DAYS 86, 87, 88, and 89. Baking. Walking. Making.

DAYS 86, 87, 88, and 89. Baking. Walking. Making.

Days 86 and 87 I can sum up in one word. Baking. Okay a few more words.

Saturday I got up and went to school to pick up my knife kit. I was surprised that a cuisine chef was guarding the door. It was the first Saturday all year that they were closed, but luckilly there was one class going on, so he let me in to get my knives to take home & prep for Monday. Then I headed to a bakeware shop to buy some tools for Monday (premade piping bags, mini spatula, and cake pans for practice bakes). Then I went home and did a practice bake on the Fraisier. It is a strawberry lined cake with pastry creme filling for those of you who dont know. As I was getting ready to pipe the filling I discovered I was missing my #8 piping tip in my kit. It wouldnt be that bad if it was needed on 2/3 of my cakes, so I headed back to the baking store on a thirty minute round trip bus ride. Luckilly that meant more time for studying the recipes. At the store, wouldn't you know, they were out of individual #8 tips, but had it in a kit w/4 others. Great. Luckily the lady took pity on me and gave me a discount (specialty store close at 7pm around here, no Wal-Mart's to come to my rescue and it was 630 I had no time to go anywhere else). I also got an extra brush for kicks. Back home, and finished the cake. It turned out like it was supposed to, unlike my first attempt at school.....with the cookie crust you may remember. Redemption felt good. I practiced piping for the rest of the night. 


Sunday. Day 87. The usual. I baked again in the afternoon the Opera cake, probably my favorite cake we've made and an exam bake bonus. I tried to turn on my scale only to find it was dead. I couldn't find the spare battery, I was out of luck. I used my landlady's weight-watchers scale, only she told me its not in actual grams. I pressed on. Then, as I was making my buttercream, I broke a blade on her hand-mixer. Not my greatest day. The odds were not in my favor. I wanted to cry, but carried on and headed out to Argos to buy a new scale and hand mixer. Came back, and tried to finish the cake. I had an issue with the glacage, it wasn't doing what it needed to be doing, and turned out not shiny, but pale. I couldn't take it anymore. I cried. I cried sitting in the kitchen chair, looking at my sad opera cake. I cried at my circumstances, how everything did not seem to be going right. I cried that I was crying over cake. (I know I keep this blog pretty upbeat and positive for fear of what is spread through gossipville, but sometimes, I gotta tell the truth). My landlady came in the room, unaware of my silent tears, but when she saw me, she didn't really know what to do, other than eat a piece of the opera and tell me that it tasted amazing. that made me feel a bit better. I piped some more, cleaned up the kitchen and studied. I texted Dehli and she told me I was worried too much, and that it would all be okay. I talked to the parents as I ironed my uniform. I tried to study my recipes. I had 1/3 down. I chatted with Mel. I texted pics of the 2 recipes I needed quizzed on to dad so he could quiz me. He is so cute. He printed them off, and had copies of the recipes in his hands ready for quiz nation. I got them down. He helped me a ton, and I am glad to have him as my dad. I needed an encouraging word, so I called Mel again. The whole clan got on the screen and wished me good luck. It was a good moment. Annabelle played me some lovely songs on the piano to put me to sleep. I read my notes "one more time" and my bro called me. It was 1230am, but I took the call. All encouragement gladly accepted. Then I truly did read my notes for one more time, and went to bed.

Day 88. Test Day. At 740am. That means be on the tube/bus by 615am to make it there and get ready in time. The test went fine. I had issues with my glacage again, it was shiny, but had lines going through it when it was supposed to be smooth. I was frustrated, but what can I do when you cant go back, only forward. After that 8/14 of my group went to lunch....at a vegetarian place! Yay! Really yummy. Really expensive. Really relieved that the test was over so I didn't care about my salad plate costing 9 pounds. At lunch I told Malta that we should "do something" after lunch. Apparently do something to her meant walk, when I was thinking go to the cinema or something. But we walked. And walked and walked. We walked from school to lunch to Hyde Park through 'Winter Wonderland' (a german themed county fair like thing happening this month) then across the width of Hyde Park to Kensington Palace (where I got a drinking chocolate sooo good) then to the north end of the Park, and down "millionaires road" behind Kensington Palace the entire height of Hyde Park, to Whole Foods (yes the american Whole Foods), to another grocery store, to a bus, to the tube, and then my final walk home. I was so exhausted by the time I got home at 5pm I didn't want to eat/drink/do anything. I talked to fam letting them know how the test went, made some dinner and was in bed by 9pm. I mapped out how far I walked....5.4 miles in one afteroon.  Bananas.  Dad called me at 930, talked to him for a bit before I was really asleep by 10pm.

 Tuesday. Day 89. 8am class. All of November we had night classes, the last week of the term, we have 8am class every single day. Rough. We had a demonstration on our last dish, a celebration cake. We are covering the Fruit Cake we made a month ago (which the staff have been "maturing" ahem for a month for us) with marzipan and fondant & then decorating it to whatever we liked. Then we had TWO classes on decorating it today, and another one tomorrow. NINE hours to decorate a cake! That I am not even going to eat! Sitting in the demonstration class I didn't even care what I made. But for some reason, come the two classes to decorate this cake, I started to care. It also reminded myself why I tell people I don't do cakes covered in fondant back home....a waste of time and no one eats the decoration anyways. Chef Touille was with us, and he didnt even care about it as sugar paste/flower work is not something he is into either. Nevertheless, I cared enough to look up a design on line, plan a motif, and only to have it change through my class a few too many times. I'll keep you in suspense for waht it is.....just incase it changes again tomorrow. Ha! ttfn. goodnight.