KITCHEN TEST! EEP!

Greetings!

 I'm very happy right now because I'm in my sweat pants, typing my blog and eating cake. Seriously awesome.

 Today was an interesting day at school. Today was "test" day in the kitchen. We did not know this was happening. I guess it wouldn't be school without tests. Chef did a demo of some chocolate piping we will have to do for halloween cakes on friday. Then he said come get your sheets. Looking at them I was confused. It had the rest of the days of the week and then a list of things we were suppose to do each day.
He starts reading the list "you will all be doing individual work today. This is a test!" *PANIC!!* "You need to each make, 6 bird cages out of sugar.." *JUMP FOR JOY!*
"You will need to make chocolate chip cookies using 2 eggs, figure out the recipe.." *gulp*
"You will need to make white rolls using 500g of flour, figure out the recipe.." *GULP*
"You will need to do a sponge cake as well before Friday.." *Sigh of relief*
"And you will also need to make shortbread dough for the cookies tomorrow."
My biggest concern was just getting the math right. And It was really not that difficult (Thank god for calculators!) For the bread our original recipe called for 3kg of flour and we only needed 500g. So we just had to divide everything by 6. Easy. Then for the cookies we had to use 2 eggs which was 2/3 of the original recipe..This one I had to ask for help. I asked him what the math was behind this one and he said "I don't know. I don't do math.." *Blank stare at chef* "..You divide it by 3 and times it by two." "okay! Thanks chef" - I can do that.

 I find it so funny. Growing up math was a huge hurdle and I struggled with it from the time I entered school to the time I graduated. I swore to never enter a profession where I had to do math, and now I'm in pastry school doing math more than I ever thought I would. My skills are definitely getting better as my confidence grows. :)

 Luckily we started with the sugar cages. Cranked those out in no time. Then we did our bread (by hand) because that needed time to proof. The thing I love about making bread by hand is when you get to slap it down nice and hard on that table to get the gluten to form - what a stress reliever! And when you follow it with an evil laugh it makes it even more enjoyable. Try it some time.

 Next came the cookies. I love me some chocolate chunk cookies! Then we made the shortbread dough. They both got wrapped up and put in the fridge and will be baked tomorrow.

 We got our rolls rolled out and in the proofer. Then we finally got a break. I love break time. I get to eat and I love to eat. I got to try some of my friends lebanese food that her mom made. Delish! I've never had lebanese food, I'd love to now. mmm mm. Then back to the kitchen!

 Chef showed us how to use the ice cream maker. Very exciting. And our homemade ice-cream (we made the base last week..we just ran out of time to finish it, so we did it today) was SUPER yummy. Very smooth and nice.
 Funny story: Chef overheard me telling Sara that when I went to the bathroom I wasn't paying attention and I almost completely missed the toilet seat and ended up landing on my thigh haha. He shakes his head and walks with us to show us how to use the ice cream maker. I take a piece out to clean it and drop it on the floor. I go and wash it off and try again. I drop it on the floor again. I go and wash it. Drop it again, but I caught it this time! I glance up and see chef looking at me and he says "jesus ashley, first you miss the can now you can't hold on to anything.." haha. Totally true. He doesn't miss a beat.

 CHRISTMAS IDEA: SOMEONE BUY ME AN ICE CREAM MAKER!..please :) AND thanks!

 Then we made our sponge cake. I almost goofed that up by forgetting to add my sugar to my eggs (I would not of been the first person to do so today..) BUUUTT luckily I caught it in time. High five brain! While those were baking we had customers in the restaurant which means we had orders coming in for service. Luckily Chef had our cakes that we made set aside and we just sliced those up and sprinkled them with icing sugar for service. The testing was more important. I love putting food out to the pass and tickets and the whole nine yards! Love love love.

 Chef said we could bring some cake home with us. YIPPIE! so I sliced a piece and brought it to Davin at work for his dinner. He texted me saying it was "amazing." yay! I couldn't finish my piece so Its in the fridge, I'm sure he will finish it when he gets home. How he stays so skinny I'll never know. Lucky bastard.

 I need to go finish my laundry and work on my new marzipan figurines.

ps. I didn't take any pictures of our work today, So enjoy this picture of me eating my cake.

Yeah. It was that good.