Today was our Patisserie final practical exam.
The nightmare during final exam
I thought I was prepared, although not as prepared as last term. Well, the second part of that sentence was correct. You know how in bad dreams, it feels like you're moving through water and everything is moving really quickly but you're not? It was like that, except I didn't wake up.
The Basic final was a calm (somewhat nervewracking) experience - everything flowed smoothly except for a hiccup with the masking of the cake and some shaky hands with the piping. Today was the complete opposite - it felt frantic but time moved so slowly - at one point there was an hour and a half to go and I thought, "plenty of time!" Whoops.
Hadn't factored in a persistent cough which chose to make itself emphatically known - along with a dizzy spell which sent me out of the room for a bit. I can't remember if I wrote about it, but I went to the doctor - last week? sometime before??? - and she said, "there's nothing wrong with you - plenty of fluids and rest. Oh, and here's a prescription for cough syrup with codeine in it." This should have been a clue, no? But the brain not working as it should - I would like to think it's from lack of oxygen from coughing so much but sadly doubt it - it didn't click until a couple of days ago when I was coughing my way through a cuisine class. This morning one of the chefs asked me if I had taken anything for the cough. Well yes, I had - but an over the counter one because codeine tends to put people to sleep and I thought it would be a bad idea to take some before a practial exam where we all have knives, hot ovens, hot stoves, etc. etc. Oh, and I also didn't think they would appreciate a nose print on the top of my cake as that wasn't part of the accepted decoration, as novel as it might be. I don't remember there being points for originality on the grading criteria.
So - long story short - had the worst practical ever. Ran out of time while piping because I had a problem with the cream - I think it split, in which case it was my first time - during the final. Great...just what I was afraid of, although I didn't think it would happen with this cream. Anyway - had to make a split second decision whether or not to continue piping the border and run into overtime - 2% penalty per minute over (automatic fail after 10 minutes over) or to lose the marks for piping - it wasn't looking that good so I chose to stop. I am going to get killed for the piping and the presentation (strawberries were falling out the side of the cake - I think the sponge might have been overcooked a bit).
Pictures are on my computer of the worst cake ever - I will put them up when I have stopped smarting from getting my butt kicked by a few mls of evil Kirsch, some sticky marzipan and a sponge could have doubled for the discus (sp?) throw in the Olympics. I used to say that alcohol makes everything better - well it does, except in pastry, where it just kills your cream and your cake. I am hoping that the chefs who taste the cake are the ones who like really alcoholic cakes.
So until next time - easy on the alcohol!
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