Continue reading »]]> Well, after the successful completion of my introductory baking class at GBC I decided that baking would be yet another hobby that I would actively pursue provided there’s enough time and energy to do so. I spent a lot of time looking at the offerings and tried to figure out how each one could fit into my already hectic schedule. Eventually, due to the fact that I seemed to have more events/parties/invitations landing on Saturday afternoons/evenings I decided to take a class scheduled for Sunday afternoon. Between the cookie class and the bread class I opted for the bread one thinking that I might be more likely to meet someone from my old class. Upon arrival…nope: I didn’t know anyone. Actually there was one person there that knows me from Markham RR. Small world, eh? I haven’t coached her (yet) but at some point I gave a talk to her clinic regarding race day preparation. In any case, in the class I ended up with a totally brand new partner and after a slight rough start we were successful with the execution.

Pretty cool, eh? I got to take home half of this. Almost looks pro. There’s something about doing it there in class that I have trouble replicating at home. No, I don’t think I’m imagining it. Perhaps it comes from having a partner there who’s able to act as a second pair of eyes to verify everything. I don’t know. When I try to execute these recipes at home I end up bungling something a good percent of the time. Last night out of boredom (as it often happens) I tried to repeat what I did on Sunday. I didn’t want to do the whole thing so I cut the ingredient weights in half. I had to do a bit of extra work with regards to the yeast. In class we use fresh yeast, but here at home I have the active dry stuff. The teacher said that the conversion was that I’d only need about half of the active dry yeast to replace fresh yeast. Well, all right then. So, I took the weight in the booklet and cut that in half. As things were mixing I added more water to get things going. I really must have added too much. The resulting dough wasn’t all that tough. It was quite soft and sticky. I could have added more flour to balance things out, but I chose to just work with it. Heh. Well, after proofing and baking the resulting loaves were sort of flat. When I ate them they tasted a little odd. The crust wasn’t quite so good. Nope, not a good result at all. I had to analyze my moves to figure out what went wrong. Well, just like the last time I had to do an ingredient conversion prior to cutting the amount in half, I forgot cut the amount of yeast I needed in half. Yeah, and the wet dough made things hard to handle. Eeeeeeeeeeh. I know I can do better. Thing is, I’m now stuck with a lot of average bread. I’m sure I can do something with it like make an awesome bread pudding. All the same…bah! I know that if I want to get better I have to practice, so I don’t mind. In any case, this is something I enjoy. The next few weeks are going to be some tasty ones.

Continue reading »]]> I really should have started writing this post a few days ago, but I didn’t feel like forcing myself to do it. The words weren’t flowing. Well, here I am on the final day of the year and I really need to get these words out. This year, 2011, was a bit of a harder one than the last. I remember declaring somewhere that it would be a year of buckling down and riding out tougher times. I was right. That’s not to say that this was a bad year for me. I’m just likely to label it as a challenging one. Did I rise to the challenges thrown at me? I think I did.

Anyway, enough blabber. In depth text follows…after the jump!

January

When I read back through the posts I wrote during this month, nothing really stood out to me. On the surface it seemed to be a status quo month for me. I was coaching the half marathon clinic back then, and that was good. I was also taking an improv class back then, and that was good as well. I do remember the one instance of throwing my boot at a teacher. Thing is, there was an undercurrent of stuff happening that I didn’t write about, except in a cryptic post or two. Basically, I was on the hunt for a new job at the time. I had had enough of the job at my old workplace and figured that staying stagnant was serving no one. Of course, I didn’t want to announce it or make a big deal of the hunt at the time, hence the weird posts.

February

This was an interesting month for me. Geez, I was a bit of a basket case. At the beginning of the month I gave my two-week’s-notice to my previous employer. My interview had gone well and the new company wanted me. Things happened really quickly. During the period where I was wrapping things up I was feeling odd. And after my last day I was actually feeling blue. It’s hard ending 4.5 years of service just like that, isn’t it? Luckily I had my improv classes going to distract me.

It was during this month that I had the final class show for the series of short form classes that I was taking. I also had the final class show for the beated script class that I was taking. I remember both class shows as being awesome. It’s so strange feeling the kind of energy you do up on stage. The audience is there, watching, and taking in every moment. Crazy!

March

March brought me to the end of another half marathon clinic. The race in Burlington was cold and wet, but it was great. It was the first half for many clinic members of mine, and I remember feeling immense pride at bringing them across the finish line. It didn’t matter that I almost got into a crash on the drive in. Pff.

I also started my new job this month. I think immediately I felt like I was fitting in well enough. At the time we also had visitors in from the UK so we were eating out constantly. The side effects were unfortunate, but regardless I felt like we were all getting along just fine. Anything would have been better than where I was before in terms of my mental state on the job. Uh huh.

April

Back in March, for kicks I participated in a small short film project for a friend. After a day of taping we left it all to him for processing. It was our goal to submit it to a small competition to see if we could win a prize. Well, when the event rolled around in April we actually won. Sure, the audience was sort of stacked with the director’s friends but all the same it was still fun to have it recognized. Besides that, improv classes continued on. I was taking a musical class at that point and that was challenging me in ways I didn’t expect. Taking a class like that is a good way to get over nervousness. I learned that ultimately it’s worth it to take a chance because even of people see me fall flat onto my ass it’s not the end of the world.

May

Hmm…I think this month is even more status quo. I see a lot of posts about overeating. I think during that month I hadn’t run for about two months and it was starting to affect me weight wise. It was a rough period, for sure. Ugh, and I see that there was a post about the side-effects of being backed up for days. Oh man, that was HORRIBLE. Resolution should not have taken as long as it did. Damn.

I continued to bake a lot that month, including these Irish cream glazed shortbread cookies. This seems to be the month where my friend convinced me to take the baking course at George Brown. I wasn’t sure at the time, but at least the seed was planted. And why not, right? Might as well get proper training for something I like doing.

June

Yet another class show took place this month. This one was for the second beated scene class I took. It was a mafia-themed show and I played a well-intentioned butcher that was caught up in this world. The costume involved me wearing an apron over a tank top. Seemed like I looked the part. Sure, why not? Overall it was a fun show and I enjoyed playing the role immensely.

That same night I had another gig across town. So right after the show I had to pack up me gear and take the subway out to the east end. All of the students from the short form class that I was with had banded together to for a troupe. We wanted to continue playing with each other and put on shows to keep our skills up. It so happened that that was the night of our first booked gig that featured our new gameplay format. It was a success. This format has stayed with us right through until the end of the year.

Ah, and if I wasn’t busy enough June also marked the start of another coaching cycle for me. This was a big group, and it was the first time I coached the half marathon group through the summer. Interesting times.

July

Our improv group was able to find a small theatre location down in a trendy part of town that allowed us to put on shows. In July we put on our first show at that location. It was a big success. It was enjoyable for all of us involved. We were all proud to be doing it on our own terms. We knew that we had something good going so we all have been working hard since to keep the momentum.

 August

In August I attended my first ever wedding as an adult guest. This was a rather big moment for me for the obvious reason. It was also a chance for me to really gauge my ability to handle social situations. To my relief I seem to have handled myself really well. It was a beautiful ceremony, for sure.

Coaching continued. I gave a lot of the talks during that month. I learned that I always need to prepare. Winging speeches is not something that should be done–especially if people have paid proper money be part of the clinic, know what I mean? All the same, I think my honest and open approach to coaching has saved my behind more than once. Uh huh.

September

My baking class at George Brown started this month. That meant that I always had a surplus of baked goods on hand. It doesn’t mean though that I stopped baking at home. I still baked a lot of great things, which included this cake. I was asked to make a surprise cake, and I sort of went all out. This was my first time making a fondant cake and I amazed myself. This was a crazy undertaking. I was proud of these results.

In September I participated in the taping of another short film for that same friend. My role involved me being creepy and wearing weird facial hair. We taped it in the heart of Toronto, so there was a lot of interference, but it was still enjoyable. All in all we really only got one scene taped that day, but at least my part was done. Up until now, the film isn’t done. With winter here, the remaining scenes won’t get taped for a while.

October

Oh wow, so October was a huge month for me in terms of beginnings. The big thing for me was really my introduction to CrossFit. My friends from Michigan had been doing CrossFit for a while and and they were adamant that it would be a good match for my personality. At the same time, my manager told me that he was signing up for the CrossFit bootcamp program at his local box. With influence from those two sources, I signed up for the bootcamp at my box. That month was a tough one, but so rewarding–so much so that I signed for a membership. Amazing stuff, really.

This month was also the end of the summer half marathon clinic. The clinic culminated in a race along the Toronto waterfront. Again, I was so proud to have so many people new to the half marathon cross the finish line. I was also immensely proud to have attained a new personal best.

November

So…this year I turned 30. Do I feel any different? No…though perhaps I feel like I’m free of any of the shackles associated with the label of being a 20-something. Sound odd? It should–I haven’t figure it out myself.

My baking class was in full swing in November. We were producing some genuinely amazing stuff, including this black forest cake pictured here. Sure, it looks cool, but if people only knew: it wasn’t entirely difficult to piece together. There’s a procedure and all, so really the hard part if just following instructions. That’s basically how the whole class was, really.

I got to test out my progress from the bootcamp this month, too. After one month of hard work I repeated a benchmark workout that we had done at the start of the bootcamp. When I repeated it I had cut my time in half. I swear, it was like I was possessed. I knew I was on the right path. That’s why I’m still doing CrossFit today.

December

And that brings me to this month. We had one improv gig this month. We had originally planned to do a Christmas themed show but due to commitments we weren’t able to get that show off the ground. Since we already had the venue booked we decided to spread the burden of performing for the whole 2 hours by inviting other groups to perform. We offered slices of time in the theatre. That night, three other groups got time. As a result, that night was relatively stress-free for us. We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.

So there you go. That was my 2011 in condensed form. If I could summarize it all up: 2011 had many improv gigs, much bitching about weight, a lot of coaching people to succeed in big endeavours, and a fair bit of packing on muscle. I hope that 2012 will bring more success and further transformation into who I am meant to be.

Continue reading »]]> Eh, what a mess. With plans to visit my parents today I decided to make a cake. It just so happened that the last time I made a black forest cake they didn’t get to try it so I decided to attempt to do that. The recipe for devil’s food cake I have in my book from George Brown produces two cakes, so I had to cut the quantities in half. All was well until I got to an ingredient that I didn’t have on hand. Without milk powder, I had to make a substitution for real milk. Generally the ratio of milk powder and water is about 1 to 4. The book called for 40g of milk powder. So, to replace 40g of milk powder you’d also remove 160mL (water is 1g to 1mL) of water and replace both with 160mL of milk. I mixed it all according to plan. The batter was actually rather smooth. I was kind of shocked. I poured it into the cake pan and put it into the oven. It’s supposed to bake for about 30-40 minutes. By the end of that time i checked the oven but it wasn’t ready. It actually took another half an hour or so before I decided to take it out. After letting it cool I took it out of the pan to discover that it didn’t rise as much as I had hoped. I found it strange but I pushed forward anyway. I took out my serrated knife and started cutting it into layers. Since the cake didn’t rise much the layers were pretty thin. The cake was ridiculously moist and fudgy. Well, I had to find places to lay the layers. I put one on a cookie sheet which was rested on a ledge. That…was a mistake. The cookie sheet tipped over and the layer landed on the floor. The cake crumbled into a heap of stuff on the floor. Well, with only two thin layers I decided to just restart.

I started again and quickly put everything together just like I had done last time. It wasn’t until after I had mixed in the milk that I had realized my error. I had converted the missing milk powder correctly but I forgot to cut the quantity in half. I was using way more liquid than I needed. Well, with the milk already incorporated I figured that if I add a bit more flour everything would balance out. There was an open plastic bag of what I thought was cake flour. I added a handful or two of that to the mix. It wasn’t until after that I realized that the bag contained baking powder and not cake flour. Of course, baking powder is a leavening agent, and with a heck of a lot more of that in there I expected the cake to sort of explode. I tossed in some proper cake flour like I planned and just hoped for the best.

I plopped the cake pan in the oven and waited patiently in my room. After about 30 minutes or so I started smelling something burning. I went to the oven and saw that the cake had indeed risen well above the cake pan. It wasn’t quite as bad as I had hoped though. I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, though I did continue to smell something burning. Upon further inspection I saw that the other side of the cake pan did indeed overflow. The batter had spilled onto the bottom of the oven and formed a pile. It looked as if the cake had taken a shit right at the bottom of the oven. The cake dump was starting to smoke. I had to shut off the breaker to the smoke detector. At that point it was already well beyond midnight. I didn’t want to set the thing off. I opened the patio door, turned on as many fans as I could and started venting the oven. I took the cake out, and managed to get the cake dump off the floor of the oven. It so happens that my smoke detector is on the same breaker switch as my bathroom circuitry. I wanted to turn on the bathroom light, but when I did my smoke detector went off. In order to not have it go off at 1 a.m. I had to keep that switch off. So yes, peeing in the dark is about the culmination of a night of bad baking. I have to metaphorically flush this cake turd and move on. Can’t always rock it, right?

Continue reading »]]> Earlier today in baking class I arrived one minute before things began. When I reached my table I saw that my class partner hadn’t yet arrived. She’s arrived late before so I thought nothing of it. Fifteen minutes in it became clear that she wasn’t arriving. By that point I had already scaled out some of my ingredients and was already getting things started. Chef came by to check in on me and asked why I didn’t partner up with someone else who was also flying solo. I just said that I was still expecting her to arrive. And in that moment I basically cemented the fact that I was going to be working at it alone.

In class, things are a little bit chaotic. Everything has to fall into place in a timely manner. It’s not like baking at home where I can afford to take my time. No. There are plenty of others in class. All of us need to get our things done at about the same time so that we can put whatever we’re working on in the oven at the same time. One late pairing can set the whole class back. So, for me today, doing things without a partner was rather tough. There was no moment available for rest, and no moment for hesitation. Luckily, the pairing across from me helped me here and there. And chef came by to assist with things like emptying the mixing bowl into the pans. Still, the whole day wore me out. By the end of class I ended up with twice the food I’d normally get, but at the price of my effort. Outside of class on a bench I started taking my uniform off. The shirt under my chef jacket was soaked with sweat. My feet were aching and sore. I was reduced down to a hobble. You’d think that after ten weeks of this class I’d have a good idea of how much energy all this requires. I guess having someone around to take care of part of the work really does soften the blow. How do the pros do it? It’s amazing.

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In this past Saturday’s class we covered how to make a black forest cake. As chef was showing us how to put it together I started thinking that it would be rather complicated. I remember thinking “there’s a lot that can go wrong!” However, once me and my baking partner got going the process of assembly was easier than expected. I mean, so much of it was based on stuff we’d done in previous weeks. A few weeks ago we worked on masking a cake. That same week we started working on our piping skills. We got to practice piping further when we made cream puffs and eclairs, and when we did shortbread. With all of that my piping skills have improved a fair bit. Making those rosettes on top wasn’t hard at all. I think the most difficult part of the past week was just making sure that we didn’t fall behind and that we kept moving in an efficient manner. In previous weeks my partner and I had a tendency of falling behind and holding things up. This time we moved swiftly and decisively. It was great!

This cake is visually impressive, but it’s actually not that bad to do. Cutting and filling the cake is one bit. Then masking isn’t so bad. Adding the chocolate sprinkles to the side was kind of fun. Then piping the rosettes and putting the cherries on top didn’t take long at all. The chocolate shavings were entirely a nice touch. So yeah: manageable! And with such a high visual impact this seems to be one of those recipes that’s high value.

When I posted a picture of this up on Facebook it got a lot of great comments. Not bad, right? One of my aunts was one of the people that commented on it. She was joking that I should open a bakery or something of that sort. Obviously such thoughts have crossed my mind. Things is, there’s just no way to switch career tracks at this point and still maintain my current lifestyle. I’m not giving up my condo, for example. So, as much as this would be an awesome thing to pursue I can’t do so just yet. Meanwhile, I can continue taking classes and sharpening my skills. One day a window will open or an opportunity will present itself. I need to keep an eye out for it and hope that when it come time I’ll be able to make the necessary jump.

Continue reading »]]> This post is kind of meant to give a little bit of insight as to what it’s like in baking class. In today’s baking class we tackled a recipe for soft rolls. Putting it together was fairly simple. There wasn’t anything terribly out of the ordinary in the ingredient list. We got to use the big mixing machines with the big dough hooks to bring it all together. After forming a big ball of dough we covered it in plastic and covered that with a big bowl to let it rise. From there we all gathered back to the front of the class to watch chef demonstrate how to knot the bread. He was very deft in tying the dough. For some of the knots he did it so fast that it was almost a case of blink-and-you’ll-miss-it speeds.

After the demos we were all sent back to our stations. The ball of dough belonging to my partner and I had doubled in size causing the covering bowl to come off the table. We divided the big ball into 36 pieces, giving us 18 each. From there we rolled each piece into a tight ball before rolling it into a long tube. We had to knot each tube using the techniques we were shown. When I was giving it a go I ended up screwing up the knots several times. I was having trouble with doing a simple single knot. Each time I did it I thought it didn’t look right and I ended up re-balling the dough to start over. This carried on several times. As a result I started falling behind. There came a point where everyone else was done knotting their dough, topped everything, and racked the sheets in prep for oven time. Meanwhile I was scrambling to get my act together. I eventually figured out the single knot, double knot and even some braiding. Once I finished I started running around the classroom finding different items to top the rolls. I ended up choosing cheddar, sea salt, poppy seeds, and parmesan cheese for the different rolls.

Honestly, at out low levels things aren’t all that stressful in class. Once in a while though there are moment where I feel like I’m under the gun. I say it’s better not to rush things. The act of rushing can result in shoddy work. If I hurried my knots I probably would have ended up with more wonky rolls than I’d want. In the end, I’m rather proud of the results. Thing is, I don’t like it when I’m holding up the class either. I’ve got to find a balance point, I guess. In a real life bakery kitchen scenario I’m sure things would be a lot more hectic. Better to know that I can handle things under pressure, right?

Continue reading »]]> After tonight’s workout I had a craving for some freshly baked bran muffins. I knew I had most of the ingredients, but I wasn’t sure if I had enough of each. After checking my stocks I decided to go for it. I didn’t have any nuts or dried fruit, but I had cocoa powder and warm spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, ginger) so I decided to improvise and make chocolate spice bran muffins. I figure this would be a good warming mid-autumn muffin. Putting it together was fairly simple since the recipe I had on hand had the ingredients listed by weight. It was simple enough to plonk the bowl onto a scale and measure things out. Oh, and having a recipe by weight means that cutting a recipe in half is pretty exact. I only did a half batch because I had no desire of ending up with 3 dozen muffins. Nope. Anyway, this is the end result:

At first taste it’s rather good. The cocoa powder is making its presence known, and it’s a little bitter. I wonder if I should have cranked up the sugar a little bit since there’s no dried fruit in it. All the same, this is only a taste test with them straight out of the oven. Usually these things taste better the day after. Who knows. If in the morning I decide that it passes I’m going to bring a few into office. Free food, you know? And having less in house means having less waste and less in my belly.

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このアップルパイがアップルいっぱい、ね？
(Kono APPURU PAI ga APPURU ippai, ne?)
[This apple pie is full of apple, eh?]

Lifted that pun from Sailor Moon, episode 107. Translation isn’t punny at all, but in Japanese it’s totally corny.

Made this pie tonight. Used the skills I picked up in GBC. Sending it to a Thanksgiving get together tomorrow. Should be good eats!

Continue reading »]]> Oh man. A big side effect of taking that GBC class isn’t just that I’m bringing home a lot of food. It’s also that if I ever find myself with an urge to repeat one of the recipes I learned in class I’ll end up with a huge stockpile of baked items. Today, I’ve been cooped up inside for many hours in an attempt to give my body some rest. When I finally got up I decided to try doing the same recipes I did on Saturday. I ended up making full batches of blueberry walnut bran muffins and lemon cranberry blueberry tea biscuits. Sounds good, but in following the full recipe I made too many. I ended up with 32 muffins and 52 biscuits. ARGH. I’ve given half to my parents, and they’re appreciative. I now have to find a way to give away a lot of what I’m left with. God help me.