2,000 Cupcakes Later...

This Friday was my first day in the pastry kitchen: a tiny little room with just enough room for two, a convection oven, two big stand mixers, a small table mixer, one big work bench, a little metal cart, a sink...and that's about it. Tiny! I set up and got ready to pipe icing on cupcake samples for the Pennsylvania Bridal Show this weekend.

Five hours, a ton of Swiss meringue buttercream, and 2,000 mini-cupcakes later:

A sampling of my hard work on display. :) It doesn't actually take 5 hours to pipe these, but I had to make many many trips back and forth to the storage unit, fold about 20 large boxes, put all the cupcakes away, and clean up. My arms were throbbing all Friday night...

I think I'm going to really enjoy this internship...the pastry chef does some really, really great stuff. I watched her decorate a 5-tier wedding cake in all buttercream in just 4 hours, with etched snowflakes and silver ribbons and everything, all the while dealing with constant interruptions on the phone, making the buttercream for my cupcakes, getting me set up, and running about to prepare for a bridal show.

I was invited to stop by the bridal show so that I could check out our stand, as well as scope out what the other bakeries/competitors were doing. The cakes I've uploaded in this post are an assortment of what I saw at the show, in no particular order, including some from our bakery.

I forgot what bridal shows were like! Vendors shoving pamphlets and coupons in your hands, giving you free cake samples, models parading around in gowns, pimped out SUV stretch limos... There was even roasted pork loin and chocolate fountain samples. It smelled pretty good, but I was full of cake by the time I got to the other food.

Some of the gumpaste work was just amazing, so realistic! Lots and lots of free samples...I pinched a few for D on the way out...

You know, it's funny when I look back to when D and I got married - I wasn't the least bit interested in choosing a fancy cake! In fact, we had the plainest cake imaginable. Who would have thought I'd be learning to make these elaborate, massive things one day?

The Making...of an Assistant Pastry Chef!

I suddenly just remembered: somehow, with all that's been going on in the last two weeks, I forgot to mention something very exciting....ready?

I was promoted to 'Assistant Pastry Chef' at the bakery! My first actual pastry position! Yippee!

Not made by me, but you get the idea.

As soon as I said yes, Imposter Syndrome set in... What? Me? I don't even have professional training! What do I know? The title definitely sounds a lot more impressive than the actual work I'm doing. Translated in objective terms, it just means that I'm working out of the main bakery several days a week, starting early morning (6am...yikes), and only doing cake decorating and finishing pastries. And, honestly, right now I'm definitely the new kitchen bitch (ever read Heat by Bill Buford? His descriptions of being a kitchen bitch are hilarious - a great book, I'd highly recommend it).

So far, it appears I have been assigned to carrot cake and strawberry shortcake duty. The cakes are already baked, so I do the leveling, cutting, filling and finishing and slicing. I've decorated about 30 cakes at this point. When I'm not doing cakes, I'm assembling pastry sampler boxes and keeping the pastry display case nice and full. I fill eclairs, cannolis, decorate cupcakes, mini cheesecakes, sugar cookies, petit fours, truffles, brownies and more. Last week, I piped something like three hundred Jack o' lantern faces - the bakery is on a big Halloween kick - and my hand muscles ached for days afterward. I'll probably develop a huge thumb muscles soon.

It's been a good experience so far - creatively, there isn't much room to grow, but two important skills I'm learning are speed, and efficiency of movement. When you make a cake at home, it's different - you make all the components yourself from scratch, have endless dishes to do, but you only have one item to focus on. Everything you need is within an arm's length. At the bakery, it's the opposite - everything I need is pretty much at my disposal, but spread out all over the place, so I have to remember to grab all the equipment at once, otherwise it's endless trips back and forth. Also, I'm not making one, but at least 3 or 5 or 8 cakes, so it's not like I have endless time to spend perfecting my decorating. Perfectionistic tendencies can be good, but unless you're a fast worker, it will hold you back. Right now I work way slower than all the other pastry cooks - but I'm learning.

When I was reading The Making of a Chef, one of the things Michael Ruhlman talked about was the organization and multitasking involved in cooking, and the importance of having your 'mise en place' (everything in its place); in particular, a mental 'mise en place' that serves as your road map to getting everything done. My mental 'mise en place' currently sucks. It's getting better, but it's hard to remember everything. Part of this, I think, will come with experience and getting to know my way around the kitchen. Right now, it's a lot of "Oops, forgot the cake board. Oh, I need almonds too. I forgot the spatula. Damn, I should have grabbed the cake comb while I was getting the board:. What can I say, I'm learning.

Multitasking and organization are probably two of my best strengths, and, as weird as it sounds, are two things I love about working - aside from the specific skill needed for the job, that is. The more variety there is, the more to be done and to be organized, the more planning involved, the more excited I am about it. I seriously get a rush when I am in multitasking mode. Some people get it from daredevil stunts, some people get it from performing on stage...I get it from planning and organizing stuff. My last job, which was totally unrelated to pastry, was multitasking heaven. I loved doing clinical work and seeing patients, but looking back, I think I liked the organizational challenge just as much. Wedding planning? Moving? Don't get me started :)

The last few months of working in the bakery has got me thinking a lot about why I enjoy pastry work, especially cake decorating. The two I just mentioned are definitely part of it. Here's the rest of the list so far: I enjoy the crafty aspect, the making-it-with-my-own-hands satisfaction; the artsy aspect of it, in the decorating and detail work; the learning aspect, in mastering new techniques, skills, methods...there is so much to know! Plus, the small business part of it really interests me too...organization galore! But that's for the future. For now, I've got to get through carrot cake boot camp.

Here comes the Bride!

Did you guess what the white dome was?

This past weekend was Z's wedding shower and bachelorette party, and I made her this little bride cake for the occasion!

I can't quite remember when the obsession started, but for the longest time I have wanted to make a Barbie doll cake (just ask D). I saw one like this on Cake Central, and loved how elegant it looked as a black dress form modeling the wedding gown. Inside, it's a lemon cake, doused in lemon syrup, filled with lemon curd and blueberry preserves, and iced with cream cheese frosting under the fondant. All the details are piped with royal icing.

I have to say, this is my favourite cake to date....it was a super fun to decorate - just like being a kid again and dressing up my dolls. I want to make another one already!! I guess I can, now that I own the Wonder Doll cake pan. Any future brides out there? :)

So, Saturday morning the cake traveled (quite well!) to the shower, where it received many 'oohs' which got a bit embarrassing (although, really...who minds a little ego-flattering??) It appears the bride-to-be enjoyed her cake...here she is, about to make the first cut:

If you look carefully, the groom is peeking out of her hoodie

Between nine of us, we ate about half the cake. I heard that Kodiak enjoyed a nice big chunk of shower cake...lucky doggy!

Ouch! That's my bum!

Considering the outer layer was ripped off and reattached, the inside doesn't look half bad:

* * HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN BRIDE CAKE* *

This took a little bit of planning, as I didn't want to be making it last minute and messing up the decorating. So, my cake schedule was as such:

Tuesday: I made the lemon curd with Devon (in an impromptu baking lesson)

Wednesday: I made the lemon syrup and cream cheese frosting

Thursday: I baked, filled and iced the cake. There was a bit of a disaster with the cake - the entire outer surface ripped off when I was turning it out of the pan, probably because the cake was still too hot, and unfortunately this was one of the only times I didn't line with parchment thinking that a cone shape would be easy to invert. Luckily, I managed to salvage the outer portion and stick it back on and glue the whole thing together with the cream cheese icing. The whole thing went in the fridge in two layers of plastic wrap to settle.
Friday: Dyed the fondant, covered the cake and piped the royal icing details.

Having a schedule was really helpful, and I think being organized made the process more enjoyable, rather than running out of time for decorating (like I have done several times in the past). Plus, there would be time to make another cake if the baking didn't go well. And, it felt like there was less clean up because everything was done in stages.

1. Dye a walnut-sized ball of fondant black (wear gloves, or prepare to have black hands). Dye a large clump of fondant in ivory for the dress and the bust.

2. Covering the doll pick:

• First, pull off Barbie's arms and head (I know it sounds mean but how else will you have a lovely dressform?) Snap off the little pokey bit on the neck. Form three tiny 0.5 cm balls of black fondant and press them on the neck and two shoulder sockets to create a smooth edges for the rest of the black fondant to mould to.
• Roll out the remaining black fondant to about 1/8 inch thick and drape over the neck and shoulders, as if covering a cake. Gently press the fondant against Barbie's upper body.

• To reduce bulk on the dress bodice, trim the black fondant where the top of the bodice will fall (just use a paring knife)
  

• Next, wash your hands thoroughly! If there is any trace of black, it will stain the ivory fondant, so put on gloves if you have to (or, you can do these steps in reverse order starting with covering the cake first)

• Roll out a walnut-sized ball of ivory fondant, and drape over the pick-end of Barbie's body. Carefully press the fondant against the doll to the edge of the black fondant. Again, using the paring knife, trim the ivory fondant in the shape of the bodice. Press the black and ivory edges together to form a complete seal.
  

3. Covering the cake:

• Ice the cake so that it has a nice, smooth, domed shape. I applied another layer of icing to the photo below.
  

• Roll out your fondant and drape over the cake, which will create the dress ruffles naturally. You can straighten the ruffles out a bit if they fall unevenly, if that bothers you. Trim with scissors or a sharp knife.

4. Almost done! Time to insert the doll pick into the centre of the cake:

5. Finally, make a small amount royal icing tinted in ivory. Pipe the dress details on the bodice, the waist, and the skirt, and anywhere else you want. You could pipe a necklace, or add ribbon trim, flowers, dots, lace...the possibilities are endless! (Gold or silver dragee would be pretty too - I searched my entire apartment but couldn't remember where I had stashed them, so no sparklies for me).

Last but not least, giving credit where it's due. Here's the photo from Cake Central that inspired my cake:

Whew, that was a long post. Enjoy!

Yellow Stripes!

My best effort so far, what do you think?

Hooray, I had absolutely no problems with the fondant today! It totally behaved itself, and I think I owe it to those pointers I got from Baking911. I made sure the cake was completely even and didn't put too much buttercream on the outside (actually, it was more of just a crumb coat). Perhaps it was the fondant smoothing tool I dug out of my cake decorating box? It seemed to ease the fondant into place quite well. The whole thing was over in less than 2 minutes, no cracks, no pleats, no tears, just a shiny... smooth... flawless... marshmallow-looking surface! Happy sigh of relief. Notice how I avoided garish colours today? Yes, I tried. It's more of a garden party kind of cake, I think. Maybe for a tea party of some sort. Speaking of tea parties, I've been curious about making petit fours after seeing them here. Don't they look super cute and delicious?

Getting back to the topic at hand, here's how I did it, if you want to try this at home: once the cake is covered in fondant, place a smaller circle on top and using a toothpick, lightly mark its edge to create a guide for your stripes:

Then, mix your colour choice in fondant for stripes (about a baseball-sized lump for this 8" cake). Measure from the guide edge to the base of the cake (mine was 4.5"). Cut out your 1" wide strips with a ruler (I used this quilting ruler thing - don't forget to wash it first) and pizza cutter:

Now, at one edge of each strip, cut a round concave edge using the circle you traced and a sharp knife.

Wet the back of the fondant strip with a little bit of water. Don't get it too drippy, or it'll go sliding everywhere and the colours will bleed. With curved edge facing up, paste the strip from bottom working up. Use a right angled object to make sure the stripe is completely straight (I suppose you can skip this, but don't blame me if your stripes don't line up when you get around the whole cake):

Work your way around, leaving 1" spaces between stripes, until the cake is 3/4 covered. Measure again and make sure you have enough space and enough strips to cover this last quarter properly - I had to cheat and cut the last strip about 1.2" and spaced it 1.3". You could probably measure more precisely, but I just eyeballed it (I'm a lazy perfectionist).

That's pretty much it! I piped the bottom edge and inner circle edge with buttercream, and glued on the fondant daisies I made in my last post. Really I should have used gumpaste, but I was too lazy (there's that word again) to make new flowers. According to several book and internet sources, a fondant cake can be stored in a covered box in the coolest spot in your house, and it should keep about 2 days with non-perishable fillings (please correct me if I'm wrong, because I don't want to get blamed for anyone eating mouldy cake). If you're traveling with it, well, good luck.

I drove this thing to the hospice center in the late afternoon, in the 95 degree heat, with the air conditioning on full blast. Hopefully the birthday girl enjoys it! Incidentally, I ran into the volunteer coordinator, who asked me if I wanted to help teach the next volunteer cake decorating class, so of course I said yes, I would love to!

There's another birthday cake I'm scheduled for next week, so expect to see more fondant. Hopefully I'll also have some knitting to blog about soon too!

Paris, we miss you already...

View from our room

We're back in Columbus! Actually, we've been back for almost a week now. I've missed blogging - I think this is the longest I've gone without posting something. We've been having fun catching up with old friends, meeting new friends, and getting back into our routine. Jewelry class was on Wednesday, where I gave my copper bracelet some final buffing (I love shiny things) and started my second project. Devon and her husband were in town (soon to be neighbours!) and we all had dinner together at Spagio Cellars , and then on Friday I stopped by the Pearl Alley farmer's market for the first time this week, which was great and oh-so-close - literally just down the street. Then Saturday, we lounged poolside at Jay and Sonja's. Such a hard life, I know.

I have other exciting news too! If you remember, just before I left, I was hired as a freelance cake decorator. I have yet to do any work for the owner, but much has happened during my absence. She is planning to move into a new location, building it up from scratch, and wants my help on a more regular basis - hopefully full time in the fall. The only downside is that I'll be moving in a short 5 months, and there will probably be many delays, so who knows what will actually happen. Anyhow, it's a great opportunity and I'm pretty thrilled about seeing how a bakery gets set up. Even if the store takes a while to set up, she's got some wedding cake work for me in July - there are 3 weddings that I'll be helping out with, and I'll also likely be going back to the other bakery at some point. Hmm, at this rate, I may never go back to land of psychology.

Meet Mr. Domo, a monster, and also a USB flashdrive

Ok, enough with updates. The other reason for my blogging delay is that every time I think about posting, I become completely indecisive about what I should include (a.k.a., Too Many Vacation Photos). So, after much procrastination, I think I'll just show you some photos we took during the first leg of our trip, which was spent in Paris, and save Italy and Croatia for another day.

Canneles at the Marche Bastille on a Sunday

It was our second time in Paris, and I like to think that we are developing a bit of a routine, which we'll build on in future trips, revisiting our favourites and continuing to discover new things. You may notice that most of the pictures are of pastries, picnicking, drinking coffee and sitting around in gardens...we must look incredibly lazy. But really, it's not laziness, it's just a more balanced and relaxed way of life. No one in Paris brings their laptop to the cafe. People aren't checking their blackberries or texting each other every second. There are so many people out in the gardens at lunch that I'm certain they don't eat lousy microwaved lunches at their desk. When was the last time you ate your lunch at the park? If you are going to spend time in Paris, then I say do as the locals would.

Exotic looking cheese

On our first trip, people thought we were crazy not to go up the Eiffel Tower, go inside the Louvre, or visit Versailles, but the thought of battling the herds of tourists really didn't appeal to me. So, this time, we only did a little bit of touristy stuff, and spent the rest of the time relaxing, enjoying the delicious food and beautiful public spaces, and walking about the city.

Rainy day at the Louvre

Why I dislike visiting tourist attractions: Hoards of tourists crowded in front of the Mona Lisa

Jardin du Luxembourg

Public bicycles you can rent by the hour & drop off at any of a multitude of locations

Lunchtime formules come with a sandwich, drink, and dessert: Apricot tart

Eating, eating, everywhere eating: Falafel sandwiches on Rue des Rosiers in the Marais

The obligatory Eiffel Tower photo

The Inaugural Bakery Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the mommies!

OK, so I didn't make this, but I made something VERY similar today!

Fruit tart from Cakes Etc.

The bakery cafe I work at is extremely popular on Mother's Day. Today was absolute insanity in the front of the house - it was loud, crowded, hot and hectic. Usually, I would be out there doing counter service: ringing up coffees and desserts, bagging, plating, drink-making, answering the phone, brewing more coffee, folding boxes, rolling endless cutlery, smiling and generally trying to be polite and nice to the customers.

Lucky for me, today was my first day working in the pastry kitchen. I was so glad to be working in the back, quietly decorating dozens and dozens of pastries and cakes that we would go through by the end of the day. Perhaps it was the novelty, but I had so much fun on my shift and had a chance to do much more than I'd expected, with very little supervision!

What I did in the kitchen today starting at 7:00am:

1) Decorate 4 cheesecakes - two whole, two already sliced (so clever, the fruit goes on the slice so it's not all squished with cutting!) Take sliced kiwis, strawberries, mandarin oranges and line them up all pretty around the cake and put on two coats of apricoty fruit glaze. The glaze wasn't as gross as I'd expected - I think it only looks congealed when it is put on too thick. Put toasted almonds all along the sides, wrap the slices with wax paper and reassemble the cake.

2) Assemble fruit tartlets: take shortbread crusts, paint them with melted chocolate (using a HUGE brush, why don't they have little ones?), pipe in pastry cream, top with kiwis, strawberries, oranges, glaze, put them in cupcake liners.

3) Finish a chocolate roulade cake: cover in chocolate buttercream, scrapes lines along length (this has a name, I think), sprinkle with chocolate shavings, pipe rosettes and leaves, then slice diagonally and separate with wax papers

4) Assemble cannolis: Ok, I was a little disappointed to learn that they buy pre-made cannoli shells. But apparently this is common. Pipe cannoli filling into shells, dip each end in chocolate vermicelli and put them in little papers

5) Decorate little custard cakes: Cut out of mold, plop in cupcake liner, top with a fanned strawberry and glaze (they really like glaze)

6 Cover rumballs with coconut

7) Roll marzipan fruit in sugar

8) Write birthday signs for lots of birthday cakes, decorate various cakes with the signs and pre-made flowers

9) Pipe borders and airbrush pre-made flowers in pastel colours for a girl's birthday cake. I did a lousy job on the writing the first time and the pastry chef had to scrape off the whole thing and we started over (I don't think I got in trouble though). Airbrushing was really messy, but kind of fun! My hands are covered in dye.

...and I finished up at about 12:00pm. What a fun day!! I was semi-worried I'd get stuck doing dishes or something lame, but they kept their word and actually let me near the pastries. So, I'm very pleased about that. I'm not sure what happens at this point - this might be my last shift before going on holiday, but hopefully I'll get to do this again when I come back.

Saturday is for Snoozing

It's the first sunny Saturday we've had in a while, and I'm hoping spring is really here to stay... Gatsby's got the right idea, taking full advantage of the sunshine. D leaves for Australia today, and with some last minute errands it means that we skipped out on our third pottery class (but we'll go back to make up a class in two weeks). I'll post pics from the last class next time, but as a quick recap we did more coiling and our pots went much better after the instructor showed us how to do it correctly.

I just finished my first week at the bakery-cafe, working the lunch shift from 10-3, and let me tell you, I have a renewed respect for those that work in the service industry and are on their feet ALL DAY LONG. Thank goodness for comfortable shoes. I have to say, I am thoroughly enjoying working there -primarily for the social aspect (after 6 weeks of just me and my 75-y.o. boss), but also because I feel the owner is making an effort in accommodating my interests. The deal we made was that I would do counter help, and in turn, he would let me spend more time in the kitchen to observe and help with the cakes and pastries. The first day was much, much busier than I expected (I didn't know this bakery also served a full lunch menu) but I tend to learn faster when the pressure is on, so it was fine. There are many regular customers who come in for breakfast, lunch, or a snack, and they have all been given nicknames by the staff. I got to meet 'the muffin man', an adorable elderly man who comes in daily to buy a single blueberry muffin which he asks you to deposit into his little round tupperware. So cute. It was quiet on my second shift, so I got to hang out in the pastry kitchen and watch the pastry chef and the baking apprentices make napoleans, marzipan covered pastries, croissants, ice cakes, and decorate cookies. I learned how to do a piping bag with waxed paper, and I practiced writing with chocolate for a while. Eventually, I think I may be making signs for the birthday cakes...I don't think they'll let me near the real goods for a while longer.

The bakery is so far a satisfying combination of being fun, interesting, highly social, challenging (but not overwhelming) and fast-paced (but not too fast) and in turn my mood has been great despite the tiring work (...unsurprising basic behavior principles that I really ought to have thought of sooner). Other than that, I'm still at the private practice (thank goodness for flexible hours), so I'm working the equivalent of full time now, which is also nice. Since coming to Ohio I had been resistant to working outside my field; I felt that hobbies couldn't be anything more than hobbies, especially considering I had just turned 30 and had spent most of my adult life getting a graduate degree to develop a very specific skills set. But then I started reading some interesting food-related non-fiction (my current obsession) and happened upon The Making of a Chef by Michael Ruhlman - a journalist-turned-cook. What started as field research for his book turned out to be something incredibly meaningful and personal for him; a life-changing experience. Anyhow, some people would find this book a bit boring and technical, but I was actually very inspired by his story, and it made me excited about the idea of pursuing one's interests simply for interest's sake. It's not to say that I am enrolling myself in culinary or fashion school next month or next year, but I also don't feel like those areas are quite so impossible or off-limits anymore. Oh, the possibilities. :)

That's it for now. Shetland II is almost done, so that's coming up next. Have a good weekend, folks.