Week 7: Cake, Bread and Charlotte

This week was a real mismatch of activities. We usually have a theme, like cake or custards or tarts, but this week, anything went. It was also unusual in that we ended up having two practicals in one day and three practicals over all in the week. It was plenty busy for me.

Our first practical this week was a black forest gateau and I am actually really proud of how mine turned out. We worked with tempered chocolate for the first time to make a collar for our cake and pretty much everything went well. I ended up donating both my black forest gateau and my mango charlotte to my rugby club’s bingo night ad raffle fundraiser as prizes and they seemed to go down well!

Next practical was bread, where we made soda bread and dinner rolls. I neglected to take pictures, oops. I was pretty happy with how mine turned out though. I filled some of them with sun-dried tomatoes and olives and the rest had to be in various different shapes, such as crowns or knots or whatever else we fancied trying. It was good fun and one of the most relaxed practicals we’ve had in a good while.

Then on Friday we made our final exam dish. The mango charlotte. Oh man I hope this one comes up. I loved making it and want to again and again to be honest. It was great. We made a thin biscuit cake base and sides, then filled it with mango mousse, a coconut cream insert and then topped it off with more mango mousse and a passionfruit glaze. It was just incredible and so much fun to make!

All in all, good week had. Would do this week again.