a job!

Happy Monday evening my friends!

 We are heading in to week two of my work placement. It's going really well so far. Ive been given free range when it comes to decorating, which is a little weird and nerve wracking to be honest. In my last job there was not much creative freedom. Things were what they were and you did what was on your production list. Which was perfectly fine, thats just how things were run there.

 At my new place the owner bounces ideas off the bakers and picks our brains to come up with ideas. I was told to decorate some cookies for mothers day and to come up with a design for some cupcakes. She started laughing when I stood there like a deer in headlights. "really?..just do what I want?" "yes! You have creative freedom on this, play around and see what you can come up with." - shocked. I always have so many ideas in my mind, but as soon as she said that my brain went blank. Come on brain! Get your shit together, we have work to do!

 Today I made a peanut butter pie with chocolate ganache, a key lime pie, I did some of the decorating for the other baker and I made royal icing and started outlining my mothers day cookies. While I was making the key lime pie I asked Kate if she added any colour. For some reason customers don't understand that when you make something with limes its not naturally green. The green colour thats in lime anything is added people. Anyways, She said just a tiny little drop because the colour is very intense and concentrated. well duh, I've used gel colours before. The only problem was this was liquid, so I thought "oh its not gel, maybe I can add a touch more..." Shouldn't of added more. I start swirling my tooth pick around the custard and I feel that all to familiar wave of heat hit my cheeks. "umm..shit." Everyone starts laughing and kate says "haha omg!! I told you just a drop!" The other baker looks at me and says "You must be a terrible liar, you are as red as a beet."
 Even if I didn't admit to my toxic green mistake my cheeks would of given me away. In the end the pie didn't look to bad, it didn't turn out as green as I was worried it was going to. Only a drop next time. Lesson learned.

 I sat down with Kate this afternoon and was offered a job! Exciting! She said she is so happy with me, I have a wonderful personality (some people might argue this..) , I get along so well with the rest of the staff and they love having me around. She said I'm very talented in the kitchen and now that I'm here there may be no reason for her to have to do the wedding cakes anymore (AH!..this could be a challenge). We also talked about me going to the markets as she's been accepted in to a few of them.

 I'm also going to do a few shifts up front to make sure I get full time hours. She already has two great bakers and after the insane tourist season is up things get quite slow, so this is necessary if I want hours. I'm perfectly happy doing front of house as well. I feel that working for a small business its important that you know how the whole thing is run from the kitchen, to cash, to serving and bussing dishes. Thats why I wanted to work for a small business, to get the whole experience of owning your own bakery. I'm over the moon excited and I can't wait to see where this leads me!

 Life is so busy right now, but its so wonderfully exciting and new- I say BRING IT ON! Davin opens his store on May 8th. I've seen him for less than 4 hours in the last 4 days, he's giving this new store everything he has and I hope it pays off. He loves this company. People in this town seem to be excited about it. Lets see how opening day goes! Go SportChek!

 Life here so far has been pretty good. The weather is absolute crap and I'm still itching to get out in the kayak! I was whacking around some golf balls the other day, gotta get ready to go golfing with the aunts!
 The only upside the city has to the country. No ticks. I don't get overly grossed out by bugs, but ticks.. I just lose my mind and they are everywhere here! *shudder*. If I ever get one on me you may hear my screams back in halifax. ick.

 Anywho I think thats the quick jist of whats happening here with me. Just wanted to share my exciting news!

 Have a wonderful tomorrow.

Life on the other side

Hello there!

 This is going to be a few posts in one.

 First about our very last day. Cleaning the lab, our final written test and food!

 On our very last day of school we had to clean the lab and decoration room. People were all ready on top of cleaning the lab so I moved in to the decoration room and started to work in there on my own. I knew we were messy when we tempered chocolate...but how did we manage to get it underneath the tables? and on a heat lamp? and so far up the wall I had to get a step stool to reach it? That my friends  is the talent of the pastry chef student.

 After a few hours that place was sparkling clean. yay! Then we had our last test of the year on frozen desserts. I've been studying for this for 3 weeks. Got the test in my hand, scribbled my name on it..doing good so far. Read first question. Brain gets up and leaves. Crap. haha.

 One of the questions was "What is a machine that makes ice cream called." - *shifty eyes* 'This is a trick question. It can't be Ice cream maker...thats to simple. But that is what it is. '
..I looked around the room and it was so easy to tell who was on that question because they were also looking around the room making "What the hell?!" hand gestures and looking just as confused as I was. Such a simple question. The answer? Ice cream machine or Batch freezer. Got it right! Score! It was the very last day, my brain was no where to be found, trick questions are not okay.

 After the test we made pizza! hell yeah! Chef made the dough for us. We built our pizza and there was salad and drinks (wine, beer, pop) - I love school.

 Oh! Leona asked him how we all did on our black forest cakes. He said everyone did really well. Then she asked who had the best one. Chef said "Ashley did". I nearly crapped my pants! I DID IT! The last project that I spent so long on, planning and figuring out flavours and textures. All that work paid off. I am so proud of myself!

Jean lic making us pizza

11 am is not to early for wine! 

My beautiful classmates enjoying lunch...april a little to much  haha!

Leona and myself :) 

 It was a good last day. Hard to leave the school. It felt really weird. For 8 months my life revolved around that school and now...nothing.

Chef Jean-Luc and myself. 

 One of the best teachers is in that picture. How he's been teaching for so long and still have his sanity is beyond me. Some days we were brutal, I know I had my days. Luckily I rarely got yelled at. When he did yell I usually laughed at him or told him to keep it down. Great sense of humour. I learned a lot and I'm very grateful for his time and expertise. 

 Now new things! 

 We are down in bridgewater now. I'm actually loving it so far. Once it warms up I know I will love it even more (KAYAKING!). I have started my work placement. I'm liking it so far. Didn't do any baking my first day. She actually forgot I was starting on monday...thought it was the next week. Surprise! haha. 

 On my first day I did inventory to get to know the products and where everything in the store is located. I cut out 96 parchment circles for the cake pans, and I re typed some recipes that I would be doing. I was ready to get in that kitchen! 

 Today I got to make some fillings and icings. I made shortbread pie dough (vanilla and chocolate), I made chocolate syrup, I made lemon curd...sort of. More on that later. I made caramel sauce, more on that later. I made espresso shortbread. Tomorrow I will be making butter creams. mmm. 

 If you have been following my blog you may remember my hate for lemon curd. I had trouble with it in school..something always went wrong. Pain in the ass. Today I followed their recipe. Did it work? No. It just wouldn't come together and gel. Kate told me to fix it...crapping my pants I searched my brain on ways to fix it... and I did. I'm surprising myself lately. That last school project really boosted my confidence, thank god. 

 Then Kate and the other baker were talking about their caramel sauce and why it doesn't taste good. Its all crystallized and separated. She asked me how I think we can fix it. And I fixed it! I pointed out what they were doing wrong and showed them how to make it properly. When she tried it she said "PERFECT! smooth, buttery exactly what it should be! really well done! Thank you." - huge sigh of relief! I did it!! Day two and I impressed her with my skills. Lets hope by the end of the 5 weeks I end up with some sort of job. 

 My day is done by 3pm (awesome!) so I was able to come home today and go outside to enjoy the sun with some super cute pups! 

Finnegan and Casey

Look at that handsome boy

My new home. How pretty is that!?

Life is going well! I'm calm and happy and doing what I love to do. Could not ask for more right now (expect maybe some sunshine and double digits - come on mother nature!) 

 Have a wonderful night! 

The end.

Hello readers,

 Today was a bittersweet day. Our last day of school. We presented our Black Forest cake and we got our portfolio back.

 Before I tell you about my day today, let me tell you about my day yesterday.

 Yesterday our job was to make our interpretation of a Black Forest cake. I had been planning my cake for a few weeks. I had a plan and I was going to get this done!! I was so excited to do my cake because it would be mine! First thing to do. Make my chocolate cake. No problem. Next, make cherry compote with honey and lemon. Done (and delicious!!)  next, make dacquoise. Easy. Next make honey and kirsch soaking syrup. Easy. Next make cherry glacage. Done. Next make anglaise for my vanilla mousse. ..oh that mousse.

 My anglaise was perfect, it was chilled, I added my whipped cream....liquid. I whip the shit out of it. Liquid. Frack! I needed to add an extra 3 gelatin leaves and leave my mixture in the blast freezer to semi set before I piped it in to my cake ring. I was doing so well until It came time to do that mousse. I've made mousse lots before, so I'm wondering if it was the recipe....who knows.

 Then it came time to build my wonderful cake. I sliced my cake in to three and put one slice on the bottom and soaked it. Easy! Then I put some of my cherry compote, then a dacquoise, cake, cherry compote....okay..starting to run out of room in this cake ring...let's skip the dacquoise and use the last piece of cake. Then I piped around the inside of the ring and over the top with my mousse and put it in the  freezer.

 When I was walking it down to the freezer I was worried. This isn't going to work, it's to high it's over the edge of my cake ring. I'm not going to be able to put glaze on it....I'm just going to leave it. I go back to the kitchen to clean up, I can stop thinking about my cake. I can't leave it...I didn't build it properly. It was eating me alive.

 I drop my dishes on the table and take a jog down to the freezer - gotta fix it! Luckily it was just starting to freeze. Phew. I carefully scrape off  the mousse from the top of the cake. Then find the edge of the chocolate cake and start peeling it up off the compote. At this point, I have cake all over the place and my brain is screaming "WHAT DID YOU JUST DO!?" ..I'm fixing it. Shut up brain.

The layer of cake I took out of my cake ring...fix. fix.fix.

 I get the layer of cake taken off and I smooth out my compote and put a thin piece of dacquoise on top. Perfect height now. Room to glaze it tomorrow. Cover it with fresh mousse and put it back in the freezer. Ahhhhh. I feel so much better. Sigh of relief.

  Now let's talk about today.

 First we finished our last rotation! Sugar work. Our group built an underwater sugar piece. I shouldn't be allowed close to something this breakable. I broke it...twice. Still loved building it though.
 We finished our little fishes, I named mine Gus. And hes so dang cute. I also made a girl one with eye brows and everything. I accidently left her at school. Hopefully she will still be there tomorrow!

This is Gus.

Our center piece!

Saras fish on the bottom and Aidens fish on the top

Leonas small cute guppy on the top. Gus on the Left and Aidens fish on the right.

I love it. I just wish I hadn't broken all the blue sugar..

Now back to cake...

 I had to give myself little pep talks to just stick with my original plan. Seeing everyone's cakes I was starting to second guess myself. No, do your plan..this is your idea. Do it. DO IT! I warmed up my cherry glacage (glaze) and ran it over the top. Then did some white chocolate lines. I wanted my cake to look modern and clean. I made a white chocolate decoration to add some height but it snapped while I was taking it off the asatate paper. Poo. Oh well!

 Then we had to cut a piece and present both the cake slice and the whole cake to chef. You had to explain the components of your cake. Then he tasted it. He took the first bite of mine and a few chews in and he has this look on his face. Oh god. He walks over to the sink and spits out a cherry pit. Oh my fucking god!! All the blood in my body rushed to my face. I can't believe it.

 He looks at me and says "there is always one." ...."yeah..it had to be mine...crap."

 So here is a lesson for you guys. If the cherries you use say "pitted" - they are lying to you! ;) haha. The real lesson is to always check your cherries. Don't assume there aren't any pits.

 He really liked it though! He said it was really nicely balanced. Sweet and enjoyable but not so sweet you couldn't eat a whole piece. I was over the moon excited and proud of myself.

My Black forest cake!

So proud!



The inside. A chocolate Ginoise. Almond Dacquoise, Sour Cherry lemon and honey compote, vanilla mousse and topped with a cherry glacage..

Chef has a rough job....

 We also got our portfolios back and I did really really well! 100% on that bad boy. What a great way to end the year, a burst of confidence. I needed that before I start my work term.

I cleaned out my locker....how much shit can you stuff in to a locker? Holy lord. Backpack, tool kit, bag with recipe books, two bags with my chef whites. I was not about to take two trips...it felt like my shoulders were separating, but I made it to my car in one trip! Two trips is for suckers!

 I sat in the car for a few minutes. It's over. I did it. That was a fast year. It's been such a blast. I learned a lot and I'm so excited for the next chapter.

 We are going in to school tomorrow to clean, do our last test, and have a pizza party. Done.


 I don't think this blog will stop here. Maybe it will take a new turn in to my recipes and creations. I'm not quite sure.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my year in pastry school! I've loved writing about it. Xo

Pastry chef Ashley Naugler