself. 

I still don't regret getting in the water.

I was getting pretty hungry so we went back to our room to order room service, but I was pretty disappointed with my order. This was one of the rare occasions that I decided to complain, and I guess it paid off as this showed up afterwards.

Sweeeeet! 

It was time to go back home all too soon, and we were seen off by the best rainbow ever.

Now it's time to plan our May holiday! Whomp whomp!

Thinking About Exams: Alhambra and Fraisier

It's pretty early in the course, but we've already been introduced to two of our three potential exam dishes. I guess it's never too late to start practicing!

First up, the Gateau Alhambra. It's basically a chocolate cake filled and masked with chocolate ganache, enrobed in a chocolate glaze, and decorated with piped chocolate writing and tempered chocolate pieces, and topped off with a marzipan rose. Have I mentioned it's got chocolate? 

Needless to say, things were a bit frantic in the kitchen trying to do everything, and our group finished way over time. We had a relaxed chef for the practical, which can be a blessing and a curse. A blessing since it's a lot less stressful, but a curse as you tend to take time that you won't have during the actual exam. 

All in all, I was pretty pleased with how the cake came out, but my chocolate piping can still use a lot more work. I ordered 5 pounds of chocolate, so I'll definitely get some more practice in unless I eat it all first! I also need to practice tempering since chocolate can be pretty finicky to work with, and we're not allowed to use thermometers while we're trying to warm the chocolate by only a few degrees. The chocolate will "talk" to us and tell us when it's ready. Um, okay. I must be deaf or we're not speaking the same language. 

Our other exam dish is the Fraisier. It's a genoise sponge filled and lined with strawberries and creme mousseline. It's topped off with a marzipan disk and rose and decorated in royal icing. 

This time, we had a chef who pushed us constantly on time, which meant we finished early and had some time to practice piping with royal icing. I hate it. It's completely different from chocolate piping, and I think it may even be worse, but that may be because we have much less experience with it. I'm just glad I got the spelling right! Let's just say not everyone did.

Chef was pleased with my cake except for the fact that I murdered my sponge when I removed it from my ring mold, and I need to remember to be less vigorous with my knives. As if my poor finger wasn't reminder enough. The marzipan was also tricky to work with and kept sticking to everything, making it nearly impossible to remove from the workbench without ripping. I'm just glad I eventually got everything on the cake!

Our technical this week was quite fun as it was similar to a demonstration rather than just a lecture. The topic was confectionary, and we learned how to make caramels, nougats, and jellies.

The best part was the tasting afterwards! I'm starting to wish school had a gym...

Intermediate Patisserie

I'm two weeks in my Intermediate Patisserie course now, and things got off to a bumpy start. First, there's my stupid finger - I had to wear a glove over my bandage for the first week, and it drove me crazy. I couldn't feel anything properly, and one of the best things to happen all year was taking the damn thing off. My finger's still alternating between being numb and sharp pain when there's any pressure on it, but anything's better than the bandage. Second, our group has increased in size to fifteen people in the kitchen, which means things are even more hectic and crowded with everyone rushing around to get ingredients. Third, the weather's been warming up, which means it can get hawwwt up in the kitchen. It doesn't help that we're wearing thick chef jackets, aprons, two tea towels and a hat, all made out of extra thick cotton. I'm seriously contemplating cutting out armpit holes to air the business out. 

On the plus side, I attempted my first mini mock-up of the wedding cake that my brother's fiancee wants for the wedding. I was pretty surprised at how well it turned out! I'm still working out the little tweaks in the design, but it looks like all systems are a go!

Now, I just have to carry it off on the actual day. Scary!

School's been going well, I think our new group is getting into the swing of things and figuring out how to work with each other in the kitchen. Since my old partner went back to Malaysia (sad), I've been working with my new partner, and things have been going really well. We get on, and we both work at the same pace, so I'm pretty happy. She's also another "tall", which means I still have someone to reach the high shelves. Teehee.

Oh, and here are the brioche, croissants, and danishes I made last week. Chef told me my bear claws were the most ferocious pastries he's seen in a while. I'll take that as a compliment, thank you very much. I think he was a bit confused though when I swiped at him with one with a loud meow. That's right, bear's can meow if they want to. 

Now that I've been doing the pastry thing for a few months, I'm starting to ask myself what, if anything, I'm going to do when the course ends. Most of the kids have firm plans to continue working in the patisserie field after they've finished their studies, but I'm not quite sure yet. I've heard lots of talk of long hours for pitiful pay, and something about that just doesn't appeal to me. It seems to me that you have to want to go into patisserie for the love of it and not so much for the cash money. Although J makes a good living, I still like to contribute my bit and help pay for the kitty kibble. I guess I still have to ponder it a bit more and continue to do some more research. 

On a separate note, I don't know what it is but my hair's been bugging the bejesus out of me. It's been in this godawful growing out phase for so long, and I just couldn't handle it anymore and then this happened...

Yeah, my hair really is that blond right now. But no longer on my head. Hahaha.