We didn’t win the pumpkin carving competition in school. This was the finished product, the tongue of roasted red pepper grossed everyone out *grins*

These were some of the others

And this was the winner

Chef is already coming up with plans for next year!

It was a nice weekend. DmentD and I spent Saturday, after a breakfast of croissants (rescued from my exam!) bacon and eggs, baking for the Halloween party we went to that evening. Opera cakes, sugar cookies and krispie monsters, and then a sugar brain full of gummi bones!

Then Sunday we spent relaxing, doing not much. Got to see 3:10 to Yuma which was interesting and we caught up on some of the recorded programs we had.

This week at school has been fun, stretching the boundaries of viennoiserie a little! We started with strudel (which is classed as a laminated dough), stretching our own dough which was fun. And then we’ve been making brioche.. it’s high in fat and eaten for breakfast, therefore it’s practically a viennoiserie! The brioche recipe we had was much much nicer than the one we used in the bread block, much more flavour. We’ve made a corrone and galette, which we’ll be making again for the exam tomorrow, and then lots of other variations. The saucisson was so good my partner and I demolished it not long after it came out the oven… before remembering we were meant to show Chef first… so we presented this

Luckily she saw the funny side.. and at least we could attest to it being tasty and delicious! We also made crepes and hot cross buns, which were pretty good, and unlike my previous attempts in Aber not lethal weapons!

Tonight we really are stretching the theme and are making doughnuts and beignets (the French, not the New Orleans version!) as well as our doughs for tomorrow. We’ll also be making the strudel for the exam.

I’m hoping I can do as well this week as I did last week. I got 195 for the practical and stunned myself by getting a full 100% for the theory!

I’ve started looking at externships already. It’s not until next May but I want to be prepared. I’ve contacted a couple of bakeries and had a reply of come back in the new year with your portfolio. So I’m keeping everything crossed, and hoping my class mates keep to their ideas of wanting out of Austin placements.. or at the very least wanting paid placements. Since I’m not allowed to be paid (damn visa!) I’m seeking out the places that will only give unpaid externships for now.. though I’m sure if it comes to it places that usually pay won’t object to not having to! We’ll see. I’ll take the time to build up my portfolio some more and hit them all in the new year until they’re awed and amazed and must have me working for them.