Final Exam, The Assignment

Yikes the final exam is going to be hard! We have to make two cakes or tarts (one 6in and one mini version), 24 chocolates, 24 petits fours, and 24 pieces of viennoiserie. We don't get to choose what we make, instead we are randomly assigned the four recipes we will make. Our final grade is the average of our grade on the written exam, the grade our chef gives us on how we are working during the final exam classes, and the grade awarded by the guest judges who evaluate our exam. The guest judges are real chefs from outside the school; they evaluate us on the taste of our baked goods and on our final showpiece.

I have to make a 6in and a 3in lemon chiffon cake with lemon curd filling and basket-weave buttercream. I also have to make two dozen cherry danish, two dozen mini lemon curd tartlets, and two dozen pieces of chocolate covered peanut butter nougat.

I'm happy about the tartlets, I'm really good at making them. I'm happy with the nougat because it's definitely easier than bonbons and it's really delicious! I'm not thrilled about the danish, because they require a lot of last minute work (as do the tartlets), but they are fine. I like the lemon chiffon cake and it's not too hard to make. I can use the same filling for the cake and the tartlets, so that's not too bad. The real problem with this set of items is that I have to do basket-weave icing on both cakes, which is difficult and time consuming and should be done the last day because it can't be touched up if it get smudged when it is stored. I may do it the second to last day and just store them really, really carefully. Hopefully that'll be okay.

We also have to make a showpiece to display our large cake and half of the chocolates and petits fours. Our theme is "my imagination". Even though it's very open ended, I'm not sure I'm thrilled with it; I'd actually prefer a little guidance. I'm leaning towards something related to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory because every time I think about the theme I start humming the tune of "Pure Imagination," the song that Gene Wilder sings when he welcomes everyone to the chocolate factory and shows them the room with the chocolate waterfall.

In the interim, we have our wedding cake project (I'll tell you more about that soon). We started it yesterday and finish on June 4th then we start our final the next class...have I mentioned yikes!

Update: Read about my final exam here.