On my 100th day of class, I wasn’t worried about my “mockery” or pastry mock final. Instead, I felt quite comfortable making two desserts by noon. I mean, I did the past two days, right?

But when I walked in this morning, something bugged me. One of my teammates had his “it’s go time” face on, and that spiked my stress levels a little. It raised the this-is-a-(faux)-final atmosphere. And I didn’t like it. His quick paces to and from the sink. His sneaky snatch of the KitchenAid. In my head, this meant battle. You want a race, boy, you got one.

I wish there was a more climatic story to tell like “in the third quarter, I slipped on spilled egg whites and had to start from scratch and still finished before everyone else,” but that didn’t happen. I just finished before everyone else because I’m a sweet vixen. Well, I’m not that sweet today. Just a silent, fierce competitor.

TIP OF THE DAY: Want to class up a dessert? Make a sugar garnish. Take caramelized sugar and drizzle it over parchment paper. We even used bacon bits to add a salty-sweet character to the toffee pudding.

Sugar drizzled over bacon.