This was a long week.  Not all due to classes and baking but maybe a bit of culture shock added in.  Or maybe lack of sleep has really caught up with me.  Bob reminded me I quit a 30 year career, took 4 days off, moved overseas, left Mosley behind, and have dealt with several out of the norm things including a beetle I lived with for a day and a half.

At first I thought it was a cockroach but after looking it up on the web it might have been a water beetle. (I live next to a restaurant and a Mediterranean market so it probably was a cockroach.)  I can’t kill anything.  Zach Kane can attest to that.  I was working one weekend at the station and found a wounded bug in the hallway.  It clearly wasn’t going to make it and I didn’t want it to die alone in the middle of the hall so I got some Kleenex and brought it to the large potted plant in my office.  I felt that was a more natural environment because at this point I thought it was a cricket.  Zach was working and saw me and confirmed that it wasn’t a cricket and in fact was a cockroach.  Within the hour, they had the exterminator in the building.  I left.

As for this week, I did enjoy some good classes (and some not so good).  We made a Gateau au citron (pound cake) and Madeleine’s.  I messed up my Madeleine’s but my pound cake was good and very yummy.

Pound cake with crystalized lemons and Madeleine’s

Our next lesson was a Genoise sponge layered with raspberry jam.  Everything from scratch remember.  Stand mixers are used only for meringue and buttercream so far.

My butter cream was too creamy for my liking (and normally I love buttercream).  It was too difficult to pipe.  But my sponge turned out really well.  I was really hurried at the end and almost forgot the almonds so that’s why they look jammed on there.  They were.

Inn addition to making a really nice version of this cake, our chef, in demo, also made these in the same amount of time it takes us to make one cake. Tough to keep up.

Genoise sponge roll with raspberry

Wednesday afternoon I joined Joyce at a little restaurant just up the street from me for Dim Sum.  She knows so many good places to go.  I pass by this restaurant everyday and never really thought twice about it but last-minute rush for Dim Sum (they stop at 5pm) was really surprising.

Had a day off on Thursday so aside from studying for my exam, I hit Hyde Park for a 4 mile walk.  Met this guy or gal. Everyone feed birds here.  I suspect this little one was looking for something to eat but I didn’t have anything to offer.

Later that afternoon I joined some of the girls from my group at Borough Market.  Really nice market to find unusual treats (sweets, cheese, fruits, etc…).  I could spend a fortune here but my fridge is the size of a hotel fridge.

One Friday we made Black Forest Cake.  This time my sponge wasn’t the best but I salvaged it.  (Took too much air out as I was folding in he coco and flour.  It happens.)

Black Forest Cake. The decoration around the outside is tempered chocolate with a transfer of color.  This would be a bitch to cut and serve but it looks cool and tastes good.

Again, in demo, while making one of these, our chef also prepared a Fresh Strawberry and Chantilly cream gateau.

This was super good and my breakfast that day.  There were strawberries involved.  Those are healthy.

I ended my week concentrating on feeling optimistic and pulling my thoughts together in a more positive light than they had been over the past couple days.

What better way to do that then take a walking tour of “Forgotten Old London”.

I learned about the great fire of London which some believe (based on where the fire began and where it ended)  was punishment for gluttony.  There are old shrapnel pock marks in St. Bartholomew’s Hospital (founded in 1123) from the war that came much later.  They showed us old roman walls and we stood in a beautiful park that also happened to be the gravesite for 60,000 people who died from the plague.  (They had several plagues and each one was named the Great Plague until the next one came along and then it was called the Great Plague.) They also used to sell wives in the Smithfield Market right along side the cows.  The church didn’t recognize divorce so this was a way to not be with your wife any longer.  Apparently the auctions weren’t always real and the deals had been done prior to leading the lady out with a rope around her neck for auction.  The Smithfield Market area did grow into a festive marketplace over the years until it got too festive and one of the kings reeled it in.  Can’t recall which king.  I took lots of pics but my little phone camera just doesn’t do them justice.  I recommend the tour if you enjoy history.  It was a lot to take in but our guide was fabulous.  90 minutes well spent.

Talk later.

Mel