Monday Blues

Hi there!!!

I trust everyone had a lovely weekend. Let me tell you, the weather here in London is truly unpredictable. 31°C yesterday. How often does that happen? RARELY! Coming from a tropical country (HONDURAS), I can tell you...we need AC and my lovely flat does not have one. So I decided to go out and buy a fan and to my surprise, they were all OUT OF STOCK! People have complained about the cold, rainy weather in this beautiful city, but I for one, cannot wait for it to come back.

Anyway, let me tell you about my new "creations." Last week, we made Chocolat Fondant or Molten Cakes as they are known in some places, and having plated the darling dessert, I was graded on it. Good criticism, although I did burn the caramel...oops! It was purely for decoration purposes, however, I could not resist trying it and I ate it all...and forgot to take a picture.

So, I brought home the remaining three and Sunday, I plated one for my friend and voila!

Chocolat Fondant avec caramel

What do you think?


I made caramel and did not burn it. I showed one of the teaching chefs at school and got good criticism on it. 

Moving on: Mondays...I have never met a person who liked a Monday. Unless it was their birthday...it still sucks though. So it started out slow. The sky was feeling blue as well and I decided to carry my coat and umbrella to school, just in case we had a downpour. Seriously, you never know with the weather here. The temperature was really nice and despite being a Monday, I was glad I wasn't sweating. We had a demo for today's cooking plan and once it was over, the sun came out. Thank God the school is air-conditioned.

Today we made a Tarte Tatin, a French dessert. Many of you will know it, some of you might not. It is an inverted cake, with caramelized apples and a crust made out of puff pastry. There are many ways to make it and as we only made small, individual ones, the presentation may not seem traditional. 

Tarte Tatin avec créme anglaise et caramel

For the tarte, we made a direct caramel (*melting the sugar directly on the pan, without stirring it), added butter and lemon juice and cooked our sliced apples to line the tarte and make the filling. The puff pastry rings were made by our wonderful teaching chef.

Last week, we made the chocolat fondant and we also made a Delices aux Bananes (*a banana mousse with a caramel filling and chocolate sponge). We got to plate the cold dessert today.

To present both, we cooked a créme anglaise, a black currant coulis and got to "play" around with sugar decorations. 

Delices aux Bananes avec coulis de cassis

The practical was a peaceful one and despite not being overly happy about the plating, the remarks were good. I still need to practice.

Any thoughts? I hope you guys a wonderful Monday!!!

Sweet dreams :)