Baking - Alhambra & Sacher

Omg.

You know how someone gives you a surprise, and you're really surprised till the point that you don't know how to react?

Chef Marc gave us all a surprise today.

He happily announced, casually that today's practical..was going to be a white exam.

*Cue dramatic music like there's heavy thunderstorm and you've just remembered that you've forgotten to bring in the laundry hanging out to dry, and you know for sure, that mummy's going to scream at you when you gets back home because all her dry laundry are now wet. *

Me, being a Singaporean, my first reaction was "OH SHIT.", then upon checking the recipe and mind processing how many components is involved, I went "WA LAO EH!".

Well..considering there's only 2 weeks to exam, I'm sure I should be appreciating the mock exams and all, it forces me to take notes mentally, and to remember only the key points, that way, I'll be more mentally prepared during the final exam on actual day.

Actually..I don't hope for much..I just hope that all the chefs will cut my entremet on that day, give a smile and nod and pray hard that they will take a big bite, and then take a couple more bites because it's so good, it's worth the calories. Judging by more than a hundred students I supposed, taking the exam on that day, the chefs will have more than enough entremet to taste, and if the colour or texture doesn't look good, they will not even take a taste. =( I pray hard I'm at least good enough to entice them to try! =D

So, after that casual shocking newss Chef Marc carried on with his lesson; he did the demonstration for préparation de L'extrait de café, Alhambra and Sacher.

It was relatively easy to do the coffee extract, I'll never purchase it off stores in future, but instead use a good brand of coffee to do my extract. Just boil water and sugar together till it's syrup and add in boiled coffee. It's a super bitter extract with the coffee taste in the after taste.

Next, we have the Alhambra, which is the entremet for the practical a.k.a white exam for today. It's a hazelnut sacher (a sponge chocolate cake) with ganache centers and ganache glaze, piped with ganache and topped with tempered chocolate decorations.

It's relatively chocolatey (I am sure my mummy will love this cake! Will be baking this cake when I'm back home, for her!!) but instead of the previous sponge I've done, this is relatively denser/heavily. It's like a true blue chocolate cake. The ganache layers in between was just right, not too rich or too much...it's fudgey!

Then, Chef Marc finished off the class with a demonstration for Sacher. Made about the same way with the Alhambra, but just slightly different, it uses pate a bomb as one of the component to mix the sponge as the base, then a thin layer of apricot jam is used as the filing, before being covered with chocolate mousse and glazed with ganache and decorated with chocolate bits.

Between the two entremets, I like the Sacher the best. The flavour of the apricot and passion fruit base syrup with the dark chocolate glaze just go so well! It's a beautiful combination I've never thought of trying before.

We left for lunch before returning to school for class at 12.30, and then in the meantime, memorise the steps to baking. STAY CALM & BAKE; my new mantra for 2013. HAHA! 

Ready to see what I presented during my White Exam??? =D 

Check out my tempered chocolate decorations made from last Tuesday's class!

This practical was interesting. Instead of using our brushes to glaze the previous times, we actually glaze the entremet by pouring the ganache (warm and liquid at 45ºC) over the entremet and letting it drip and coat completely. It was so much fun, but fun came at a price - I dirtied my uniform on the front when one of the whisk roll down from the bowl and smack me right in front.

I'm happy with doing anything, but it gets on my nerves when I dirty my uniform, having to wash them, and chocolate stains are the worst! They leave a light brown mark on the whites, no matter how you wash them. Maybe I should trust Pink and go hunting for Vanished O2!!

For this recipe, I had to blanchir the egg yolks, sugar and hazelnut powder till they're lighter in colour and then beat egg whites and sugar till I have a firm meringue in another bowl. By the end of it, I had really sore arms. Then, we have to do the syrup for brushing, ganache for the filing and the ganache for glazing.

We had to layer the cake into 4, of 1.5cm each, then spread one ladle full of ganache around the cake tin before putting in the layers, and repeat till we reached the top. If we did over mix the batter before baking, it will collapse; resulting in a much lower cake volume, and unable to cut it into 4.

After the cake is chilled to allow the ganache to set properly, we then pour the ganache glaze, which includes glucose for added gloss,, over the cake completely covering every part of the cake. Before smoothing the top using a offset large palette knife.

Sounds like lots of work, isn't it? In between the glazing and cutting, before baking and after baking, we have a lot of bowls and tools to wash - this is the organization part. We have to be organized and neat. Sometimes, I wash the things up while another friend (usually Sonya, my partner) wipes it dry.

And most of the time, I get a really sore back from bending down too much. The sink is slightly lower and too deep, so I have to bend a little to retrieve the bowls and whatnot.

On hindsight, it was a good thing I practiced my piping with the exact small star tip during the weekend, so this time round when I have to pipe the decorations for this entremet, I was much better than what I had done previously for the Moka cake; although my line has to be slightly more straight. it looks like a derailed train slightly at the end. =P

I'm quite happy with my product. The Chef in charge, Chef Aum was pleased with my work too! He mentioned that the sides and the look of the entremet was very nice and straight, it looked like a box, which is what we're after, and my piping was a good job, of equal size and very nice. But, he also commented on the glazing part, that I should also clean up the sides to make it smooth and even.

I was quite puzzled by this comment; my sides is like envelopes, resulted from smoothing the top using the palette knife, where the excess ganache will be 'pushed' down and gently overlap the sides again. Not sure if you could see, but Chef Marc's demonstrated piece has also the same marks on the sides, albeit faint, but it's visible. I guess I have to be careful when pouring the glaze, and to smooth the top and sides the minute I'm done with pouring.

Because if you touch the ganache any later, you'll risk damaging the smoothness of the ganache.

Oh well! I get better every time with more practice! =)

One last look of my cake. Majorly proud! *beaming with joy!*

Like what my classmate, Sonya had said, "We had jumped from baby steps to adult steps in a mere matter of 1-2 lessons difference!" and I couldn't agree more!

I also felt like we were practicing the baby steps previously - like muffins and madalines, croissants and tarts...and then WHAM! BAM! We started masquering cream cakes and chocolate glazing over cakes. We basically jumped right smack into layered cakes. It's not really very progressive, in my opinion,  and this is like what? 2 weeks to exam???

Imagine sitting for O levels after your teacher taught you how to spell and read in the two months, then how to write for the last month and BAM! sit for major exam in two weeks' time! SAY WHAT??? Okay, enough of ranting. I'm sure I can handle the stress; just remember to breathe in and out and stay calm!! On a good note, I'm heading home in another 2 weeks 2 days!! YIPEE!! 

Till then!!


P.S
I would like to also, dedicate this cake I've made, to a lovely friend of mine - Mabel Lau, and I would like to wish her a very, very happy & blessed 21st birthday. She's a very kind hearted, sincere and beautiful inside & out kind of girl, and I would like to take this chance to wish her every happiness in the world, and may everything be smooth sailing. She certainly deserved it. I'm so sorry I can't be there to join in the celebrations, but I'm sure she'll have a GREAT time!! HAppy birthday once again, my dear Mabel! *hugs and kisses!!*