It's an upside down day

Greetings!

 Remember how we just prepped lots of stuff yesterday? Well today we baked it! (have goodies to share with Davin in my backpack!) 

 First thing we did today was throw half our chocolate chip cookies in the oven and get them baked. Nothing like fresh baked cookies at 8am. I love my life. 

 Next we got our Pure Burre dough out of the fridge and knead it to soften it. We had to roll it out and then make big honkin' cookies. French shortbread is my new fav. We had to egg wash them twice then "fork them" - as chef calls it. Then sprinkle with sugar. mmmm

 Next came the oat cakes. These took some muscles to roll out. Holy cripes! Of course Chef came over and made it look easy, while I'm pretty well bouncing up on down on my dough and nothing is happening. Hard as rock.  He told us to use "our guns" - I don't have guns..I have pythons! *flex* ..see? 

 Then he said "Why do my friends call me 'The dictionary'?.....because of my definition." Then he flexed and SKIPPED way. - Hilarious! There is never a dull moment in this class. Ever. 

 I eventually got all my oat cakes rolled and oven ready. These were going to be getting dipped in chocolate. Hells yes! What did we do next? mmmmm. oh yes! Pears. Today we were going to be making our upside down pear cakes. So we had to peel, half, half those halfs then cut those in to three. got that? 

 Then we had to run lemon juice on everything (keep them from browning to much) ..in doing this task I found out I had little cuts I didn't know I had on my hands. Stingy. Then we had to sauté them because they weren't as ripe as they should of been. Then chill in the fridge until we were ready for them. 

 Making the batter I goofed. We were suppose to cream the butter and sugar THEN add the eggs. I jumped the gun and threw all three in at once. So I had to toss that out and start over. Better to throw out a few eggs and butter and sugar then a whole cake. I was mad at myself though. I know what 'creaming' means..silly mistake. Won't happen again. But the cake turned out beautifully! It smelled so good - If I tripped and fell face first in to this cake I would not be all that upset. They went in the fridge. I think we are going to cut it and sell it by the piece tomorrow in the cafeteria tomorrow. Be there or be square. 

 We had a reservation of 40 people in the restaurant, Didn't affect our group at all but the group in the restaurant rotation had to make a lot of dessert today! When people walk in to the school restaurant there are windows all along the side which allows customers to look right in to the pastry lab. I look out and see one of my old Jr.High teachers! Now the glass is completely sound proof, so all he would of seen was me pointing at him and mouthing something lol. Professional Ashley. *eye roll* 

 I stayed to practice some chocolate piping and to talk to chef about my marzipan figurines. I have to scrap my idea of the princess and the frog. The princess is much to hard and we are on a time limit. He said to keep the Frog and come up with something that goes with the frog. 

 While he was giving us some ideas he came up with the idea of 'the cat in the hat', then said "Or number 1 and number 2!!" I looked at him with a half grin and said "You mean Thing 1 and Thing 2?"  I had tears in my eyes as he laughed and mimed making a piece of poo and a puddle of pee. He said you might be able to pull off making "number 1 and number 2" if you had a judge with a good sense of humor. oh god, French men who mix up their words is one of the funniest things you will ever encounter. He's a good sport about it though. 

 Our table has a game to see how many times we can catch Chef saying "smooth." And when he does we repeat it and laugh. He thinks our game is funny and he repeats it too when he hears us. What's funny about the word "smooth" is with his thick french accent it comes out like "smoose" hehe. He's such a great teacher, serious when he needs to be, very talented and knows how to keep you going mentally with laughter. It's a good balance. 

 It was a pretty good day. Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday, I am ready for some sleep. 5:30 mornings are starting to get difficult. 

Beautiful French shortbread

Drool

A classic cookie. 

Oat cakes pre chocolate

Now they are even better! 

Pears waiting for their cake batter blanket

I DID IT!

It looks so good.

I'm so proud of my upside down cake!