I am a fan of baking. When I have time, I want to spend my whole time in the kitchen doing my favorite thing. When I joined Hive, buying an oven was one of my best purchases.
And because we have a summer break for our classes, making it worthwhile is what I did. I joined Bread and Pastry Production in TESDA so that my skills and my passion for baking will be enhanced. Aside from that, I want to earn a certificate in my passion. So, without a second thought, when my colleague introduced me to the training, I grabbed the opportunity.
The training will last for 15 days. It started mid-April and lasted in the last week of April, 2025. We had our scheduled assessment last May 4 - 6, 2025.
The training will teach us how to bake bread and pastries. During the first two days of training, it conducted a pre-orientation regarding what to expect from the program.
In the first two weeks of training, the instructor taught us how to bake bread. From dinner rolls to cinnamon breads and ensaymada. It was fun and interesting to learn how to bake bread. We will be testing how to make our dough soft and smooth before letting it rise. For about 20 minutes or more, we need to knead our dough smoothly, which some of my classmates had difficulty kneading, especially the older ones.
After learning to knead the dough, we need to let it rise. My classmates talked about our experiences. It was not an easy task.
Making bread will test our patience, our dedication how to make our bread look nice and fluffy. We had to be accurate with the measurements so that we could deliver the best output.
Another two weeks were allocated for making pastries. It was a difficult task because we had to be very careful with the eggs so that the cake would be perfect.
The instructor told us to make a chiffon cake and a roll cake, and how to palate a petit fours for our presentation during the assessment. It was a thrilling experience, especially in separating the egg whites and egg yolks. We had to be careful not to mix egg whites and egg yolks in making our meringue. Some of us had difficulty separating eggs and repeated the same procedure all over.
In making a cake, we had our dry and liquid ingredients to make a batter. And we had to make a meringue to mix with our batter ingredients. After cooking, we had to make a Swiss butter icing for our cakes. It was not an easy task. Be very careful in mixing the ingredients well and in separating egg whites and yellow, but we learn so much with our baking journey.
Another pastry product we prepared is the banana cake and the moist chocolate cake. With the given recipe from our instructor, we learn a lot.
During the assessment time, all of us passed the assessment and received our certificates. It was a fun and fruitful summer day. I've learned a lot, gained more friends, and enjoyed the time so much with them.
When you do it with passion, whatever challenges you encounter, it will be enjoyable. Joining this program, I see myself enjoying and struggling at the same time. Enjoyable and exciting when we were making our cakes, but we struggled with how to make them better and how to make them more appealing during the presentation. But when you do it with passion, it's just like you are having a game in what you are doing.
That's all for today's blog, my dear hive friends. I hope you will find time to read and upvote my blog. Keep safe.
Have a nice day, everyone. 😊
