These were my "exam bakes" for my professional baking course - a black sesame mousse cake with black sesame chiffon layers; passionfruit meringue chocolate tarts and sundried tomatoes rosemary focaccia. Was really thankful that my cake turned out well (the mousse set nicely and the sides were clean) though it was really my first time making it (I was too tired to do a dry run before the exam; though I semi-tested parts of it, but didn't rehearse putting it together).
As for my tarts - my italian meringue was apparently slightly overwhipped and thus I wasn't able to get nice sharp tips (instead, they turned out a little blobby). It was a pity because when I tried it out at home I got really nice sharp tips! I suppose these things happen. The worst bake of all was my bread - somehow the dough was sticky AND I forgot to add my salt. And naturally when my instructors tasted it, they all felt it could do with a bit more salt (and they immediately understood why it was so bland when I owned up about the salt :P)
But despite the little boo-boos, I passed! But I would really hesitate to call myself a professional now - am still far from it. We basically learnt to make a lot of things - but I'd probably need a lot, a lot more practice to replicate all these baked goods again on my own, at home. Not too surprisingly, baking full time can be very physically demanding; and I doubt I would be able to do it for a 9 - 5 job. Regardless, I'm glad I went for the course as I picked up useful skills and got to know some nice ladies whom I can probably bake with next time!
