Hard yakka!

I know you all think pastry school is one big party, so I thought I'd clear up this vicious rumour and show you the gruelling daily routine of bread class.

The average day starts at about 7.30am when the interns serve up a selection of three cakes or pastries for morning tea - here's some cupcakes from earlier this week.


Then it's off to class. First there is the demo by Mac where he makes everything look super simple (we typically subsequently find out it's anything but).


We work in small teams to produce the day's breads. We rotate teams each week and I always pray for some guys with muscles. Baking is not for wimps. I struck gold this week with Rainie, Justyn and Mike (pictured), the latter two being experienced bakers (with muscles).


While mixing the doughs, we spend much of the time peering through the window to the cake lab. This week there was a wedding cake class with some spectacular creations.


When our breads have baked, there's a lunch break to recover, with more breads and cakes to restore the energy levels. Then we return for the compulsory afternoon taste test of the breads when Mac scrutinises the crumb and the flavours of each of our efforts. The pressure!


And lastly, there is the big clean. Here's a shot of the bread lab at cleaning time. Check out the big ovens at the back which need to be scrubbed daily. Just don't ask why I'm upstairs photographing when everyone else is downstairs cleaning.....any excuse!


There is occasionally the trip out the back door to hide from Mac the forgotten charcoal loaves we find at the back of the oven during the clean!


So as you can see, it's hard yakka over here - not!