Completion of Professional Baking Course!

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!

Professional Baking Course - Week 1

I survived 5 consecutive days of full-day baking - 9 more days to go! And because of all the practice in class, I ended up with 2 chocolate ganache log cakes; 1 apple torte wtih crumble top; 1 claire fontaine orange mousse cake; 2 cartoon sponge cakes and some 18 pieces of sweet buns in various designs. It's pretty tiring to bake everyday, but it's also quite exciting to learn how to make so many different types of cakes/ pastries and breads. If anyone is keen on some free food next week, please let me know! Will be most happy to share or give my baked goods away :) 

Special baking sessions

Past bakes include heart-shaped cookies for Valentine's and Almond/oatmeal crisps!

As some of you may already know, I recently started volunteering as a pseudo baking "instructor" with adults who attend the St Andrew's Autism Centre. Every week we attempt simple recipes that can be made under an hour, including wash-up time - but because there aren't that many different things with very basic steps that can be finished in about 30 - 45 min (aside from cookies) I am starting to run out of ideas!

First (failed) attempt at macarons

Once in a while, I feel like I'm up for a baking challenge. It was one of those days when I finally decided to give macarons a try. Moreover, my macaron cheat mat (which comes with little macaron wells to facilitate the piping) from TANGS had been sitting in my kitchen for quite a few months, and would likely sink further into the depths of my baking drawer and fade into oblivion if I didn't start to use it soon!

Macarons are notoriously difficult to make, so I tried to follow my macaron recipe book instructions religiously. It helped that the author provided pretty detailed step-by-step instructions, but didn't help that I still managed to forget certain steps in the end (when I remembered and did it, it was probably a tad too late). 

Pomegranate meringues

 

When C first sent me the recipe for pomegranate meringues, I was doubtful if I could find nice, large pomegranates in Singapore. I actually have a pomegranate tree right outside my house (my Dad frequently calls the shrub/tree 红花 because of its vermillion-red flowers) - but have never tried harvesting the pomegranates from my tree as the species we grow in Singapore produces rather tiny pomegranates. 

From my experience - the pomegranate leaf seem to be more useful the fruit, as many Chinese seem to believe that they can be used to ward away bad luck after attending funerals. Since I was a child, the SOP after attending funerals was to sprinkle water droplets from a pomegranate branch on myself before entering the house. Anyway, I digress ;)

Chocolate Earl Grey Tartlets

These tartlets looked simple enough to make - with pie crust made from chocolate graham crackers and not from scratch :P And with the use of high quality, high cocoa dark chocolate and half the battle is won ;) They turned out relatively scrumptious, though the chocolate somewhat overpowered the faint earl grey infused cream.

Meringue Kisses

These were supposed to look really sweet, pastely and smart.

But they turned out pastely but kinda pudgy without the smart sharp ridges that give the meringue kiss its elegant form. As the batter could not quite hold its form upright in the end I made some into blobs/ swirls. I blame it on our humidity!

Am not entirely sure what went wrong - the humidity (especially at this time of the year!) probably played a part; but perhaps I also didn't beat my egg whites till they were sufficiently stiff.

So there - my maiden attempt to make meringue kisses... maybe it would be more apt to call them meringue blobs for now :P