My days at Chocolate school

 Because I really love chocolate and crazy about it, I always want to study it more and more. Reading and making all the thing following the book is alright but it will be great to have someone with an experience to teach you.

 I chose to study with Mark Tilling at the Squires Kitchen school, actually because I know about him before and I got his book: Squires Kitchen's Guide to Working with Chocolate: Easy Techniques for Impressive Results, that I really like ^^. So, it's the place that I went to with all my hope, haha, that I will get better.
The course is 5 day chocolate school, it's great for chocoholic, because you will spend 5 days without anything but chocolate, hehe.

I love the atmosphere of the school, relaxing and full of light, the photo above is the place that we usually had lunch ^^. There are tea and coffee for all day, and it keep me going, hehe, esp. when I was tried. 

 The most impressive place is kitchen (the class room), I forgot to take a photo of the wall that full of ovens (about 6-8 I can't remember). 2 people share the same station, we had a Kitchen Aid, an oven, a sink and hobs (all of them are SMEG, wow). There are 3 chocolate tempering machines in the class room, and a lot of chocolate (dark, milk and white) for us to use. The school use chocolate from Callebaut, and they are delicious, ^^.

I learned about the chocolate process, how to temper, and a lot of decoration. I had great time at the school, I think I learn a lot of things and the most important word that Mark said to us is "Practice and practice". 

Chocolate rose, made from Cocoa form (this one is Mark's)

 I know that I always have problems with chocolate transfer sheet and decoration, well I can make it but I feel it not good enough. I had a chance to work with transfer sheet and I think that from now I will practice more and more so I'll be able to make it better.

Lunch time

 Each day, the class started at 10 AM and we made a lot of chocolate all day, luckily that we didn't have to go out, the school provide lunch for us too, ^^, I really like the bread it's very good.

My Mini Show piece

 My showpiece made from dark chocolate and decorated with gold (using airbrush spray gun), it's the fist time for me, ^^. Even we started with the same pieces (chocolate ball, petals and etc.) each one is not the same, we have individual design and color, so they are different.

Chocolate Guinness Cake with whipped chocolate ganache filling

 This cake is very special, (because it took about 2 days to make it, hehe) the cake is Chocolate Guinness cake, the bitterness from the beer makes cake deepen in flavor. The filling is whipped chocolate ganache, we covered it with cocoa form before pouring the chocolate glaze over (I used dark chocolate glaze), and decorated with dark chocolate (I chose dark chocolate with white butterflies pattern transfer sheet). The top of the cake are chocolate roses, chocolate fans and Chocolate Cigarillos. 

 The salted caramel chocolate bonbons, that I had a chance to try both brushing and transfer sheet methods. The caramel filling is divine, hehe, I ended up eat a lot of the filling on its own.

 Many kinds of chocolate for me to learn and bring home, I think I'm so happy that all of them are so delicious, ^^.

Me and my teacher (Mark Tilling)

After all the hard work (and a lot of chocolate, that I ate all the time while making it, hehe), I got the certificate ^^, actually I don't think it will mean anything if I stop practicing, I will practice more and more, and I know that I surely love chocolate.