Desk Jockey and Care Packages

Going back to the office for a short while turned out to be a blessing in disguise. It opened my eyes to the realisation that I can actually never return to sitting at a desk and working on a computer. I'm so much happier running around a loud and hectic kitchen, and I was never that good at sitting still anyway. 

And office clothes suck. It's impossible to walk fast in a pencil skirt and heels, and I'm usually in a hurry to get to where I'm going. It's not like it's pleasant walking around in underground tunnels, and people in the City won't hesitate to trample you if you don't speed it up. I remember thinking Londoners walked so damn fast when I first moved here, but four years later, I get upset at people for walking so damn slow! I honestly get the pedestrian version of road rage.

We only have one demo this week and work is currently on hold until Wednesday morning, which means that I should be spending the time off practicing the exam cakes. I've already made the Fraisier and Opera at home, so it'll be the Alhambra next. The timing works out pretty well since J promised his boss that I'll make something nice for his birthday this weekend and I like to think I'm helping J's career prospects with my cakes. 

In other news, I received a care package from my oldest BFF, whom I've known since we were seven! She's just travelling the world and fighting to end sex trafficking, no biggie. And she still makes time to remember to send me all my crazy little obsessions from Korea. In case you couldn't tell by now, she's amazing, and I'm so lucky to count her as my friend!

All for Show

It was good while it lasted, but the recent heat wave has given way to some schizophrenic weather which included thunderstorms and hail! 

I think both Casper and I are glad of the cooler weather since he has a fur coat he can't take off, and I'm usually in a hot and busy kitchen with no air conditioning! The air pollution also seems worse on the hot and humid days, and allergies I never had before I moved to London start to act up like mad.

We had to temper chocolate on one of those hot days, and it made it near impossible for our chocolate to set. I felt like I was working much slower than usual, but my chocolate centrepiece finally turned out just in the nick of time! Luckily, I got it graded before I broke the ears off, and a friend held up the lopped off body part while I took a snap.

Now that we're back to the regular gloom and rain, I'm pretty happy since it was much cooler in the kitchen while we scrambled to make our first plated dessert in a while. We made a chocolate fondant with orange and caramel sauce with a sugar cage. The last time we plated anything was back in Basic, and it was encouraging to see how far we've come in such a short time.

Then...

And now...

The technicals are still quite fun with lots of tasting going on...

The soufflé technical...

And chocolate tasting!

We tasted 17 different kinds of chocolate to try to figure out the bean, country of origin, chocolate solids content, and roasting method. The bad part was that the class began at 8am, and I don't feel like eating anything at that hour, let alone gobs of expensive chocolate. And white chocolate tends to make me gag. 

As if I wasn't busy enough, I agreed to a lawyer job for the next two weeks since there is a lull in scheduled classes for school. And I'm a teaching assistant at school on Saturday. Basically when I'm not at school, I'll be at work. And if I'm not at work, I'll be doing laundry at home so I have clothes to wear to school and work. Oh, and I have to remember how to walk in heels again so I don't fall on my face at the office. But I did say yes to all of the above, so it's time to buck up, shut up, and walk the walk (in heels that I finally took out of storage).

Casper on a Diet

Casper just had his first birthday! He wasn't so keen since it meant it was time to go to the vet for his booster shots! He was remarkably calm during the whole thing, even though he was surrounded by dogs!

It's been quite eventful lately, but we had time to squeeze in brunch with my cousins and get an update on their upcoming wedding in Colombia! I'm so excited! And we got to eat Js favourite, the Welsh rarebit, at the Wolesley.

And as always, I've been baking up a storm!

I've been sharing the goodies with Js office mates, and one of them was kind enough to buy us a bottle of Constantia wine. I was super excited as I'm a huge Jane Austen nerd, and she mentions this wine in Sense and Sensibility. Jane Austen knows what's up, the wine was delicious!

J had to go to Chicago for a quick work trip, and I was supposed to tag along, but I was dreading the thought of a long flight so I ended up cancelling. Oops. Besides, I was busy in the kitchen the entire time he was away. I ended up making birthday cakes for Js colleague, which gave me a chance to practice two of our exam dishes. The third was a Black Forest cake that I just had to make since the birthday boy is German.

I was in school for the majority of the day on Saturday as one of the chefs asked me to assist during one of the short courses for breakfast breads. We basically had to make sure the students had the right equipment and ingredients for each of the dishes they had to make, and I was insanely jealous since we have to do that for ourselves during our practicals. They also didn't have to wear our super stylish uniforms.

It was the first time in a long time that I spent so much time on my feet, and my legs were dead by the end of the day. Despite all that, it was a lot of fun, and I was really flattered that the chef asked me to assist. In fact, I'm assisting for another chef this Saturday for a different short course. I feel like I'm getting a complimentary appetiser plate of Le Cordon Bleu classes! 

Cakes and Bread

Our last exam dish, the Opera! It's made with a hazelnut sponge with a chocolate ganache and coffee buttercream and topped off with a chocolate glacage and piping. It's pretty fast to make in comparison to the others, but the chefs consider it to be the most technically difficult.

I was a bit over zealous with the trimming, so it turned out a bit undersized (like me), but it was still good enough for J to not share it with anyone. He's very keen on me practicing lots! 

We've had another gateau since, the Sabrina. It's named after Audrey Hepburn's character in the film of the same name. It's a rather girly cake, which isn't really my thing.

It's a sponge filled with strawberry mousse and strawberry pieces finished off with a chocolate glazed marzipan disk. I'm not that keen on the design, the piped batons with chocolate squiggles looks a bit strange. I didn't have any of it, but my partner didn't think it tasted that great with the exception of the chocolate-covered marzipan. 

We also had a boulangerie class wherein we made baguettes, focaccia and a rye loaf. I'm not such a fan of making bread, I find it a bit boring. We've had tube strikes, which meant I ran home that day with all that bread strapped to my back. Was not worth it, especially the rye loaf, but the focaccia was delicious!

The technicals thus far have been quite good. We had a class on savoury dishes, and we got to sample the chef's creations. It was a good thing I didn't have breakfast that day as I stuffed myself with sausage rolls, bouchees, and salmon puffs. Yum!

I find that I much prefer savoury to sweet these days, which also happened to a lot of other kids in my class. I guess you get tired of sweet things after being around them all day. 

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.