❏    Which do you prefer? Why?

❏    Show three ways you can make cupcakes healthier.

Take a photo of the cupcakes.  Post.

❏    Consider their manipulative skills and how they can be modified to be healthier. 

❏    Choose 1 to prepare, cook and serve.  Include recipe (ingredients and methods).

❏    Provide reasons why your chosen dish is healthier.  You may use the following nutritional tools (check Google Site):

❏    Healthy Diet Pyramid

❏    Recipe Analysis

❏    Healthy Plate

❏    Balanced Diet 

❏    Food Labels

❏    RDA

❏ Healthy Methods of Cooking 

❏    Reflect on the practical test session

❏    Were you able to manage time?  

❏    Did you face difficulties?  How did you overcome them?

❏    How would you have done it differently?

❏    Reflect on the food blogging process

❏    How useful were the nutritional tools?

❏    How manageable were the manipulative skills for you?

How purposeful were the investigative activities in helping you come up with your final creation?

rather than a sweet pastry, i used fruits to garnish and as my main dish, which made my dish healthy. i was satisfied with my plating, and my rationale behind my choice in presentation: i chose a relatively smaller, black plate in order to contrast with my medium sized dish, my bright fruits and my use of icing sugar. the lemon tart was relatively difficult to manipulate, especially because it was a recipe that was meant to take a longer time, and although i am not very happy with my manipulation, i was quite satisfied with my end result. f

before the test session, i was nervous about my dish. in fact, the night before i had practiced my dish until midnight, and i was worried that my lack of sleep would affect my performance, so i decided to make two in case one of them did not turn out well. i think i made a good start to my dish, and i was quite focused on my work. i did, however, make some poor decisions, such as forgetting to turn on my oven, thus my product had to bake for a longer time than it should have. i was very happy with the way my dough turned out, because i had struggled with the manipulation of dough prior to the test session. i was also satisfied with my lemon filling, as after i tasted it, i found it was tangy and contrasting to my pate sucree. i panicked when one of my tartlets did break, and i tried to be careful with my second one. during the last five minutes of the test, i was very anxious that i would not be able to serve my dish on time and that my dish was undercooked. however, i think that my dish turned out well, and i am happy with my performance today.

because this as a dish that was meant to be cooked in a longer time, i did struggle a bit with time management, and i was afraid that i would not be on time to serve my dish. i ended up serving my dish right on the dot, which i am not very satisfied with. i think in the future i can afford to plan out the order of business better, and make better decisions in order to use my time well.

did you face difficulties? how did you overcome them?
i faced many difficulties during this test. firstly, my original recipe took too long. to overcome this, i researched online on whether or not it was necessary to chill my pate sucree before i baked it, and i found that it was not very necessary. this helped me save a lot of time.

secondly, one of my tartlets broke as i brought it out of the oven. however, i had already planned for this to happen, considering the tartlets were quite delicate, and i baked two just in case. i was more careful with my second one, and i took pains to ensure that it was cool enough to transport it.

how would you have done it differently?
firstly, i would have wanted my dough to be a bit more moist, such that it was easier to manipulate. secondly, i would have liked to try making the meringue. i decided against doing this because i knew that making the meringue would have taken up too much time, but in the future i would like to challenge myself. thirdly, i would like to have made better decisions and exercised more caution. i made some careless mistakes during the test, such as forgetting to turn on the oven and accidentally adding in too much flour. thus i would have liked to make better decisions in order to be more efficient.

i enjoyed the food blogging process very much. food, cooking and baking are passions of mine, and it was good that i had a platform to express my passion. i also think that food blogging allows us to immortalise the journey through FAD, and it is nice to know that perhaps in five years, i will be able to look back at my Padlet and remember FAD in RGS. also, i think it is a very effective way of tracking our skills and the recipes we use. if we have made certain recipes, we can reference Padlet in order to see how to improve it on our own time.

i think they are quite useful. they allowed me to understand how the food that i eat is not always good for me and that there are healthier options i can choose, both when i buy food, buy groceries and when i cook.

the manipulative skills were quite manageable for me. i was able to learn them quickly and apply them in my cooking. although some of the skills, such as rubbing in, require some outside practice, i was able to master them eventually. 

they were very purposeful. i had a hard time choosing what i wanted to make because there were many dishes that i personally enjoyed making and eating. i think the investigative activities helped me narrow down my choices in terms of choosing what could be made in the one hour i had, and choosing what would be the healthiest option. i am very pleased that i ended up making my lemon tartlet.