The Moon is in Retrograde and Mars is Spinning or Something Like That

I think school is starting to wear on everyone just a little bit.  The honeymoon is over, but we aren't quite settled in.  This is not stacking up to be a good week, so good thing it's only 4 days.  As Chef predicted, the class is starting to split into 2 factions:  the OCD work horses and the Slackers.  There are still a handful of people that are in the middle, but leaning more toward the non-slacking side of the room.  We have all been together just long enough that people are starting to make comments about and to the said slackers.  While the work horses run around the kitchen at the end of class cleaning and scrubbing, the slackers just, well, slack.  I don't know how else to say it.  They stand around, look lost or even better, look bored.  I don't really know how, in a class of 12 people, you could possibly be bored when we have an entire huge kitchen to clean.  Crazy Pants is all I can say.  Yesterday my friend and I had it.  We were going to say something to Chef and by some miracle she read our minds and talked to the class about it.  We'll see what happens in the weeks to come.

Yesterday we worked on quick breads and made blueberry muffins, banana bread and a horrible pound cake.  Really, it is just a bad recipe, but we learned the method and that is the point.   The muffins turned out pretty good and will be part of the practical on Friday.  My partner and I did well on the tasks at hand, so that's good.

I'm glad these recipes are just for us to learn method and technique and are not the recipes we are supposed to aspire to.  They aren't that tasty.  The pound cake was made in true old school pound cake fashion:  equal parts butter, sugar, egg and flour.  We did get to add a splash of vanilla for fun.  Yay.  This cake is really dense and good for carving sculpture cakes.  Good to know.


Today we made chocolate ganache, chocolate orange chiffon cake and sponge (or jelly) rolls.  The cakes and ganache are for tomorrow, but the cake took forever to make and has about a thousand ingredients in it.  We made the sponge rolls alone since they will also be on Friday's practical.  Great.  It was an interesting item to make.  First, spread the batter about a quarter of an inch thick across a half sheet pan and baked it for about 7 minutes.  Then lay the thin cake out on parchment paper covered with powdered sugar and spread a thin coating of jam over the top.  Next the cake has to be rolled.  This can be as challenging it sounds.  Using the paper to tighten it and a ruler to hold the side down, the cake has to be shaped into a very tight circle.  I guess I pulled to hard because before I knew it, I was making the catch of a lifetime as my roll came spinning off the table and into my abdomen.  I'm really not sure how I saved it, but I did.  My friend just said, Not THAT tight!  Uh huh.  This jelly roll was not pleasant tasting in any way.  We are evidently going to be making sponges for other blocks, so I may try the cake again with different fillings.  The jam we used was just too sweet.

I was also the sanitor today - the person in charge of the cleaning.  I don't like being the sanitor.  For the most part, my classmates asked what they could do and almost everyone pitched in to help anywhere they could (work horses).  Then there are those who kind of just stand around (Slackers) and you have to remind one billion times that their job is to wash dishes until there are no more dishes because they have to drain and clean the sinks.  This is not rocket science people.  I'm pretty sure I sounded like a bossy beeatch.  Hopefully my classmates don't hate me now, but the kitchen should never be a den of slack.  I'm just sayin'.  Cleaning time always makes me wonder what some people's houses look like.  No judgement, just pure curiosity.  I am actually wondering how some people have made it this far in life.  Aren't we all grown ups?  Well, that's enough about that.  Hopefully the next 2 days will be better, though we are decorating cakes tomorrow - not really my favorite thing.  Better things to come for sure.  Hopefully I will survive tomorrow and live to bake another day.  Until then, ciao!

-The Queen of Tarts-