The Two Month Mark

I've officially been in Pastry School for two months (or 8 weeks), as of today! I'm happy to reflect that I've absolutely loved it. I keep thinking, it's absurd that everyday I get to spend 6 hours doing what I love most! Of course, there have been many frustrating moments, and projects I would care not to repeat, but I would expect that. I can't believe how much I've learned in this short amount of time. My skill set has grown exponentially and I can't wait to learn more. I know the difficulty and level of expectation jumps quite a bit next week in level two, and hearing the level three students who are about to graduate discuss the four day final, and wondering how they'll ever get it done is a bit intimidating. But I know, I'll be fine!
My only current concern is partner related. I have this great fear I'll by chance be paired with the one person who I believe would be detrimental to both my experience and learning. There are a handful of people I would prefer not to work with since our methods are very different. But this one person, who continually will short change her partners in attempt to get ahead herself, I really cannot imagine working with. I imagine for example being partners with her for the petit fours section. We get to design our own themed petit four for our exam. I'm looking forward to this (along with all the independent projects), but having her as a partner could ruin the whole experience. I normally would just "suck it up," after all, learning to work with people you dislike is a valuable skill. But in this case, I don't believe I could. I realize that the probability isn't super great that we'll work together, but I still think about it. And wonder, if the occasion comes in a section such as petit fours, or plated desserts, should I say something? This has happened in level 1, and the chef agreed, but I hate to be "that person." Hopefully, nothing happens, but I sort of want to have a plan in the event that I need to deal with it.

This weekend I'm meeting up with some classmates to work on our piping skills, mine are fine, but could use some work and at least this way its social!

Dobosh, layered chocolate buttercream cake with caramel chips.

The whole cake

Sacher cake; layered cake with apricot jam-easily the hardest thing I've made. The cake itself involves a meringue, a creamed butter, and folding it all together in attempt not to induce too much gluten, followed by an apricot and chocolate glaze (this particular chocolate-fondant glaze is near impossible to get right!).