It's been a busy few days so I'm just catching up now about my day on Friday. Friday was our last day in the Decor rotation - sad face. It was so chill and mellow and enjoyable. Tomorrow starts the bread rotation where I will be going ape shit batty. Stay tuned.
We used all our beautiful flowers. We each got to make an isomalt base in any colour we wanted. I went with a light purple, light pink, white and yellow theme. So I did my base light purple and prayed it would work out for me. We poured them in to these hexagon shapes and let them sit. We also had to make a pressed sugar base. All you do is take some white sugar and add a little egg whites and mix until it comes together, then you press it in to a mould and let it dry. Easy peesy.
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| Our bases |
The scary part came when we had to handle our passtillage. This is a very fragile clay sugar type thing, it dried and then you sand it down to make it smooth. We had to sand it. Everyone was very quiet and focused and all of a sudden you would hear "SNAP! *GASP!* SHIT!!" Everyones eyes would shoot up and just stare in horror at the snapped piece. Oh the sympathy in our eyes for our classmate. It was like someone died.
I the hyper planner made lots of extras because I expected to break some of mine - Didn't break anything! Score! So now there are extras for people who need them.
Next we melted down some clear isomalt to use as our glue to get everything together. This stuff when boiling is about 160 degrees C. I think Chef was nervous we were going to burn our selves to death. He kept reminding us that it was in fact that hot. When sugar is boiling I think it closer to Lava temperatures..I personally think he's a little low on the actual temperature of the sugar. But that's just me and my skin.
Next came the terrifying part of gluing the passtillage pieces on to the base. This is where the sweats start, my hands shake, my heart is racing out of my chest and I just stood there in fear. I needed a plan to get this together. Plan plan plan. Chef told us to do it one way, thinking about his way made me come up with a new easier way to do it! I'm so smart. He wanted us to glue each piece on separately and then reinforce it with the gum paste hearts we made. PPSH, why glue one on at a time when I can glue two!?
I wanted to put both pieces on the flat table and get them placed where I wanted them, glue the hearts on to them THEN glue that whole thing on to the base. Seems so easy. So I told him my idea. While I'm telling him, I'm basking in the glow of my much easier perfect way to get this task done.
SQUASHED IDEA. haha. He told me it wouldn't work and the chances of breaking both pieces was much higher if I do it my way. So of course me being me, I "argued" with him for a few minutes explaining why i think my idea will work. In the end he laughed and said "okay then. You do it your way..go for it and let me know how that works for you." - He called my bluff. He told me to do it. Now I'm questioning my whole idea. It was the way he said it. He also told my group to do it my way. "NO! Don't do it my way! What if it breaks!?" haha damn it Chef. Making me doubt myself.
So I played around with the pieces and did a "dry run" of gluing them together. My way was totally not going to work. Both pieces are completely different shapes and to get them straight on the base you did actually have to do them one at a time. Damn that know-it-all. When he came back in I told him I figured out why my idea wouldn't work and his would. I wanted to slap that grin off his face. LOL. He said " I don't want to always tell you how to do something, I'm not a know it all. I'm open to your ideas and I want you to think for yourself, but I have been doing this for years and with THIS I am right." "yeah..I know. It just made so much sense in my brain. *mumble under my breath* I still think it's a good idea though.." I'm so stubborn sometimes.
haha He's such a good sport with stuff like this. You can argue with him about something but he 99% of the time proves you wrong, with a smile on his face I might add. I'll find that 1% and show him at some point. It'll happen.
So after I got some nerve I went for it! Time to get this thing together. I'm usually the first person to do things in a group, gotta get shit done! So I put some Lava glue on the back of my piece and glued it to the base while trying to move it around in the 5 seconds I have before my sugar sets. You needed to get it pretty bang on when you first put it on, there is not a lot of wiggle room. Luckily I got everything on straight! We had a person helping with some compressed air to help cool things down faster which was awesome! Then we put on the hearts which wasn't as nerve wracking. Once it was on and there was no cracking or snapping I took a breath and relaxed again.
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| It's together! Time to breath again. |
The hard part was over. Next we steamed our flowers (to bring out some shine) and we cut the tooth picks off. Holy toothpicks! Do you know you could kill someone with a flying toothpick!? I'm holding my flower upside down in one hand, and cutting my toothpick with the other hand. These things are like heat seeking missiles! If someone wasn't paying attention they would of lost an eye. "launching in 3...2...1...locked on that persons eye and FIRE!" Holy cripes haha. Everyone had there eyes closed while we were cutting them. The dangers of pastry school. I'm shocked I'm still alive to be honest.
Then came the time to play around and figure out where we wanted to arrange everything. I just placed everything around until I found an arrangement I liked and then simply removed them and glued them on. Success! I'm so very proud of this piece. It's mine, my colours, my flowers my design. Mine. And I love it! My confidence is slowly going up the longer I'm in the course and it feels so nice.
Once it was done I stood back and looked at it. Perfect!..no..wait. My daises are not spaced apart evenly. I just need to move it like 1/4 of an inch. Not.Going.To.Happen. I was ready to get out my blow torch and melt it off to move it but I would of burnt my passtillage. Damn it!! It's the little things that bother me. I just wish I could fix it..It's driving me nuts. oh well! Nothing I can do about it now.
Chef said that at this point in the course we are going to start doing things on our own and will be making things are own. Love it. Finally!
We also did some more cake ideas for skills. I'm getting a little nervous when it comes to skills. Coming up with ideas that are complex enough but simple enough for you to execute perfectly is a lot harder than It seems. I'll figure it all out though :)
Tomorrow we will be talking about the decadence event and Chef will be picking the desserts from the ones we submitted last week. Im excited to see who's got picked.
Anywho, that was my day on Friday. Exciting stuff eh? Time to go prep supper for the hubby who's working today. Chat later! Enjoy the many pictures of my creation :)
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| My finished flowers. |
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| Cala lillies :) |
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| My daises and roses |
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| My finished piece |
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| My base |
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| The top |
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| One proud Chef. |
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