Hello all!

Well, I'm now into my third week of placement at Holtwhites Bakery & having a great time  =)

The weeks seem to be progressing in a fairly routine manner & I'm coping quite well with the hours, although I do wish it was easier to get to sleep that first night! 

So far there have been no major injuries, although I did manage to cut my thumb open last Friday, doing the drying up of all things, but that's about it.  A few aches here & there, but that's to be expected.  I do believe the muscles in my upper arms are already stronger than they were three weeks ago; by the time I leave I'll be a veritable strong-woman!  =D

I've had quite a lot of experience with viennoiserie (croissants, pain au chocolates, danishes, pain au raisins etc) so far.  They make these twice a week, Wednesdays & Fridays, & it's a nice way to end the day, quite relaxing really  =)  Last Tuesday I was allowed to make the Chelsea buns!  And again this week!  Quite an honour too, or so I'm led to believe  =)

Seeing as it's almost Easter, we're making lovely hot-cross buns.  At the moment the most we've done in a day is 120, but I think the plan is to increase that number the closer to next weekend we get, so that should be fun!

They're also going to make Simnel cakes to order.  We made the first one yesterday, to test the recipe & marzipan-to-cake ratio.  It was almost perfect, with just a small amount of tweaking required.  It's surprising how difficult it is to evenly space 11 marzipan balls on top of a cake though, especially when they keep rolling off!

There's a different special every day; todays was a really lovely Soda Bread, which I mixed & scaled.  They also do Raisin Rye Breads, Olive Ciabattas, Walnut bread, Apricot & Hazelnut bread, New York Deli rye (brilliant as a sandwich with their salt beef & mustard!) & a great looking Chocolate bread on Saturdays  =)

Friday & Saturday mornings are by far the busiest of the week, with all the bakers in & working by 3.30am on Saturday, which makes for a very hectic bakery for the first few hours!  We do such a huge number of tin loaves on Saturdays that it would be almost impossible to shape them all by hand; there just wouldn't be time, so, a tin loaf moulding machine is employed for that one morning. 

Every other day though, it's all hands on deck to get the loaves & rolls shaped & ready to go  =)

One of the really nice things about this bakery is that all the bakers get together for breakfast on a Saturday.  Once things have quietened down a bit, usually around 10.00am, we all troop off to the pub next door.  There isn't much time to chat & catch up during the week, so it's a nice thing to do, to give everyone the chance to get together & relax for a moment at the end of the week  =)

So, all in all I'm having a great second placement so far  =)  Everyone has made me feel very welcome, & I think I've settled in quite well too.  It's going to be very odd next Saturday, saying goodbye to the gang for the last time...

But enough of that!  There's still seven busy baking days left before all that!  =D