Today was my last day on the pastry station, and it was the first day I felt like everything was finally second hand.

The rush of tickets no longer felt hectic, just normal. And my swooshes of lemon curd or quenelles (fancy dollops) of whipped cream started to become more consistently good looking…just in time for me to say goodbye pastry, hello garde manger.

But in four days, we packed in quite a few heavenly desserts:

Cranberry linzer tart:

Cranberry Linzer Tarts

Poppy seed cake:

Poppyseed cake topped with a quenelle of whipped cream, a schmear of lemon curd, and a baked apple

Chocolate Souffle with raspberry coulis:

Chocolate souffle

Buche de Noel:

TIP OF THE DAY: Making a Buche de Noel? Once the cake is frosted, drag a fork down the spine of the cake to make it look like bark.