Time is flying by!

Okay, so I can't believe it has been a few weeks since I posted. I have so much to catch up on! Right now I am taking a break from my cake project presentation for my pastry class. It is almost done. Design is finished, requisition is complete, just need to finish writing the story and put it all together. Whew! Can't wait to get started on that cake!

So, going back a couple weeks....oh yes...we had a guest lecturer/instructor to teach us how to make amazing gum paste roses. Wow. It took ALL DAY to make 1 rose. However, this man (John Jennison) was amazing and I learned so much from him. My rose came out amazing. It looks so real.

Then last week we got to work on our cake dummies again and practice new techniques for our cake project. The theme was Halloween cakes. Because I like to plan and not wing it, I decided a few days before to do a Nightmare Before Christmas theme and cut out stencils. Here is a tip: you can make your own stencils (for cake decorating, scrapbooking, or even painting) with an exacto knife and those plastic write-on page dividers for binders. They come in different colors and are perfect for stencils. They ARE a bit thick so it takes some muscles to cut through them, but they will now last a while. Also, because they are plastic, they can be washed off for a second use. The brand I used was Avery. They were the "Durable Write-On Plastic Dividers" and are PVC Free. The Avery number is 16171. I put in the link to help you out. :-) They helped me create this cake:

Cool huh? I am so super proud of Jack Skellington!! Not the best piping work as I was having problems with clumps in the meringue powder but not too bad for a practice cake!

Next comes my Sculpture class project. We just finished these today. We started with a block of clay that we carved that we used to make a silicon mold and then poured plaster in to get multiple tiles. Then we painted. Here is my end result:

I am proud of this too. If I had more room on my current bedroom wall, I would put them up right now!

So, the other big thing is that I got a new job. YAY! I was hired as a cake decorator at a bakery near my house. I am so super excited and can't wait to take the next step in my career.

Chocolate dough, 3 weeks, and 3am

So, I realize it has been 3 weeks since my last post. Same amount of time I have had since a day off from work or school. Things have been a bit crazy. I did take a day off last week and had a scheduled day off as well. Two days off in a row! I celebrated by taking myself to lunch and a movie one day (The Social Network...GREAT movie) and to Disneyland with some friends the next. It was much needed play time.

So, the biggest news I think, is that I got my cake assignment for my class. A colorful butterfly cake. I am so excited! Now if I just had time to really work on designing it! haha We also worked with chocolate dough last week in class. We learned to make a chocolate rose first. Then we learned how to do chocolate molding with rice cereal treats like you see on TV all the time. It was my first time working with that method and it worked out okay. We had limited time so my chocolate monkey didn't get her full halloween costume, but here is a picture of her. I didn't have time to clean her up either so she is a little messy. But I am proud of her for my first try! Oh, also a picture of my chocolate rose. Whatever....I was having problems posting so you are going to have to turn your head. I am too tired to figure it out! LOL

Yesterday I had to get up at 3am and go to the school bakery to work. I was supposed to work 4 hours but my sculpture class was cancelled so I put in a full 8 hours. Wow...weekdays (especially Thursdays when the school restaurant is open) are totally insane compared to my normally scheduled Sundays. I am looking forward to Sunday! haha But at least my hours are caught up now.

Tomorrow's pastry class we have a guest teacher, John Jennison. He is going to be teaching us gumpaste roses and flowers. I look forward to it! It is always nice to get a different view on how to do things. Pictures will be taken!

I had wanted to do a charity gingerbread house for SOS (Share Our Selves) in Orange County but do not have the time or money to put into what goes into a good gingerbread house for auction. However, I came across a cupcake contest that I may participate in that the deadline isn't until January. So, I have time to play around and submit. Hey, first prize is $10,000...even 3rd prize is like $3,000. So, I might just go for it!

Gluten Free, Egg Free, Dairy Free Vanilla Cupcakes

So I had a couple of hours to kill this afternoon and decided I wanted to make cupcakes or cookies or something of the sort. However, I really didn't want to spend any money or have to go to the store. I went to my cupboard and took a mental note of the ingredients I had. Many of you probably know that I am allergic to wheat, eggs, and milk. So, I went on a flipping spree through my baking books. I have some gluten free baking books but they all require all these really weird, expensive ingredients that I just don't have on hand. So, I went to one of my cupcake books to find a simple recipe. I found a decent, easy, fast recipe for vanilla cupcakes.

I substituted the flour with AP gluten free flour blend, the milk with almond milk, and the eggs with egg replacer (a powder you mix with water that acts in a similar way eggs will when baked). Everything else was the same (baking powder, sugar, etc). They turned out okay. The problem with gluten free AP flour is that it has this weird aftertaste to it. I prefer to bake with almond flour but of course, I didn't have any. :-) Gluten free also always tastes less sweet. I guess that can be good but it makes cupcakes and cakes taste more bread like than cake. But it was an experiment and for the first time, not so bad. Next time I think I will swap out a bit of the flour to add a bit of brown sugar.

The batter also didn't make very much. The recipe said it would make 16 cupcakes but they must have meant MINI cupcakes because I got a whole 6 cupcakes! haha! But since I am the only one around that will eat the GF, it is better there are less.

The icing (I say icing because it is more like poured fondant instead of a frosting/buttercream) was a wing it as well. Well, more of a wing it than the cupcakes. I really didn't start with much of a recipe. I took a bunch of powdered sugar and mixed with a little water at a time until I got a thinner icing. I then added vanilla extract. I decided to also add marshmallow to give it a bit of a different flavor. Ummm.....lets not discuss the fire I almost started with the first marshmallows I put in the microwave. heehee Let's just say I had to throw out the plastic container I was trying to melt them in. :-/  So, I finally got the marshmallows melted and mixed it in with the icing I had made. The thing about marshmallow is it hardens up really fast when it is by iteself. So, when you melt it to add to something, you have to add it quickly or it becomes a sticky mess. I was able to get it mixed in pretty good with the icing so I could dip the cupcakes.

Well, while I was waiting for the cupcakes to cool, the icing set up a bit too much. The first cupcake I dipped turned out okay but the second one broke. The whole top came off in the icing! In the end I ended up just spreading it on with a spatula knife. So, they aren't as pretty as I hoped. I sprinkled with some pink sanding sugar to make them look a bit better. But, they are a great sweet treat in the afternoon!

So, next time I will try a couple different things. I hope to have my own recipe in the end!

I'd rather be burned with a curling iron

Okay, so the semester is underway and I have been so excited for what has started I had no idea it was underway so quickly! I am trying to sit back and soak in as much as possible.

After getting the confirmation that I had not only got into the on campus internship but also the last class in baking (the class I took the whole program for) I threw myself into getting all my supplies without even realizing I am almost done. HOLY CRAP! I am almost done with school! This semester I am taking a sculpture class, Directed Practice (the on campus internship) and Baking 3/Pastry.

So the first thing I have learned in the last couple of weeks is that for the next few months I will be tired, period. I have school, work, and my internship. I am at school 4 days a week with two of them being Saturday and Sunday. I also work at least 2 days, if not 3 during the week. So, I wake up no later than 6:15 pretty much everyday but some days as early as 4:15. Such is the life of a baker, right? Okay, on to the fun stuff!

So, an overview of sculpture: we are carving clay! Right now we are working on a clay carving project that will, in the end, teach us how to make molds. Molds as in silicone molds I believe. We are still carving. I am almost done! So, here is a picture of it almost done:





The first day of Pastry class, we actually worked with sugar. Boiled sugar. Hot ass sugar. Sugar burns hurt. I would rather be burned with a curling iron. However, I have heard that once you burn yourself with sugar, you will never do it again. So looks like I am good to go now. :-) Hey, at least I didn't blister. Thank goodness. Before class we had to create a fish mold with clay. I forgot to take a picture of it, but it was a basic outline of a fish. You bake it so it is hard and then you spray it with vegetable spray before pouring the boiling sugar into it. When it hardens, you break away the mold and you are left with what was inside it. Here is a picture of my fish right after taking it out of the mold:

Next we put it all together with some other forms of sugar (bubble sugar, rock sugar, pulled sugar) to create an underwater scene. Here is mine:

Isn't he cute. I haven't named him yet. What should I name him? (Well, he is now swimming with the other fishies so to speak...RIP fishy).

The next day I had Directed Practice which is where we do an on campus internship at the school bakery. Since our school is a full Jr. College, we have many places we bake for. We have a fully functional Starbucks on campus that we bake for, our student center cafeteria, a child care center, and two snack bars. We are pretty busy. My first day turned out pretty good. I made chocolate chip muffin mix with a new recipe, a new recipe of chocolate brownies, I prepped muffins (prepped pans and scooped for next morning), made sugar dough and rolled out to put in tart tins. Tomorrow we should have more going on but I am excited about practicing all I have learned in the last year.

Today in Pastry we worked with pulled and blown sugar. First was the pulled sugar. It was difficult at first but I got the hang of it. We were to make a bunch of leaves and then flower petals and put together a flower. Everyone had different colors and were making different types of flowers. I kept mine simple as I really want to learn the techniques before I start getting all fancy. :-) Here is my end flower:

Next we went on to blowing sugar. Yes, it is similar to blowing glass. And it is hard!! In the end I had a bit of problems and only ended up with one good piece, a green apple. For the first time, I was pretty darn stoked on it! Here it is:

So, more DP and more sculpture this week and then we move on to buttercream and fondant in Pastry next week...something I am a bit more comfortable with thank goodness. haha I am so loving this!

No morning to sleep in for at least the next 4 days and no day off for at least 8 days, maybe more. Thank goodness I love what I am doing! :-)

Good News!!!

So I got into all of my classes! I will be interning on campus at school and also taking the pastry course. I am also enrolled in sculpture. (As well as still working at the cupcake shop). So, it will be a busy semester with lots of projects and lots of work, but I am so looking forward to it! More info to come as the semester gets under way!!

Busy busy busy

So, work and life have just been hectic! Sorry no posts lately. The only information to update would be that of trying to get my stinking classes for fall. See, I have 3 total classes left. 1. Directed Practice (onsite internship hours at the school) 2. Pastry/Baking 3 (must take Directed Practice before or at the same time) and 3. Directed Practice 2 (offsite intern hours). Well, I am on the waiting list for both the first Directed Practice AND the Pastry class. The problem is, only 8 people are allowed to register for Directed Practice each semester. So, 16 people per year. The Pastry class is only offerred in the fall. So, if I don't get them both this semester, I have to wait a whole year to graduate. The school is basically pushing my graduation a whole year. First of all, sucks and second of all, not legal by the state of California. So, luckily the state has rules about this. I am trying to work it out and hopefully I will get into both classes. Fingers crossed. At least I am signed up for a sculpture class just in case. :-)

Cupcakes, cupcakes, cupcakes

Well, I haven't been posting since school got out. Plus I have been working my little booty off making cupcakes at my new job. I got a job at a cupcake bakery in Lake Forest, CA. Oddly enough it is down the street from the first house I lived in when we first moved to south orange county. Although the center we are in was leveled and is all new now.

So, I have been making cupcakes and more cupcakes since right before Memorial Day. I really enjoy my job. I have had a lot of friends come in to try it out and to visit. I work 40 hours a week baking and decorating. Just this week we decided to donate cupcakes to a charity event that is also doing a cupcake contest! So, we are entering. It should be fun. We brainstormed the other day and should be trying out our suggestions soon.

As for school, things don't look good. I have three classes left. 2 internship classes taken consecutively and one pastry class. Well, the pastry class cannot be taken without the first intern class. I have to take it first or at the same time as the pastry class. Unfortunately, I could not get into the internship class last semester. I register today for fall and both the internship class and pastry class are full. It makes me mad because it sets me back a whole year because the pastry class is only offered in the fall. Which means even if I can get the internship class in the spring, I have to wait until the following fall to take the pastry class. Of course, that class is the whole reason I am going through the program in the first place!! So I am frustrated and mad. I thought having the 4th day of registration as my date I would be okay. Not so much. It pretty much sucks.

Anyway, here are some pics of some of our cupcakes from work. Some are special orders. Don't they look yummy?