I win at life Part 1

Today was a day for winning at life.

In the morning, I made French pastries. In the evening, I ran a 4k race. Both for the first time!

I'll talk about the pastries first. The very lovely and very ladylike (cuz she dresses nice and takes tea) Sarah M and I went to a French dessert cooking class that we found on the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival website. She to further explore her passion for baking and making nommy food, me mostly for sh1ts and giggles.

Well, not JUST for sh1ts and giggles. I like eating nommy food, so thought it would be nice to actually learn how to make them, and also, it was something  I had never done before.

The class was run by Sandra from Chateau Cuisine. She does regular cooking classes - like macarons, croquemboche, French regional cuisine - at the Sandybeach Centre in Sandringham. Due to a bout of wrestling with the antiquated parking machine (why won't you take my coins?! Damn you! $*!@$%^^@#%) and a game of 'Let's Try Not to Get Killed by Cars and the Lycra Brigade on Beach Road', we were about 10 minutes late.

No matter. We got straight into it. Today's attempt is to make four desserts: chocolate eclairs, mille feuilles, and two types of cakes. Can't remember what cakes they are because I left the class folder in...class. Hmmph.

Getting into it.

First we had to make the crème pâtissière for the eclairs and mille feuilles. We made a chocolate one and a vanilla one. Here's Sarah M mixing the eggs and sugar for one of 'em.

Whip whip whip, whisk whisk whisk

Then we made the batter for this cake thing. We put the mixture into cute little camembert boxes. Sandra had a heap of those boxes. Q: How much camembert must one eat to keep supplying a class with camembert cake tins? A: There is no such thing as too much camembert.

I liked how Sandra had already divvied up the ingredients into little containers and bags, so that we don't have to measure anything ourselves. If we did, I've a feeling we would still be in class.

Two volunteers (Sarah M included) cut up puff pastry (quality homemade stuff that came in a massive sheet) for the mille feuilles. I poked holes in them with a fork *stabby stab stab*

We also made the choux pastry for the chocolate eclairs, which was a workout in itself. Ours didn't turn out so well because some of our flour ended up on the stove :(  So it was rather eggy and slightly runny. But we piped them out anyway.

Whipping up choux pastry. Requires big guns.

Glazing our eclairs

This is what they should look like:

Another team's eclairs

Yet another team's eclairs. Damn professionals.

This is what ours looked like:

Slightly sad little baby eclairs

Eclairs in the oven!

The closest I'll come to having a bun in the oven.

Here are the results. Again, this is what they should look like:

Light, puffy, golden brown babies

This is what they shouldn't look like - ours:

Rejects from eclair school.

Runts of the litter, hang together.

At least they looked light and puffy (I think this one shat itself)!

Shiny egg glaze makes everything look better. Unless it's on your face.

They're ugly, but like a deluded proud new mother I can't stop taking photos of my fugly babies.

Now on to the fun part. We assembled the mille feuilles - pastry, top with copious amounts of cream, pastry, cream and pastry. Slap more cream on the sides, top with icing sugar. Nom nom.

They might look like infected snot blocks but I assure you they are delicious.

View from above. Snot blocks covered in dandruff. Mwahaha.

Then to fill the eclairs with the chocolate pastry cream and top them with a chocolate fondant.

We impregnated our eclairs with chocolate

Then covered them in mud.

Our eclairs look a bit very retarded and deformed.

Baby eclairs, with faces only a mother could love.

Focus FAIL.

Now, to dress our little Camembert box cakes. We glazed them with a bit of jam, then added various berries as topping. Glaze with more jam.

Naked babycake.

To dress your babycake first glaze it with jam

Me about to glaze my babycake

Paint, paint, glaze.

Then, add berries and pistachios.

My dressed up babycake!

At the end we got to take home what we hadn't already stuffed into our faces. We didn't have time to do the fourth dessert, but that's okay. I had already seen enough eggs and sugar to last me a week. Some people's cake thing didn't cook properly, which made them sad. Apparently the ovens in the kitchen aren't the best.

I couldn't fit any more eclairs into my boxes (And I had two boxes) so I stuffed it in my face. And nearly fell into a sugar-induced coma. Nearly.

Box o' pastries!

Bringing home our babies.

And the taste verdict?

The eclairs were a bit too chocolatey - we were afraid that there wasn't enough chocolate cream to fill each eclair so we went a bit overboard with the icing - but they were still delicious. Some would argue that as long as there is sugar and cream (and chocolate), all will be good.

The mille feuilles were delicious! If I do say so myself. Haven't tried the cake yet, will do so tomorrow with a cuppa. While watching Fringe (That's when I'll win at life Part 3, I know it).

Well, that was my morning. After all the excitement and sugar, I got ready for the Brooks River Run. Which is where I win at life Part 2.