Extra, Extra.....Read all about it!

I have applied to Culinary School!  It is blaringly obvious to me that this is God's plan.  I am taking the baking and pastry program at Le Cordon Bleu.  In a rather short amount of time I applied, got accepted and found financial aid!  Its kinda funny to see how quickly it has all happened.

I will be starting in late September and it will be an everyday thing.  I must say that I'm completely blown away at how wonderful the staff is at the school.  My advisor, Lori, has been there every step of the way.  She has always been motivating and encouraging!  Needless to say, I'm so excited!  I will be taking a weekend Chef's Series class in a few weeks on cake decorating.  I'm just anxious to get started!

I'm attaching a few pictures of me getting fitted for my chef's coat.  I can't wait!  I'll keep you updated!

Hooray for Sold Cakes!

Hello everyone out there in blogger world!  I hope that all is well with you!  It has been a really crazy time for me.  But I wanted to update you with some exciting news!  I SOLD TWO CAKES!!!

The first was a for a 14 year old girl's birthday party.  The mom was very open to anything I had in mind.  The only thing that she wanted was Hello Kitty.  I ended up making my signature chocolate cake with almond flavored buttercream icing.  (I quickly realized that when I sell cakes I don't get to sample them.  Which is sad, because I don't get to find out how everything tastes!)  I went a little crazy when it came to this cake.  I wanted it to be absolutely perfect.  It was my first sale and I was determined to make it outstanding.  I ended up with a cake that looked amazing and tasted delicious!  I took plenty of time making sure that the texture was just right.  And of course I added little elements like flowers along the bottom border of the cake.  All in all, I am quite proud of this cake.  It was well worth the time and effort.

The second cake that I made was for a friend at church.  He is a huge fan of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.  So I was ready to make him a cake version of the candy.  Of course, I put a spin on my signature cake.  And it not only turned out beautiful...but within a few hours of delivery I had gotten a text from him saying that it was wonderful.  (Just the kind of thing that a baker loves to hear!)  My sister got to have the privilege of naming the cake.  The official name is Chocolate Bishop.  (My friend is a Bishop and there is plenty of chocolate in the cake.)

I didn't have an order for the last cake, but I figured I share it anyway.  It was my uncle's birthday and two of his favorite things are Corvettes and Carrot Cake.  It had to be the best so I got 2 bags of carrots and started shredding.  Three hours later, my fingers were orange and the carrots were done.  (Yeah, I need a food processor.)  The icing was incredible.  The only thing that I like as much as cake is cheese.  So combining them makes me really happy.  Decorating with cream cheese icing was a little difficult at first.  However, it ended up crusting over fairly well.  I tried edible spray paint for the car.  Halfway through the car spray painting process, my can stopped working.  Off I went to Michael's covered in icing and looking like a crazy person!  The whole cake ended up taking about 6 hours or so.  But it looked outstanding!

I have yet to find a carrot cake that I enjoy.  It always seems like there is something missing.  Either it is too dry or there isn't a nice spice flavor to it.  (Yes, I'm becoming quite a cake snob.)  All of this being said, I LOVED this cake.  It was the perfect combination of flavors.  And super moist!

That's all for now.  Thanks for reading!

Aack! It's been forever!

I'm terribly sorry for the insane delay of my postings.  For whatever reason, I just have been so busy.  (I suppose that I know why I've been busy.  It's called life!  Ha ha!)  I won't make this a super long post giving all of the crazy updates that I normally do with each and every cake.  I'll just see about giving a quick run through with a few pictures.

I officially had my first wedding cake.  It was a gift for my brother and his wife.  I was determined to make it perfect.  I didn't want any mistakes.  It officially was a week long process.  In the end, I added up all my time and it took 30 hours from start to finish.  This didn't include research or shopping time though.  I will post the individual pictures of the tiers, starting from the bottom going up.

So a little about the cakes....The bottom and top tier was a white cake, filled with chocolate ganache and iced with a chocolate hazelnut buttercream.  The middle tier was chocolate cake with the same filling and hazelnut buttercream.  The bow was made out of fondant and dusted with edible gold shimmer dust.  Needless to say, the cake was rather fragile.  And of course the party was on what was the hottest day of the year.  (So far that is!)  Thankfully, my sister let me have her car since she has an amazing air conditioner.  However, it didn't matter all that much.  Once we had traveled the 30 miles or so to the venue, the middle tier and the top tier had already started melting.  They were fantastic at the venue....they quickly put all of the tiers in the walk in.  I wish that I could have just fixed it/decorated in the walk in.  I didn't think to ask that at the time.  I was so freaked out that I couldn't even think!  I did the best I could to assemble it.  The entire back side of the middle tier had slid down the side of the cake and was sitting in the box.  Guests were showing up and watching.  I was devasted.  This was to be my 'coming of age' for cakes.  I must say that when I look back at the pictures, I'm embarrassed.  I feel like I should have been better prepared for the heat.  The cake melted and started to tilt.  I guess if I said it was a topsy turvy cake it would have gone over better.  Here are some of the pictures to prove why you should refridgerate/freeze your cake before transporting them for 30 in 100 degree heat!  My only redeeming grace was that it tasted AMAZING!



Enough of that!  Lesson learned.  I ended up making my last cake for the Wilton class that same weekend.  We of course didn't need more cake sitting around so I took it to work.  A couple of my coworkers had asked me to make them a cake for Pride weekend.  I must say that I was really, really impressed with the way the frosting turned out. 

Now for some sad news.  I lost one of my friends last month.  It was the husband of a long time family friend.  It saddens me that I dont have the right thing to say to Jamie.  My heart simply aches for her.  The only thing I could do was bake.  It was one of the most important cakes that I have ever made.  Sean's favorite color was purple.  So I was determined to give Jamie an edible basket of purple roses.  I had learned my lesson on the wedding cake.  I froze this one just long enough for it to freeze the icing for a bit.  That was the trick!  If I knew it would make everything better, I'd make one everyday.

I had a fun girls night with some of my girlfriends.  The cake went over well.  But I must say, that I'm not so fond of my marble cake recipe.

Ok, this turned out to be a much longer post than I had anticipated it being.  Once again, I'm sorry for the delay!  If its any consolation, I'll be posting another entry soon!

Have a great one and Happy caking!