Hello to you all, my darling blog readers!

Apologies as always for my lack of activity, I promise I will post the latest and greatest pics soon...

To tide you over, here is an interesting article from a few months ago that I stumbled across this afternoon. Thought provoking and topical, just the way we like it! Anyway, it just paints a bit of a picture of the food industry, and the role that women are playing at the moment. (And makes me a bit nervous- but excited- about starting work in this very environment in the next few weeks).

http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/restaurants-and-bars/wanted-women-20120528-1zeld.html

Happy cooking everyone! xx

A Condensed (Milk) Overview

A big hello and sorry to everyone who has been loyally checking this blog in the vain hope that after 3months  I would post more hilarious stories about my kitchen antics. I'm back! But because I've got so much to share with you, I'm going to keep the hilarity to a minimum, and let the pictures that speak a thousand words do the talking.

First up, here are the pictures from the end of Certificate III. 

We made pies. This was not my favourite thing ever.

 Also, Sausage Rolls! Woo!

Next up came two weeks in one of the TAFE kitchens to complete our "A la Carte" hours. All I really remember from this time is making a ridiculous amount of macarons. "How many?" you ask, "520," I reply. Yeah. 

Yellow Macs!

Red Macs! 

Heart Mac! (Because it wouldn't be a kitchen module without a heart shaped something.) 

 The assembly line for placing one of each colour in their individually lined boxes. 

After our time in the kitchen, it was time to start Certificate IV. Certificate IV promised more advanced techniques and recipes, including chocolate and sugar sculptures and also an assortment of Patisserie items. On the flip side, there is also an insane amount of unrelated theory work associated with completing the program- I'm talking finance, budgets, spreadsheets, marketing and how to lead and manage people. Bring back the days of learning the difference between flours and cake origins!

Week 1- Flans

All of the Flans!

My Chocolate Raspberry Balsamic Tarts 

The insides! 

Week 2- Petit Gateaux

For those non-francophones, Small Cakes! Ideal for those special occasions when you only need cake for 2-4 people! 

 All of the cakes!

 Le Peregal à l'Orange

Crispy base, orange crème brûlée, chocolate mousse, and chocolate sponge, finished with a mirror glaze, chocolate rings and orange macarons. 

 Off centre circle- it really gives the cake a different feel, don't you think?

Week 3- Marzipan Figures

I chose to make 6 miniature Alices (in Wonderland). While this sounded like a good idea in my head, my execution of the figurines gave poor little Alice a slightly blow-up doll vibe. Awkward. 

 Blow-up Alice. 

Week 4-Petit Fours

This week we concentrated on making petit fours. Delightful little bite-size delicacies perfect for the end of a meal. We were individually assigned different "petit four sec" (or dry petit fours- biscuit style) so that we could see the effect of an assortment of petit fours. 

Impressive, hey?

 See that one in the fore-ground? The "Chemin de Fer"? Yeah, I made that. 

The petit four glace are essentially small glazed layer cakes. Between each thin layer of sponge is a layer of flavoured buttercream, which is all then glazed with fondant and decorated. 

 I made Vanilla Petit Fours

 Up close and personal

Gaze upon the glaze and the layers. 

Assorted boxes packed up for sale. 

Week 5- Macarons

Time for some more macarons! This idea did not fill me with delight, as I had recently made over 500 of them, but it was nice to practice making them again, and check out some different flavours. 

All of the Macarons! 

Boxed for sale. 

Week 6- Modern Gateaux

More cake! This time they were larger than the petit gateaux we had previously made, but still had multiple layers, and looked pretty awesome. (If I do say so myself). 

 Siena

Pistachio Jaconde, Apricot cream, Chocolate Cream, Praline Panna Cotta, Apricot Jelly, finished with mirror glaze, Chocolate and Almond discs, and Caramelised Apricot. 

Looking good, cakes 

All of the Modern Gateaux!

Week 7- Chocolate Box

We made a box out of chocolate. 

This is the box from a side view.

 This is a birds eye view of the box

 This is a close up of the decorations on top of the box. 

Week 8- Gateaux Coffee Shop

As a part of the practical component of Certificate IV, we need to complete two "Coffee Shops." This means that we prepare cakes or pastries, and then serve them in a coffee shop style situation from the "Results Cafe" at TAFE. It's $15 for all you can eat cake or pastries with tea and coffee, and luckily for you, dear blog readers, there's one more left for the year! You could come and enjoy the hospitality of the Patisserie 2J crew! (It's on the 8th of October from 1.30 at the Regency Park Campus). You know you want to. 

I made a magical striped sponge. 

 Hazelnut Cream Gateaux

 The selection ready to be put on display

Do you see the cake with the alternating white and brown triangles? That is a Quark Fresh Cream Gateaux. It was like a really light cheesecake, and it was delicious. Consequently, I made it. 

Week 9- Chocolate Showpiece. 

This week was an absolute doozy. We made a floral sculpture out of chocolate. When you look at the pictures, just remember that everything you see is chocolate. Well, not the benches, obviously, but everything on the sculpture is chocolate. Let me tell you how I manipulated solid pieces of chocolate into swirls and petals and mushrooms- magic. 

 The finished piece.

 Magic Mushroom

Flower and white chocolate swirls

And that's it for now kiddies! Next week is our Sugar Showpiece week, which I'm imagining to be like the  M.O.F. documentary I watched a few years ago in which there just seemed to be a lot of smashed sugar pieces and crying. I will not be surprised if next week is just comprised of burnt fingers and tears. Oh! I just looked it up! The doco is actually called "Kings of Pastry." It is honestly one of the best things I have ever watched. This is the trailer. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SmsDpJatMg 

Watch it. And then track down the whole thing. It's wonderful. 

I'll let you all know how my week of weeping goes when I'm made it through to the other side. xx

Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows- Week 14

The week that we'd all been waiting for- Gingerbread and Festive Cake decorating. To explain- we got to make a gingerbread house and decorate it any way we liked, and in the same light, create a cake with any design we liked, providing that the cake was round.

Let me take you on the journey.

Constructed.

Decorated. 

Roof and chimney.

Out the back. 

The other creation of the week was decorating our fruit cake that we made way back when. To begin the process, we plugged up any holes that had appeared from sinking fruit, and then covered it with a thin layer of marzipan. Next up was a layer of ready-to-roll icing. 

My blank canvas.

Next came some royal icing piping, and a bow.

 All wrapped up.

Marzipan Macarons.

To finish it off, some gold and a label. 

Birdseye view.

Side on.

And a handy link so you can all be inspired, just as I was. 

http://www.laduree.fr/ 

Only one more week of Cert III to go! Can you believe it?! Just need to make some pies and pasties and we're done! 

Putting Bread on the Table- Week 13

I have fond memories of enjoying a slice of Beesting from our local bakery when I was younger, back when I had no idea how complicated it can be to create. Happy Monday everyone! Time to make a yeast cake, fill it with crème chiboust, and top it with crispy honey and almonds. I forgot to take a picture of the finished product, but here's the top!

Yep. Almonds. 

Something a little more enjoyable to prepare followed up this monstrosity- Danishes! Yay! We made four different varieties- Apricot Windmills, Cherry and Frangipane Spandauers, Hazelnut Combs, and a Cherry Bar. 

 Some raw dough and fruit delightfully arranged.

Raw cherry bar.  

 Out of the oven. 

Just a minor explosion or two...or nine.

After a relaxing break from bread production, we were back to it, with a Bread Roll production day. We created white and wholemeal dinner rolls with an assortment of grains and seeds, as well as some Lepinja. Watch out Helga's! 

What an array!  

It wouldn't be a Sarah bake without a love heart roll!

Another day, another day for bread lovers to rejoice. To kick start proceedings, Tomato and Olive Focaccia. I don't want to burst everyone's focaccia loving bubbles, but I feel that having creating one, I need to share an ugly truth. The reason that focaccia tastes so awesome is because it cooks in a bath of oil. Not a shallow bath either. The dough drowns in oil and then ultimately fries and soaks it up. Needless to say, this foc was a winner. 

To keep the focaccia company, we also made some Ciabattas. 

Rolls.  

Pide. 

We finished the week with some prep for Gingerbread House week which was just around the corner. We baked our slabs of gingerbread and made some icing to practice our piping skills. Stick around to check out my mad architectural skills. xx