Practising for the Baking exam & Mother's Day

Hello Dears,

I hope You all right, and didn't get any flu like me during these extremely hot days. I can only wonder how I managed to get this, when every other normal people enjoyed the sun, and they got tanned and I got a cold instead... :( 

Anyway I am recovering, I have some days off from my trainee program, so I am at home, reading books, and when I feel a little bit better I am baking of course. I have my first baking exam next week, with 5 types of pastries. 

During the exam I only have to bake 1 of them, but it will depend on luck which one, so I really need to practice more.

1. Chocolate cake --> I did it so many times before, I don't think I have to practise it more, so this time I didn't bake it at home. (Like these were my previous creations)

2. Walnut & Poppyseed Crescents in Pozsonyi style --> I wrote the recipe for that here on the blog  I tried a new technique to brush the top with egg but it didn't turn out well, as previously, it should have a fragmented coverage, as the top should crack) but I am happy to try now, so I will know how not to do on the exam day :D ) 

It should look like this: 

And as I have too much filling this time, I mixed the rest with chocolate souffle ingredients and bake these. The top was muffin like , but lower it was soft and moist, chocolaty with poppy seed. :)

3. Pyramid slice --> This is my first try, and I am quite happy as it looked nice. It's kind of a chocolate cake, only it has a special cutting technique, that creates the layers to be vertical to the plate. 

  
In the pictures you can see some of my bon bons as well, that I made for Mother's Day as a gift. 

4. Indiáner - I only bake mini versions of them, that you can see next to my bonbons on the plates. It's a chocolate covered dessert, which has whipped cream in the middle. It's really a retro dessert here, 1 of 10 pastry shops has them but only for nostalgic reasons. I made it so many times at my previous trainee program in the café, I don't really like it. It needs too much hustle, the sponge is a difficult one, you need two hemisphere shaped sponge for one dessert. Then You make a hole in each. Then boil jam and use it to stick them together and cover the whole. (Yes this point it is so easy to burn yourself) And then you let it dry, then dip them into chocolate, or at the exam into chocolate fondant, which I absolutely hate, it's melted sugar 100% with a little bit of chocolate just to color it, eeeh) Then let it dry again, then cut the 1/3

 top gently and fill the hole with whipped cream. And the final result? A nice chocolate donut with whipped cream. 80% more hustle than a simple chocolate cake slice with whipped cream on the top, and tastes the same.... You know what I mean? I like baking interesting desserts that take making more than the average if, and only if they worth it. I think it doesn't... 

Here's a picture of a real Indianer from a pastry shop to see:

5. Bohém slice --> I already done it twice. It's a nice chocolate cake as well with peanuts in it, which makes it more Ferrero Roche like to taste.  It has 3 layers of sponge with 2 layers of chocolate cream, then it need to be freezed, then we cut it to slices, dip it into real chocolate and write "Bohém" bohemian on top. Why it is called bohemian I don't know, but it is definitely tasty.

 So these will be on my first baking exam. On the bigger one, which will be in the fall, I will have 45 pastries to know by heart, and I will have to bake 3 at once. 

For Mother's Day besides the pastries, the bon-bons I surprised my Mom with this beautiful flowery bush, they already planted it. :)

Take care, and don't get a flu! :)

xoxo: Hajni