Lesson 16: Opera

We had our theory exam today and i thought it went well....but i'm not sure. My instinct is not always on my side so WISH ME LUCK!!!

Well today we did a Opera cake, its made with coffee buttercream and chocolate ganache. The sponge is also joconde sponge (a thin almond sponge) soak with coffee syrup.

The chef remark (chef cutie), sponge is good, filling (buttercream) could have spread more, nice piping of "Opera", nice presentation. Good remarks for this cake.

Here is my Opera:

Lesson 15: Pacific

Today i made 2 kind of mousse, strawberry & lemon mousse. Its layered with joconde biscuit, bottom layer is strawberry mousse and top layer lemon mousse.

Taste: Lemon & strawberry really compliment each other coz lemon is sour and strawberry is sweet so its not overpoweringly sweet.

Chef remarks: Good marbling, nice presentation (but fruits need to be put to the sides and not center), chocolate tempering is good. Taste is good.

Here is my Pacific cake:

Lesson 14: Croquembouche

Croquembouche is a cake made of choux puffs, its a traditional french wedding cake. Than we build it like a pyramid out of the puffs. The hardest part of this cake is the nougatine (caramel sugar with toasted slice almonds) and we gotta work with this while its still hot or else it will crack and a lot of patience coz u gotta re-heat it everytime it gets cold. It took us almost 51/2hrs to do this cake. The most time consuming part is the nougatin. I had no patience for the nougatine!! I problems with it coz it cools down so quickly on the marble that my nougatine gets cold and i gotta reheat it over and over again. Than when i assemble it, at first it looks a bit slanted than i adjust the disc and everything turns out fine.

The chef said mine was good. Next time gotta pipe the choux puffs even sizes. Good colour on the caramel. The angel hair is nice (caramel).

Here is my Croquembouche:

after the long weekend

After the 6 days break, its back to class on wednesday. I didn't feel to go back to class but i dont wanna miss anything!

Lesson 12: Marquise au Chocolat

Today we had to make a chocolate biscuit sponge, a layer of hazelnut crispy disc and chocolate mousse. The sponge was soaked with syrup and the cake was glazed with dark chocolate glazed. I wasn't to happy with my presentation..nowadays i'm not happy with the way i decorate it...not inspired at all. The chef comment: Taste is fine, presentation is tought well but didn't execute well. But overall is okay.

Here is my cake:


Marquise au Chocolat

Weekend in Montreal!

I went to Montreal with Laura on Friday (16/5) and got back yesterday night (monday,19/5) we got back a day earlier. We were planning to go back to Ottawa today (tuesday, 20/5) because it was raining and we didn't want to stay in our room the whole night so we decided to go back a day earlier. We had so much fun!!






Ottawa Train Station.





Us in the train to Montreal!





Day 1

Friday, 16/5/08

We reached Montreal @ around 1230pm, check into our hotel and we were pretty dissapointed. We booked it online and it look kinda nice but when we got it was not what we expected, its small and has this dusty kinda a smell. I didn't wanna complain much but Laura was kinda mad about it. And the room is ard US$80/night its kinda expensive for a small room.

It looks kinda nice from this picture.

After checking into the hotel we walked around Ste Catherine Street, it has lotsa stuff there, its like Orchard Rd. There is a lot of people there. And the first thing i bought there is this pretty red dress @ Lucky Brand Jeans, its a US brand.





Than we went for sushi along ste catherine st, and we went back to our room to put our new clothes and than we went for drinks on Cresent st at this bar/resto called Sir Winston Churchill Pub. We stayed there till 10pm. Than went back to our room.



Day 2:

Saturday, 17/05/08


Woke up @ 830pm, we went for breakfast @ Cora's (a breakfast place). I had egg omlette with mushroom & cheese. It was kinda blend and it was serve with toast and potatoes.

After breakfast we went to the Biodome, its like a habitat in a dome. There's the forest section and when you go in you can feel the humidity of it. It has all this animals from the forest like, crocodiles, birds, monkeys and some other animals. Than there's the Aquarium section, where all kind of fish. There's the Artic section, there were penguins and some other artic fish.








Than we went to the Botanical Gardens cause we bought the tickets with the botanical garden, biodome and insectarium. The insectarium was so gross!! There is a lot of ANTS and some other BUGS!!! The botanical garden is beautiful!








Than we went to old montreal. The streets is really cool! You gotta be there to see it! Than around 5pm we went back to our room and around 8pm we went out for dinner at 930pm Ashley and her bf (rick) met up with us at the restaurant/bar. Than at 1230pm they went back and we stayed and party at the club in the bar. We left around 3am their clubs closed @ 3am. IT WAS A FUN NIGHT!!!




Day 3
Sunday, 18/5/08


We woke up ard 1015am we didn't sleep till 5am. Still tired from the night before but we still have places to see & go. So we got dressed quickly and left around 1110am, went to Cora's again but it was full so we had croissants for breakfast. We went to Notre Dame Chatredral, its so big and grand. I was pretty tired so i wasnt in a good mood that day. And we didn't take much photos that day too.








Notre Dame





Art Museum

Than we went to Old Montreal again had our coffee at Starbucks and just chill at the park. Than we deceided to go to the Art Gallery. Its okay but i not an art fan so its okay to me. By this time we don't know what else to do so we just went back to our room and had a nap. When we woke up it was already 7pm. We wanted to go out but it started raining so we went back to our room and ordered pizza, it wasn't that great. We thought the club there closed on sunday and we didnt check the receptionist, so we just stayed in that room. We slept early.




Day 4
Monday, (19/05/08)

We woke up early and had breakfast at Cora's, i had crepe with fruits and nutella spread, its so good! Than we went for our last shopping spree in Montreal. I bought more stuff from Lucky Brand Jeans. A designer bag from Montreal (thats the expensive item that i bought in Montreal). Than when we went out of the mall it started to raining heavily. So we sat at Second Cup (like Coffee bean) and we decieded to go back a day earlier.





We took the 6pm train from Montreal to Ottawa, we reached Ottawa around 815pm. Took a cab back from the train station. Reached the house around 850pm. Rosa came by (vernettes friend) we chill for awhile and than at 11 pm we took a drive to Parliament Hill and walk around the Parliament. It was a nice cold night, we had a nice walk/drive.

AND I HAD A FANTASTIC TIME IN MONTREAL AND WITH LAURA!!!!!!

To: abah & ma nak ngok gambar semua suruh abang masok myspace die, than i ade folder all on Montreal. http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=90007909&albumId=1993217

Lesson 11: Delice Caramel

Today i made Delice Caramel, its lady's finger layered with caramel bavarian cream and pear mousse and in between slices of pears. I have not tasted it yet. But the chef said its good presentation (on the small cake, the big one i didn't temper the white chocolate properly), the big one he doesn't like my presentation that much. Taste he said its good, montage could be better (coz i didn't chill my base cream so it was too warm when i whisked in the whipped cream and it became dense), but he said everyone made the same mistake. Other than that it was a good day.
Here are my presentation:

Lesson 10: White Chocolate Mousse with Blood Orange

Today i made a white chocolate mousse with blood orange. This week is the toughest cake i ever had to make! Its a lady's finger sponge layer with white chocolate bavarian cream and blood orange mousse. In between is a layer of chocolate flourless sponge with sides of "joconde" printed biscuit. The cake is not hard to make but giving the time we had what makes it hard.

Today is not a good day. I was behind and time wasn't on my side! But i did get to finish decorating and stuff. The new chef instructor told me that my lady's finger was a bit overbaked but presentation is good, montage is good and taste is also good.

Here is my presentation of todays' cake:

Evaluation Day!

Yesterday we had our evaluation. It wasn't as bad as i tought it would be but it was kinda bad. I had low marks for organization, hygiene and presentation haizz the most important part i got low points. Other than that my chocolate tempering i got 4pts for that and some other parts i got 3.5 or so. Overall i didn't do bad; total pts i receive 3.28pts..its okay.

Yesterday also we had a new chef instructor supervising us. He's looks young and kinda cute ;P hahahaha now its fun to go to class (its always fun but this is GREAT..eye candy). Yday we made praline millefeuille, its a puff pastry layered with praline crisp and praline pastry cream. For the first time in intermediate i finished first (or second). My organization is good yday, i kept my area clean and work quickly. I was the first one who fininsh the detrempe (puff pastry dough) and the first one to assemble it. Though the puff pastry was a bit underbaked but its good montage, presentation and some other stuff.

Here is my presentation:

Tulips, Tulips and more Tulips

We went to the tulip festival yesterday. It was amazingly BEAUTIFUL!!!

Lesson 7: Mini Tarts & Lesson 9: Plated Dessert

This week i made mini tarts and plated dessert. The chef made a mistake we were supposed to be on lesson 8 instead of 9 but we gonna do our lesson 8 on wednesday.

Here are the two lesson:

Mini Tarts



Pistachio Dacqouise with Fresh Fruits



Warm Chocolate Cake with Cigarettes Tuiles