"Guys, when it go wrong. Do not desperate."

So Chef prefaced this week as being "a very challenge" if we were to miss even one day. I was all prepped to study study study.
And then I got the most amazing surprise. My Best Friend, author of the Love Tour and Reflect What You Believe and my long-distance partner in crime, surprised me as a belated birthday present. She has been here with me everyday this week! And I have still managed to learn something! Everyday when I would normally be stoked to stand around in class after I am supposed to be home and in my loungewear, I am itching to GET OUT OF THERE. It has been so wonderful to have selfish time with someone you usually have to share every time Moozh and I head home to Cowtown. We've been able to hang out and talk and drink tea and make crafts with pop rocks. (It involved rimming a glass. Booyah.)


Here's a rundown on what Moozh and I have been up to since I was here last.

Moozh made cream puffs and lamb stew one night.

He also made breakfast for dinner which consisted of mascarpone stuffed French Toast.

We made soufflés on Monday. Cheese (Gruyere), Vanilla Cream and Chocolate.

The chocolate was the only I managed to snap before it began to collapse. The cheese was great -if you like stinky cheese. (Be advised, you go to culinary school and stinky cheese is in everything. No cheddar up in here.) The Vanilla Cream tasted vaguely like vanilla scrambled eggs which was…weird. The chocolate was awesome, though. Very light and airy. Not eggy. Win. We also made a chilled lemon soufflé that I think was my favourite out of them all. And the advanced pastry chef liked them enough that he featured the ones we made in the restaurant as a dessert feature. Woot!

What has followed in the days since, when I have company of course, has mostly been prep. We made a lemon pound cake yesterday that was very much like pound cake. I didn't know this but the name 'pound cake' derives from the original recipe in England that called for one pound of flour, one pound of butter, one pound of sugar and one pound eggs. It's also known as The Four Quarters cake. One POUND of butter.

Today was fun because we began to learn the assembly of cakes, which is just as important as the proper baking.
We learned how to properly crumb-coat or 'mask' which is simply a thin layer of buttercream on the outside of the cake to keep any crumbs from getting onto the outside of the cake.

Then we learned how to fully ice and decorate the cake. Throughout the entire process -cutting, filling, masking and icing- I have never felt so uncoordinated. Everything else we have learned thus far I have felt like a beginner but today I just felt ridiculous, waving around offset spatulas and serrated knives. "Chef! What am I…What am I doing!?"
I went for a more monochromatic look, simply, minimalist. What I forgot about minimalism is that it shows ALL YOUR MISTAKES.

For a first try, I am happy with it. I realized that my general aversion to excessive icing kept me from playing around and really decorating up my cake. I am the person at the party that scrapes all the icing off the top of the cake and then dissects each layers so as to simply get just cake. Others did really impressive rosette work and piping.
Chef did some major piping.

 Tomorrow we ice our cupcakes, we finish off our opera cake, we make two mousse cakes, 

Opera Cake from Hardian Nazief

Also on the weekend I made cream puffs for some friends we were having over. I definitely feel more confident that I know what I'm doing.
Before the bake:

After the bake:

Filled with pastry cream!

I have been very blessed this week with simply quality time. The cakes continue next week and then we move on to chocolate!

Find a friend. Find some pop rocks. Brainstorm. Repeat.