October 26, 2007

Today was a VERY productive day. I woke up at 9:30 in SO much pain I could barely walk because of yesterdays training session!!! But I decided to get stuff done. So I unpacked my winter clothes and put away my summer ones. I also cleaned my room and vacuumed and did some wash. Then my friend from school who is doing her stage called and wanted to do coffee! So we met at 2 and we chatted ALL about how much she loves her stage! It made me REALLY excited!!!!!! Then at 3:30 I had school. From 3:30 til 7:15 we worked our butts off to finish all 8 cakes. And the rest of this blog is going to be really long...but here they are! enjoy! (reminder...we worked as a group...and we made about 6-7 of each cake...so i didn't make one specifically...so pictures are pretty general!)



Velour (Velvet) consists of joconde, sacher, jellied coulis, raspberry creme brulee, samba (choc) mousse, and chocolate glaze. (sprayed with choc and topped with raspberries and gold leaf)



Macaron a la rose (rose macaroon) consists of a macaroon, with a rose mousseline, rose jelly and lychees and raspberries inside.



Fleurs de neige (snow flowers) consist of chocolate croustillant streezel, creamy passion fruit, white chocolate mousse, sacher and coated with white glaze.



Cara epices et poires (Cara spice and pear) consists of gingerbread (which was more of orangebread!), pears in honey, cara vanilla cream and the sides were coated in white chocolate.



Entrements citron framboise (lemon and raspberry cake) consists of Almond cake, jellied coulis, light lemon cream, and lime zest for decoration and white chocolate squares.



Carre gourmand (literal translation- gourmet sqaure...name of cake rich chocolate cake!) consists of sacher, royal chocolate mousse, orange marmelade and crumble on top sprayed with chocolate and chocolate disks on the outside.



Caramel abricot (apricot and caramel cake) consists of chocolate crousillant streezel, sacher, creamy apricot, caramel mousse and glazed with a caramel glaze and decorated with apricots and isomalt sugar decorations.



Sable breton pistache aux fruits des bois (pistachio brittany shortbread with fruits of the forest) consists of pistachio brittany shortbread, almond cake, pistachio mousseline and on top are mixed berries with a fig ontop.


These are pictures of most of the cakes and then our class. I will be taking orders now for June...but I have to warn you...I will be charging atleast 35 dollars for each cake...if not more. The ingredients and time it takes to make one of these is A LOT! BUT they are SOOO worth it :) Hope you enjoyed this blog. For now...go buy the book "The Sharper the Knife, the Less You Cry" by Kathleen Flinn. You'll realize what I'm going through! (dad...you too!) As for me...I'm off to DISNEYLAND PARIS! I'll post on monday! TOODLES!!!!!!!!!!

October 26, 2007

Today I woke up around 8:30 and went shopping. Yes I know...do I really need more clothes. Well I needed basics for winter. So i stocked up on long sleeve shirts, turtle necks and sweats...with some other goodies! I had my first REAL training session today with Sebastien! So I had to cram my shopping in. Luckily Manuel was late for his session, which pushed my session back. So I went to my session at 1pm. So for an hr Seb kicked my BUTT! We did intensive work...but he really wants to get me in gear since he knows I'm trying to get inshape before I go home. But hey, I have until may ;) So we have some time! Anyway, after that I went home and RUSHED to get ready for class. At 3:30 we had our last demo for the week. I was practically sleeping through it because I was so wiped from my session. Chef finished all 8 of the cakes! So after class we had to try them all. However I saved them and then went downstairs to eat my dinner with Manuel and then tried all 8 of them. Tomorrows blog I will describe them all! So we had a 45 minute break and then from 7:30 to 8:15 we sprayed some cakes and then got to go home! YAH! I came home and sent some emails and then went to bed around 10:30. It was a lame nite...but I was exhausted. (and i need my energy for DISNEY!!!!!!!!!)

October 24, 2007

I woke up at 8, went to the gym for my full workout and then came home and made some coffee. It's freezing outside and FINALLY the heat has been turned on in my building! However the elevator is out of commission so it's a pain to come home to (pun intended)! Anyway, I got dressed, made myself breakfast and then went to the post office. I then went to class. Today we had a LONG day. One demo and 2 practicals. We did a mish mosh of stuff. We did some making of mousses and assembling of cakes as well. That's what practical was like also. I offered to make the pears cause they were easy and I like to cut :) Chef also let us out at 8:30 which was super nice of him. We were all pretty exhausted because we were making SO many cakes. I mean there are 8 of them and we made 6 of each kind....so that's a lot of cakes. Some we even made more of! Needless to say...we were all ready to go home. I walked home and i'm about ready to pass out. However, I'm on day 3 of no elevator and I have to say the stairs are almost getting easier! By next week...i should be a pro! hahahaha. nite

October 23, 2007

And yet another busy day. I decided to go to the gym again. So i woke up at 8 and went to the gym to do cardio. I came back home and got dressed because I had class at 12:30. Today we learned the jellies for the cakes. So during practical we made those. Manuel and I got to make the caramel and one of the jellies. It was much smoother than the day before and I was in a much better mood :) After class Manuel and I walked home and made a few pitstops. It was nice to be out at 6 pm. I came home and made lunch/dinner for the week which consists of couscous with salmon! YUM! I then sent out emails that I've been procrastinating on and then eventually at 10:30 I went to bed. I'm busy...but i'm enjoying it and that's all that matters!!!

October 22, 2007

BUSY WEEK! I set my alarm for 7:30...but that didn't go over well...so I reset it for 9. I went to the gym around 10. However my day wasn't going so well. After that I managed to keep myself busy doing stuff around the house til I went to school at 3. This week at school is Entrements...which are cakes. We are learning how to make 8 different kinds of cakes and at the end of the week...yep you guessed it...i take home 8 cakes! AHHHH!!!! FAT!!! hahaha....im gonna distribute them...ok...i'll keep one :) Anyway, today we had one demo in which we learned all of the biscuit type stuff for all 8 of the cakes and then in the practical we, as a group, made them all. However, I woke up on the wrong side of the bed today, so I was REALLY behind. Well, me and manuel were behind. Other people had to help us. It was embarrassing to me. Anyway, class ended at 9:30 and Manuel walked me home. I went to bed around 10:30.

Le Week-end

Well this weekend must have been roomate bonding time because now that I look back on it, I spent everyday with Liz! Friday in the morning I went to the gym then the rest of the day Liz and I went shopping. I came home and then used my internet to catch up on a lot of stuff. Went to bed at 12:30.

Saturday the intermediate students at school(like liz), plus some stragglers as myself, went to the town of Meaux (pronounced Mo) to this Artistique National des Metier de Bouche faire. It was a big faire around town, but a big section was devoted to pastry and food. One of our teachers was doing a sugar demo so thats why we all went. We had a nice day walking around, only the school didn't warn us that it was outside, so we were a bit cold! We got home and went grocery shopping for sunday nite's dinner and then came home and we watched Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares...my new favorite show...check it out!! I eventually went to bed at 12:30.

Sunday was the Salon du Chocolat! Liz and I walked there are 10 and a TON of people from school were there. Being a part of school we got to go to the professional one and not the one open to the public. We got to watch the World Chocolate competition (which is prolly on your food network as I type!) And we also paid to go to the general public on which was JAM PACKED! However, I made TONS of good contacts and i actually got to see one of my teachers from chicago pastry school!!!! It was SOOO strange! I loved it though. He was one of the judges! Anyway, it was an amazing day! We spent from almost 11 to 6 pm just watching competetors and eating free chocolate...what could be better?!?! Then we walked home and I picked up last minute groceries. I came home, cooked and Alex came over and the three of us had a nice meal. At 10:30 I went to bed!

GREAT weekend. BUT next weekend in Disney is going to blow the roof off of this one :)