Because I Would...

No, I haven't been busy...just really exhausted for no reason.  I am now in Breads Class and it has a slow pace in my opinion.  2 weeks ago I had the 2nd term practical....where we had to make these products:

6 hours in 2 days (3 hours each day).  Let me get to the point and say I failed. Yep! I failed and have to take it again this Saturday.  Yes, I'm upset I have to retake the whole thing again. It was a bad day and my time management was not so great, so I'm trying something else this time around.  If failing the practical taught me one thing, it's that we can't be good at EVERYTHING.  I hate failing...but this was an experience that taught me humility.  Another thing that was positive about this was that it helps me to improve on what I needed to work on.  I'm totally human so I didn't find absolutely everything about this experience positive.  I have nightmares of me failing the retake.  I haven't gotten my mind of this retake since the day I failed it.  I'm pretty mad I have to retake it, but I hide it very well.  As of right now, I'm chill about retaking it. Still mad, but also still relaxed about it. 

Alright, enough of this.  I just want to go on externship and pretend this never happened.

Oh and I'm probably not going to put as many pictures up on this since it messes up the formatting sometimes.  I will, however, post it on my tumblr, which I am still trying to figure out -_- .

http://pastryavenue.tumblr.com/ 

How I manage to function at this school without coffee is beyond my understanding...

One Week Closer to Externship :)

Hello, hello. As I mentioned in my previous post, I am now in Individual and Production Pastries! Hooray!!!  It's been a bit stressful considering the pace is much faster and the time constraints are much shorter than before.  It's all good though.  It is preparation for our externship which is coming up very very soon. Last night I went to a local diner with some friends to work on a costing project for this class. We came back at midnight, still had some energy, so I decided to work on it some more on my own WHILE I was doing laundry.  Needless to say, it was quite an adventure searching for prices and such.  This weekend I also have to get 6 pages of writing done.  However, I'm getting ready to pack up my room to leave for externship.  Also, in 2 weeks I will be taking my 2nd Term Baking Practical.  Two days long, 3 hours each day and have to produce 3 main items which all have seperate compenents.  Stressed out much? Absolutely!  I'm taking it easy and I'm just going to skip out on dinner break for 2 weeks to practice for this.  Call me crazy, call me ambitious, call me whatever....but I am determined to pass....even if by 1 point. Hopefully that's not the case.  Anyways! Onward to the pictures, yes?

We made a daily buffet display with the desserts we produced.  Here are some pictures of them.

Well that's all for this week.  I have a busy weekend ahead of me...oh joy!  Oh well, better than being bored, right?  Have a great weekend!

Debbie <3

Final Week of Cakes (Update of Last Week)

Hey there! :) I didn't get a chance to update on my last week of cakes class...so here it is!  I don't remember the exact order in which we did things, so I'll just put up pictures.

Chocolate Mousse Cake

 Building the St. Honore

Black Forest Cake (Chocolate Cherry Whipped Cream Cake)

Mocha Cake

Classic Charlotte Russe

Modern Charlotte Russe

I had more pictures but, in all honesty, I'm really exhausted from my new class.   We do high volume pastry production and it gets pretty hectic.  However, don't get me wrong....I LOVE this class. I have to say it's my favorite class so far. The pictures I didn't put here are up on my tumblr. You could follow me @PastryAvenue. Well, that's all for now!

Love & Pastries
Debbie ;D

Week 2 of Cakes!

7 More Weeks and I will have survived completed my first year of college!  Not only that, I will be going on externship! Yes, I'm very excited!  This week dragged on for some reason. Nevertheless, it was a very busy week for me running errands, classes, and sleep.  This was my second week in Basic and Classical Cakes, and so much was done.  Between practicing for the practical in 4 weeks and making cakes, it's been a long and hectic week.  I'll just pick up from my last post.

Day 5: 

We made Cheesecakes (3 words: Oh. So. Delicious.) which we ended up giving to the Apple Pie Bakery Cafe to sell. We also made the oh so infamous Practical Buttercream Cake. It's been 6 weeks since I've been in a bakeshop so it didn't come out too great.

Piping on Day 5

Day 6:

My favorite day this week!  We made Carrot Cake and little marzipan carrots to decorate them.  We even got to temper chocolate using the tabling method to make our chocolate decors for the Practical Cake.

Here are some snapshots of my Carrot Cake

Tempering Chocolate & Decors

Day 7:

Basically, we just made a Chocolate Sponge Cake and the shells for our eclairs.

Day 8:

No pictures. However we finished off our eclairs, made an Apple Strip, and a Hi-Ratio Chocolate Cake, which chef told us was just like buying a boxed cake mix.

Day 9:

Pretty interesting day.  Half the class made Chocolate Mousse Cake and the other half made a Modern and a Old-Fashioned Charlotte Russe cakes (For all those ladies who shop at the store with the same name...yes, it was quite a shock for me too XD)  I made the Chocolate Mousse Cake. Yum!  We will be finishing it off with a hard ganache on Tuesday.

We also set in our Black Forest Cake.  We piped chocolate buttercream rings and filled in the spaces with a cherry filling which we made as well.  These cakes will be finished on Tuesday as well. :)

Well that's all for this week!  There will surely be more to come next week :) As for now, I will enjoy my weekend and I wish for you to do the same!  By the way, if you're on tumblr, follow me:

http://pastryavenue.tumblr.com/

It's more of a food photography blog.  On the occasion you will find random collages I make on Polyvore, but other than that, pastries galore! I'm still trying to work out some details on it so it may change around a bit. Hope you enjoy! :)

<3 Debbie

First Week of Basic & Classical Cakes

So, it's past midnight and I'm not even tired....thanks to my stupid allergies. Lovely.

Anyways, it's been a pretty chill week ...OUTSIDE the bakeshop that is.  I said this cakes class was going to be a challenge and I meant it. We started this class this past Tuesday.  I've learned a lot and I like how structured the class is.  We know what we're making and when we're making it.  So, I'll cut to the part where I put pictures up of what I made this week.

Day 1:
We made 1-2-3 Cookie Dough for our Tarts the next day. We used extra puff dough left over from the last class and made Alsatian Apple Tarts.

Day 2:
We all made different tarts: Fresh Fruit Tarts, Lemon Merengue Tarts, Caramel Walnut Tarts, Hawaiian Caramel Chocolate Tarts.  As for me and my partner, we made an Apple Frangipane Tart.  It was pretty neat to make.

Day 3:

We made Genoise (rather not talk about that -_-) and the Sacher Cake. No pictures...sorry.

Day 4:

Re-made our genoise...which came out, I quote, "beautiful" on our first try! :D  For those who don't know, genoise are a temperamental kind of cake....anything can easily mess them up (overfolding, not folding enough, not tempered enough, sugar not melted properly in eggs, etc.) like I said temperamental. One mistake, your genoise will be a fail.  It seems like common sense but making genoise batter is a nerve-racking thing...unless you've had years of experience. Only practice will fix that.

Our Awesome Genoise!!!

Moving on.....Also on Day 4 we finished our Sacher Torte

First chocolate cake "invented" (for lack of a better term).  This kind of cake has its origins in Austria and named after the Sacher Hotel.  It's essentially a dark chocolate cake covered with apricot preserves and glazed with a hard ganache. Yum!

That was basically my week in Cakes class.  It was a rough week but interesting all the same.  I'll try and keep a weekly update going depending on my schedule.

Smile! :)

<3 Debbie