Caught a Cold

This was the longest week ever!

I was sick all week. Unfortunately, I was out of work all week but I had to go to school. I can't afford to miss any school because I would be way behind. As you can tell, we do A LOT in one day. 

Monday 3.14.11

Today, I was feeling the worst. Really didn't feel the energy to go to school but I had to go in order to finish my last part of my practical. Our Chef wasn't at school either so the associate instructor, Chef Josh, filled in for her. For my practical today, I had to assemble my fruit tart. So I had to make the tart shell, assemble the diplomat cream (pretty much just had to whip the cream to add to the Pastry Cream), slice my fruit and torch my creme brulee. I received a high "B" on this Practical, which I am fine with considering I wasn't feeling well at all. Chef Josh complimented me on a nice pie crust but explained to me to cut my fruit a lot thinner. He said that "light and thin" is the name of the game when it comes to fruit tarts. I almost over whipped my cream in my diplomat cream as well. My creme brulee, surprisingly was almost over baked.  It surprised me because it seamed as though they were taking FOREVER to bake.  I couldn't get the torch in class to work correctly so I was burning parts of my brulee way too much. The one on the bottom is the better looking one. Here is a photo of my final products: 

Tuesday 3.15.11

No pictures to share today. Today we did a lot of prep work for the next day. We made a Chiffon cake, a Genoise Cake, Swiss Buttercream and practiced piping. 

Wednesday 3.16.11

Today we made Devil's Food cake (which we used for our Black Forest Cake the next day). We also spent a majority of the class time assembling our cakes. We used our Chiffon Cakes and Iced them with the Swiss Buttercream. We had several choices to flavor our buttercream. We were able to choose Lemon Compote, Chcocolate Ganache, Raspberry Compote or Caramel. I choose Chocolate and added a few raspberries for decoration on top. We were required to do a shell border on the bottom and any other border or decoration on top. I did a reverse shell on top. So pretty. Here is my cake. I was actually able to ice it pretty evenly. Something that has always been a challenge for me. 

Thursday 3.17.11 

Today we made Chocolate Mousse and assembled our Black Forest Cakes. We also made an Almond Sponge Cake that we will use for our Petits Fours the next day. Black Forest Cake consists of layers of Devil's Food Cake, Chocolate Mousse and Cherries covered with Whipped Cream, Cherries and Shaved Chocolate. We used a cake ring to assemble the layers, froze it and then iced it. I really liked making it. The taste of it, however, was not very appealing to me. Here is my cake! I'm thinking less cherries on top would have been nicer.

Friday 3.18.11

Today we had a written exam that I feel like I did pretty well on! We assembled our Petits Fours which I won't talk to much about because they were a complete mess. Nobody really had fun making them. They were very fragile, the cake cracked easily, the Chocolate coating was difficult to coat the cakes with and the food coloring didn't like the coating (it wouldn't mix in right). By far the ugliest thing I have made so far. My partner made the green ones. I made the purple ones. I tried putting my first initial and Jeff's first initial on them but the Royal Icing was too thin and wasn't holding it's shape. The layered cakes you see at the bottom are what the Petits Fours look like before being iced. It's 3 layers of almond sponge cake, 3 layers of raspberry jam and 1 layer of marzipan. If you haven't tried marzipan before, all I can say is that it's not for everyone. It smells lovely, like maraschino cherries but doesn't taste good- at least to my palette. Here's the damage:

Friday night after school I decided to practice for my finals this week. For my final, I have to do the Creaming Method (cookies), Biscuit Method (biscuits or scones), Muffin method (muffins or pumpkin bread), make a Chiffon Cake and Swiss Buttercream. I practiced the biscuit method by making Jalapeno Cheddar Biscuits that came out funny looking and Peanut Butter Cookies. I was so tired that I forgot the baking soda! I redeemed them by adding it in later so I wouldn't waste the dough. 

Everything came out yummy. Just a little funny looking. 

Happy rainy weekend everyone. Time to study for my ServSafe Certification Test.

With Love, 

Adriana 

(originally posted 3.19.11)