Its been stressful to say the least, with the ups and downs.
It went off to a bad start already with the disaster of the madelines, and then this happened.
Lesson #4: St Honore
St honore
With the small picture, you can't see the detail of the disaster that had happened. Prior to being placed in the fridge, it was PERFECT. I mean, given that the chef piped half the cream for me, I just had to copy and do the other half. As best as I could say, it was actually really nice. It was definitely an improvement from the one I made for Iv. I was actually quite proud of myself for improving on something that I know that I wanted to succeed in.
So, my neighbour helped me put my piped cake into the fridge and tried to place it directly underneath hers. Well.. obviously from that, the whole top layer was crushed and it was a disaster.
I was so upset. The high from the success crashed down so quickly to have such a failure of a cake. I know she didn't mean it on purpose, and that it was purely an accident. But, I just felt very very sad. It was a bad way to start the week.
Given that I'm quite an emotional person already, I don't think I expected to be so affected by a cake, and I guess the appearance of it.
So, it was it was bad start to the week. It started to slowly (ohh.. so slowly) get better
Lesson #5: Using Puff Pastry
1. Apple Turnovers
Well, I have to say I did ok with dealing with puff pastry. I'm glad I attempted to make this at home earlier. But, what could go wrong, went wrong. So the name says, something seems to need to turnover. You are suppose to make the pastry, fill it with the apple filling, and the seal it up. The next important step after that is to obviously turn it over. Well, who's demented today. I obviously would forget the most important step and forgot to turn it over. I proceeded to have egg washed the wrong side, and it was a little too late to salvage. But I tried to turnover a few of them, and I swear you can't notice the difference.
And another fail, was that I did the left pattern the wrong way around. Well.. I said I was demented.
2. Palmiers
So, I didn't listen to the chef that was taking the prac, and didn't egg wash the palmiers in the middle. I didn't do this because our demo chef didn't. I need to remember that since the prac chef is judging my food, I need to listen to what the prac chef says.
Without the egg wash, I think, is the reason why it turned into the random holey hearts.
These are still in my fridge. I should probably start throwing more things away.
Lesson #6
Eclairs and Chouquettes
Finally, something turned out ok. From what I interpreted from the chef.
So each eclair is apparently to weigh at least 100g. I'm not sure who set the standard. But its to make sure that there is enough filling in it.
For this prac, we had the scary chef, that speaks no English or French, and just tells us off for having tissue/egg shells on the bench top. Seriously, now I've learnt to just hold onto my tissues, to avoid getting yelled at.
But that's a different story. So when the chef came around to each person to judge their eclairs, he would weigh a few in his hands and then select one to slice it open. He's checking that the cream is filled to the max, and not bursting. I heart was seriously beating so hard from being nervous about the stupid filling. Thank GOD that mine were ok.
It was a different story about these little choquettes though. So, when I was piping these, he already told me to keep it the same size. If the school is not going to teach us the basics for just piping , and simply filling a piping bag, I'm not going to learn if none teaches me. So, all he did was grab the biggest ball with my smallest ball, and say, "ce". Dude, learn some English or French. Seriously! Day over, and my spirits were starting to lift a bit more
Lesson #7
Dacquoise
Another decent day, finally something turned out decently looking and not too much of a failure
So the cake is a almond meringue layer, with praline buttercream in the middle, topped with another layer and then finally a marzipan rose.
Chef's only comments was that my layers had to be more even. That I can deal with, otherwise, I had to look at nature and look at what a rose is to look like. I have to say, even with my demented hands, the rose was decent for my first try.
Another decently good day.. I thought my time at school was finally improving.
Lesson #8
Gateau Basque
With all the pastry that I'm eating, I'm really not feeling like sweet food at all. Wish this was a giant meat pie instead, kinda looks like one anyway.
So this is pretty much made like a tart instead of a "cake" filled with creme patisserie and cherries, and then the tart base is used to cover the top. Top is egg washed and the scored with a fork.
Another good day in the kitchen. Comment from the chef was that the dough wasn't cold enough before I scored and baked the cake. But hey, with the amount of time we're given, I know he knows that its not my fault that the dough wasn't cold enough.
Good day, yah for that!
And finally, the crash
Lesson #9
Caramelised pear and crisp almond crust tart
With a prac at 6:30pm on a Saturday night, I guess I was a little exhausted, a little tired, and I guess I just wanted to week to finally end.
So this was a fail. I know I got the lowest score in class. My meringue topping was overflowing the edge, and that's what totally let me down.
My piping was bad so that the balls were overflowing the edge. I guess it just got worse when it was baked.
And another complaint, so our demo chef firstly soften the butter to make the dough. Prac chef said no, and do it like we've normally have. Demo chef said to blind bake the base. Prac chef says I've baked this for 8 years, and I've never done it this way. Prac chef dumps the creme patisserie before putting the pear and raisins filling. Demo chef pipes it in spirals. Prac chefs says not to use almonds on the top. Prac chef says why didn't I use almond.
Seriously, since this recipe is one of the recipes in the exams, how am I suppose to know who to follow and what to do.
Another fail, and a bad end to the week. These highs and lows are seriously killing my spirits.
At least I got this little dude to give me inspiration, and for someone to wait for me to come home.
xoxo Michelle
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