Happy Holidays!

Finally! Exam week is over and  freedom ensues!

I must say, this week wasn't easy. I even felt like breaking down and crying at one point, but it is all done and I did pretty darn well, if I say so myself.

The first two days concentrated on baking, prepping, and finishing a sponge cake and a red velvet cake. I really did not want to spend the time tempering chocolate to make another lattice roll so I opted out and instead topped my cake with an extra snowflake from the red velvet cakes. I think it looked better like that. While it is fun to make the lattice roll, it seemed out of place before.

We ran out of the premade carrots for the carrot cake so most of us had to pipe cream cheese carrots. A little anemic looking, but I think you can still tell it is a carrot.

Wednesday was marzipan day. This time we had to make 12 each of bananas, apples, pears, strawberries, oranges, and peaches. So much fruit!

On top of that, we had to make three marzipan roses with two leaves each.

Marzipan doesn't take long so compared to the previous two days, Wednesday felt relaxing. We used the extra time to prep pie dough for Thursday.

Thursday Pie day. The worst day of the week. I'm not sure about you, but I still have yet to get pies down. Or maybe pies just don't want to be understood by me. My crust for the lemon meringue pie kept breaking over and over again. I had to remake it three times!! I was so frustrated I had to take a moment to breathe or else risk an angry cry face - the ugly kind, and no one wants to see that. I cannot send enough hearts to S who made the lemon meringue filling and meringue topping while I fussed over the pie crusts so that when the crusts finally turned out right, we could finish them up right away. Also, hearts to V who gave us her extra dough as I used up all of mine! Can I say "Yay for teamwork"? Yes I can. I'll shout it even. Saved my day. :)

While the apple pie ended up being a bit of a disaster (the filling burst out in several places, but I managed to patch it back together), the lemon meringue pies were great!

Disaster apple pie hiding in the background

The last task on our examination list was another fondant covered cake. The previous one I had made was my first time working with fondant and covering those corners was a pain in the derrier! YouTube to the rescue! V and I found a youtube video about covering a purse cake just like ours. It really helped and we managed to get that cake covered perfecty. :)

I decided to make a panda purse. Chef thought it was Mickey Mouse and another lady called it a polar bear. Really?

V made a Chanel purse. There was amazing detailing in the zipper and the individually made pears on the CC logo!

My favourite purse - S's alligator purse! I just love the mouth! So creative.

By today, most of us had already completed all the tasks and were just helping with cleaning the lab room in preparation for next semester. What is one to do with a leftover cookies base, meringue, and chocolate? Make a s'more pizza of course! Cookie base topped with toasted meringue, melted chocolate, and more toasted meringue. One delicious sugar rush!

So sweet, but so good!

Leftover roses from peoples' exams

The ridiculous amounts of sugar we ate this morning may or may not have contributed to a sugar high for V and myself. :)

Afterwards, the three of us went out for a celebratory lunch at a korean restaurant. Bakers tend to crave salt by the end of all those sweet sweet days. :)

Salty bibimbap goodness

Until we meet again, happy holidays everyone!