I forgot to bring my camera to the demo class, so I do not have any photos of the chef's creations. But I did remember to bring it to the practical class, and here is my Black Forest Cake:
I had some problems with my genoise sponge cake (which we made by hand), and it didn't turn out as well as I had hoped (it was not light and fluffy enough). Chef N, who was supervising my prac group, said that I needed to pipe the rosettes closer to the edge. He also suggested I work on my genoise technique and on my presentation of the cake.
The Black Forest Cake is not easy to assemble. It requires a lot of practice to get all the components just right. The chef instructor, when grading our creations during the practicals, is looking for correct texture, taste, technique(s), presentation, hygiene, organisational skills, timing, and good montage (even layering in cakes), etc. Believe me, it is not easy to get everything right if this is the first time you are making the cake.
I needed the whole two-and-a-half hours to get everything done: Bake the chocolate genoise sponge cake (incl. whipping the eggs by hand with a balloon whisk), make the kirsch syrup, whip together cream and icing sugar to make the Chantilly cream, make the chocolate shavings and the chocolate (pine tree) decorations, slice the chocolate genoise into three even layers, imbibe each of the layers with kirsch syrup, pipe the Chantilly cream onto each layer, sprinkle the Griotte cherries onto the cream (and sandwiched between the genoise layers), mask the cake (i.e. use Chantilly cream to cover the outside of the cake), press the chocolate vermicelli onto the side of the cake, pipe eight rosettes on top of the cake, place a cherry on each rosette, sprinkle the chocolate shavings on top of the cake, insert the chocolate decorations, and dust with icing sugar. Definitely very labour-intensive... The next time I have to pay lots for a slice of Black Forest Cake, I won't complain.
PS. Students from my prac group also did our evaluations with Chef H today. It is basically a one-on-one chat with Chef H to discuss our progress, and to get concrete feedback on our own performance in the practicals so far. There were a number of things Chef H wanted me to work on, but overall he was very encouraging, and that meant a lot to me. Because I have never worked in a bakery/patisserie, nor had prior experience with baking & pastry, I am doing all the Basic Pastry recipes for the first time. My first-time efforts tend to be mediocre (when compared to some of my classmates' performance), and I improve dramatically after some practice. That's just the way things are for me. Anyway, Chef H gave me some very good suggestions for improving my technique and speed. I am going to give them a try.
