Welcome September

Guess what? 

I've been in London for 5 1/2 months and I hadn't watched a single musical until Thursday evening. My sister and I went to watch Wicked. 

WE LOVED IT!!! Absolutely spectacular and I definitely recommend to catch it sometime. The actors, the music, the performance in general is truly a wonder. 

Check it out: http://www.wickedthemusical.co.uk/

 My adventures in London and the culinary world continue...

Today we welcome September and very soon autumn (my favorite season :D ). Weather here in London grows colder and I have to say I love it.

So, today something happened that had not happened in a long time. I slept in!!! I got out of bed at 11:15 am and let me tell you it felt amazing. After the past busy days, it felt good to relax a bit. 

Yesterday afternoon, we had the practical exam for intermediate patisserie. We were all quite stressed and nervous as we did not know what we had to make. Our options were three: a Fraisier, an Opera or a Sabrina, all three a different sponge cake. All of them have their techniques, but some are more time consuming to produce. We had made them before in different practicals. The results were okay and I was fairly content with my ability to produce them again during the exam. Still, one stresses over it before and during the exam that things can go wrong. 

1st Fraisier ever...and I misspelled fraisier...oops

We didn't know which of the three we were going to get as a computer chooses for each class at random. The Fraisier was thought to be the easiest but it can get stressful. The 

Opéra is the most technical of all. Because you can see the layers on every side, the spreading of the joconde biscuit on the tray has to be close to perfectly even, otherwise the cake will no be level. The Sabrina is the most time consuming and thought to be the hardest. It requires tempering of chocolate and like the other two, proper assembly. 

1st Opéra...the sponge wasn't level, but piping was okay

So as the time of the exam approached, most of my classmates practiced and practiced and practiced. I practiced twice: once with the Opéra and once with the Fraisier. My results were close to mediocre. It stressed me out, but in the end I realized my results will never be the same as I don't have the proper equipment or ingredients we used in the school kitchens. A big factor: the ovens. The ovens in school are designed for professional uses. The one I have at home is not even big enough for the trays we use at school. 

1st Sabrina...out of the three, the chef thought this one was the best

However, practicing the cakes helped in remembering the method and ingredients for the cakes. Part of the exam is writing down the recipe, down to proper measurements and the method of production. We even have to make a drawing of the cake we get and label the different components. I even practiced them. 

Make any sense?

So we arrive to school, changed and made our way to the kitchen and to our surprise and at the moment, relief, we found out, through the ingredients displayed, that the cake we got assigned was the fraisier. We were all quite happy that we didn't get the Sabrina. So the exam started and we wrote down the recipes and drew our pictures. As soon as everyone was done, the production started. I was really happy with my work flow and even happier that I wasn't concentrating on thinking what others were doing. Made the sponge, made the crème mousseline, made the marzipan rose and leaves and prepared the strawberries. 

All was going great until time caught up. 

And then I started to stress. When the I removed the ring that held the cake together I really panicked. The crème mousseline had smudged the sponge, when it was supposed to have been clean. I tried my best to "clean" it up. In the end, there was nothing to be done. So I cleaned my work station and concentrated on the piping. We were to pipe with royal icing and as I'd practiced at home with my homemade icing, I tried as best to get the consistency right. I did not manage it and I had 15 minutes left. 

My hands were shaking so bad, some of my classmates had already finished, others were panicking and I needed a steady hand to pipe the design I had chosen. It didn't happen, but on the bright side, I did spell out Fraisier correct this time. I finished on time and left the kitchen. My headache started but it was over and I'd survived. Now, we wait for Tuesday when we have the final written exam and our results. 

What a way to say goodbye to glorious August right?  Music and cake...sweet!

Until next time. xx