So it all started Monday the week before with the Moka, and honestly I am not in love with this cake. When we went on the patisserie tour with the class we bought a Moka from Pierre Hermé and even that I would've preferred something else. Each to their own taste I suppose... But I really enjoyed making it! To get the butter cream coating super even and flat and slick was fun, had I been allowed I would've spent half an hour just to get it nice and even.
That day we also made the joconde for our Opera cake which we were going to assemble on Tuesday. So I thought Tuesday would've been a walk in the park, but NO. I think we were even running late on Tuesday so much work went into building this cake. The layers from top to bottom : chablon, joconde, butter cream, joconde, ganache, joconde, butter cream, glaçage and chef said a good Opera has to have a nice balance of everything... mine turned out lovely, even though they didn't look exactly fine and dainty cos of my clumsy attempts at cornet!
On Wednesday we didn't take anything home but we made Bavarois au coco and prepared a few things for Thursday. We had our first art class and that was a bit SCARY! because much do I want to be a creative person... I don't have much up my sleeves!! Ah well, so I plan to take this learning seriously.. and hopefully any repressed artistic genes in me might surface. Anyway, so Thursday we finished three cakes! and that felt a bit like a relaxing time compared to just 1 Opera. I prefer cakes that don't look too busy, and I am all for negative space and less is more. Watching my chef decorated the bavarois and the fruit mousse was quite breathtaking. Really beautiful and with restraint, when you see the cakes you couldn't help but sigh... Lucky that he preferred us to copy what he did because I would've anyway! I have to say my cakes also ended up being really pretty, except that I really could've done with less strawberries on the fruit mousse. I gave them out happily and quite proudly.
Friday we had our first evaluation on tarte aux pommes and tarte au chocolat. To cut the story short I was in the middle pack, but I am my own competition anyway... I think I could've done better and like an elite athlete I would try to beat my personal best next time :)
New week, still on the cake theme... Monday we made 2 types of cheesecakes and made the french meringue for the Concorde and that was a walk in the park. I know I sound like a SNOB :) but cheesecakes are simple to make. I wasn't enthralled. We finished the unbaked cheesecake and I think for this one we were allowed to decorate as you wish but I imitated my chef's style from the other week. (You know, I am a copy cat and am really quite concern about the creativity challenge for the end of the course!! A bit like a masterchef mystery box x invention challenge!!)
On Tuesday we made the first of the 3 types of chocolate mousses we learnt this week. For the Concorde the mousse is similar to how I normally make it which is just with eggs. I piped the meringues too chunkily and they didn't look fine and delicate. I used to sell these when I worked in David Jones food hall I should had known to make it nice and thin grrrrrr!!
Anyway, then we made a Fraisier and I must had drawn the shortest stick because my strawberries were HUGE! and so had to cut them horizontally and turned out that I didn't like that look at all. Then I made a huge mistake, I didn't hear when chef told us to keep the crème patissière outside so they are not too cold having came out from the blast freezer. When I mixed the butter in, I could see then the texture became weird... I showed it to chef and he said the cream and butter should had been at the same temperature and not too cold. When I took the ring out and saw that I didn't chemise the cake well. I just wanted to dig a hole and cry hmmpphhhh but I just grit my teeth, not be a baby, and told chef that it was a fail for me. On that day we were to have a cornet evaluation, lucky he postponed it because after that... I don't think I could handle double disaster. Fraisier my nemesis.
On Wednesday we made a dangerous cake called a Royal. Whenever someone asks chef how long can we keep this and that, normally the answer is one day. Well it might be very sickening of me but I still have this cake in my fridge!!! I should and will throw it out today! But it is soo good! It has a couple of layers of sponge, a layer of hazelnut milk chocolate feuillantine, covered in praline chocolate mousse, the 2nd type of chocolate mousse which has whipped cream and no eggs. And I really had a good day making this cake.... after feeling a bit defeated the day before I decided to be more focused and maybe it was a good thing that I accidentally left my phone at home. I was more attentive and somehow for the first time since we started I was not left at the back of the pack and completed the steps in line with everybody.
Thursday early morning wayyyyy before dawn, Amie and I got up and made our way to the Bon Marché. All the Anglo Pastry students and our chefs were going on a school excursion to Rungis yay! I love markets and this is THE market professionals go to so it was really interesting. We also went to do a little tour of Les Vergers Saint Eustache, a produce supplier to the palaces and Michelin restaurants around the world and the array of products and the quality are amazing! I took heaps of photos that day and this is my favourite.
On Friday we made our last cake and I had high expectation because I love love crème brulée.. it was going inside as an insert, sandwiched with a couple of layers of sponges, covered in chocolate mousse. This is the 3rd type of chocolate mousse that we made, it would be really interesting to have a taste test of all three just to compare which one I prefer... this one has eggs and cream. I was happy that my cake turned out pretty because I wanted to offer it as a gift.
Also on Friday we had about an hour to practice cornet and had our evaluation. I tried to keep calm and not to have a nervous breakdown when I saw other students piped flourish decoration in addition to the letters. I passed... and also realised that I have such a long long way to go and must practice a thousand times over because all I can write for now, is just Fraisier.
And so it was... the two weeks of sponge cakes and by now I think my whisking skill if there is such thing, has reached advanced level. I used to beat stuff with hand held mixer at least... hardly ever with a whisk because it seemed such a hassle and a tiresome thing to do. Now, give me a bucket of cream and a whisk, 5-10 minutes. Bam! No sweat.
Melinda xx
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