Week 20 - Assessment Day

Last day of school for the year 2012. This is our assessment day. We had to make 7 items for assessment. Some things were pre made and some had to be made fresh. 
There were so many of us in one tiny kitchen and it was quite stressful because you are always worried that you can't get the equipments, oven space or ingredients. 

I was partnering with Susy and I think we work well together. We have a good rhythm and flow to our work. At the beginning of the day, we were a little stressed because we couldn't find our pre made sweet crust dough. We were a little disorganised and made some mistakes here and there. But after a while, we got our rhythm back. 

First thing that we started was the Mango Cheesecake. The base of the cake was a sweetcrust pastry which we couldn't find. I wonder how our dough disappeared! Anyway, luckily we got some from a friend, otherwise it will take too long to remake it. The mango cheesecake was a no bake cheesecake and is set with gelatine in the fridge. It takes a long while to set, that is why it's the first thing we made. 

Mango cheesecake

 Ok, you are probably wondering why there are canned peaches on a mango cheesecake. Well, we wondered as well. The school was cutting cost and didn't get us real mangoes, will be my guess. We got canned peaches! It was so frustrating. 

Apple Strudel and Cherry Clafoutis

 Our apple strudel came out pretty OK, i guess. No big issue with the apple strudel except we nearly forgot to add in the egg when making the dough. Ha Ha... Luckily we realised in time. Cherry Clafoutis are little tarlets with cherries and custard filled and baked. They came out quite nice looking.

Linzer Torte

Linzer Torte, the finishing doesn't look very nice. Why was the icing sugar so uneven on top? well it is because the sift that we were using was broken. It had a big gap between the net and the ring and once Susy dusted the icing sugar on the torte, the icing sugar came out from the big gap. She didn't know it was broken. 

Sacher Torte

 Sacher Torte was probably the one that I was most unhappy about. First of all, the cake was baked and frozen a few weeks back. We thawed the cake but somehow our cake got stacked on while storage and was flat on one side. That means we had to cover it up with thicker apricot jam and ganache to make it even. Then I made a mistake by pouring the chocolate glaze which was not warm enough on the cake. It was so hard to spread the glaze and make it even. To save the cake, we had to freeze it quickly and pour another layer of glaze over it. That makes it 2 layers of chocolate glaze on an already very thick ganache cake. Oh well, at least I am happy with the butterfly that I made to decorate the cake. 

Tart Marguerite

Tart Marguerite was an interesting dessert. The base was made of puff pastry and the top was choux pastry that was piped on top to make little cases to be filled with cream patisserie and fresh fruits. At least for this one we got fresh berries. 

Cafe Deluxe

Cafe Deluxe was a mousse gateau. The side was a jaconde and inside were layers of coffee sponge cake and coffee mousse. The mousse set nicely and was smooth. So it is considered a success. 

So many cakes to take home. Luckily I had friends to help me eat them. I didn't eat any of them. Ha Ha. 
Term has ended and now it is time to enjoy my Christmas break. There will be more baking at home during this break! Happy baking everyone!