I have classes on Tuesday early in the morning, but Wednesday till Friday's classes starts in the afternoons! So, I had a full class for yesterday, which starts at 12.30pm, and I love it!
No morning dis-orientations! HAHA!
& I made a new friend, Sonya who hails from Bangalore, India and she happens to stay in the same building as me! It's really nice not to be walking home alone or, in this case, ride home alone!
In Bangkok, there are motorcycle riders who earns their living by ferrying you around down the street into your small lanes or apartments or down the road, right to your doorsteps. Unlike in Singapore where buses stop right in front of your block, or the traffic light...Bangkok don't have that. And sometimes, I do dread the 10-15 minutes walk back home from the train station because the traffics is heavy, sometimes water drips on you and you got no idea how contaminated that drop of water is AND the pavements are very uneven.
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| Picture taken from Bangkok Blogger |
Now, it wasn't easy for me to do that, because I'm hardly been on a motorbike before. And my mummy N has been telling me horror stories about how these people (Most are men) they bring the girls off the track to elsewhere and rape them or something. I did consider that possibility which is why I had refused to take them during the first few days and walked instead.
But, as I am getting used to school (believe me, I adapt fast), I'm beginning to feel the weight of school, and boy, it is heavy carrying the folder + uniform (back for washing) plus whatever I have baked for the day! And, I also took note of the street and the lanes, if the motorist were to harm me, I know where I am, and I can jump off. It may sound dangerous, but I am all set, thinking of all the possible ways to escape.
Okay, so, Sonya and myself went to school together!
This time, during the Demonstration Class, I did much better at taking notes and writing down the steps! The best thing about baking, I feel, is that you don't have to remember by heart the ingredients you need or the steps, just remember the techniques and know how to execute it. Because even Chef Marc cannot remember all the recipes by heart, and he needs assistants. All you have to do before baking, is ensuring that you have read through the recipe, take note of any special steps, etc and most importantly,have the ingredients ready as per required.
Like, soften butter and melted butter or cold butter? Eggs to be cold or to be at room temperature, etc.
Also, Chef Marc shares different tips on how to preserve the baked product, how long to keep egg washes and what kind of effect would be observed if certain steps have been skipped.
These kind of information aids in costs saving if you're running a business.
Moving on, we had demonstration on completing the Madeleines, which we had Misc En Place (prepared in advance) the day before, and on baking a Cake Aux Fruits - a fruit cake, as well as on 3 other recipes.
Demonstrations was carried out for preparing Raisins Au Rhum (Raisins soak in rum) which is to be used for making Cake Aux Fruits and Galette Bretonne, another shortbread biscuit with different scoring lines as Sablés Nantais, as well as baking method - this Bretonne is baked together with the cookie cutter.
Chef Marc also demonstrated the steps to baking Cake Aux Fruits and Cake Marbré, which as you can see from the pictures, looked so delish! Actually, they taste equally delish! Usually, the marble cake I've had in Singapore taste like some colored sponge cake, but the chocolate flavour is so much more stronger for this cake! It's a nice dark chocolate pairing with the Vanilla part.
The Cake Aux Fruits is actually a relatively lighter version of the usual fruit cake I have baked back home. The candied fruits was not macerated in rum, only the raisins has gone through the maceration process with dark rum. This fruit cake was also drizzled in base syrup a.k.a Punch au Rhum (Rum Punch) to keep it moist, whereby I had previously use purely just rum to keep the cake moist.
There's not much of a difference, because base syrup involves water, sugar syrup and a small amount of dark rum.
Also, something I've learned from during the demonstration; to allow the above 2 cakes to have a nice cracking in the middle; pipe butter in the center of the batter before baking. Alternatively, you can use a small knife wet with water and slit the center after the cake have been baked for 10 minutes or so; do it swiftly and pop the cake back to bake.
Madeleines, Oh Madeleines! What shell I do with you??
I've never tasted madeleines before, so I cannot say if this is the best ever. it taste something like a very airy, light cake which has subtle hints of lemon (traditional madeleines is made with lemon zest). According to Chef Marc, it is best eaten on the same day as it's being baked, or can be stored for a maximum of one day. He also said that to see whether or not this is a good madeleine, people will always look at the 'dome' it forms, and not at the shell outlines.
The domes is formed only when the madeleines' batter is allowed to be proof minimum of an hour and for best results, to be kept overnight in the fridge - which is why misc en place is required. If there is no domes formed mid way through baking, your madeleines have failed.
For my practical lessons, I had to bake the Cake Aux Fruits as well as make 12 Madeleines with the misc en place batter I had made the day before.
Gorgeous, no?
I managed to get lovely domes, which means nothing went wrong with my batter, but I didn't managed to bake 12 pieces of madeleines. In school, they want to train everyone to ensure that every single bit of batter is being used so that none goes to waste. I had scraped every single bit, but ended up with the last one being lesser than the rest. Each size is about 30-32g only. My last mold had only 15g, so it was relatively baby sized & obviously rejected during the presentation.
I'll have to learn from this, and ensure that during my next Misc En Place project, that every single bit of batter is being scraped and stored.
A closer look at these spongy shell shaped cakes. I love dunking these type of cakes into a piping hot cup of chocolate drink, if you don't already know.
Next, check out my Cake Aux Fruits!
Beautiful 15cm long Cake Aux Fruit, if I would say so myself! Brushed with Apricot Glaze to give it a shine, as well as provide a platform sticky enough for fruits to be decorated on. There's almonds, mango strips, kiwi and cherries.
Does it look perfect in your eyes?
Well, to my chef, it is a perfect cake! (Thank you Chef!) It's not that hard to bake a good old fruit cake, but to glaze it, is hard! I did a rather messy job at brushing, because there's slightly obvious brush marks on the left hand side. Also, I have to remember which areas have been glazed and not to re-coat it, as when the glaze dries up, it will form a jelly like exterior, resulting in lumps.
You can see obvious apricot glaze lumps right below the cherries.
To be honest, I feel so much better at my second practical class; I'm much more organized and clear headed. I know exactly what to do, all thanks to my better written notes. Never mind that I didn't managed to bake exactly 12pcs of madeleines, I'll do better the third time round and keep improving.
Due to the crémage process, which involves combining soften butter & icing sugar (Or brown or white sugar) with a large ribbon spatula, taking care not to emulsify the butter, the fruit cake is able to retain a very wonderful soft texture (and not airy, with holes due to oil bubbling within the batter) as well as release the aromatic fragrance of butter.
Ah, this was delicious! I cannot wait to bake this back home!
I'm having a late afternoon class today at 4pm, and there's only demonstration class today, with practical lesson at the same time tomorrow! Looks like I'll be baking muffins & brownies tomorrow!
Oh yes, it does seems like I've so far touched and baked the very basics, but yes, that's exactly what I'm currently studying on - Basic Patisserie; learning the fundamental basic techniques.
Till then!
P.S
If you're curious to know where does all the baked goods go - don't worry, it's not to my tummy. I've distribute it all to my landlord. =D
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