45 posts tagged “cake”
I finished up baking the wedding cake… in a range that now has a (temporary I hope) wooden handle, that’s right ladies and gents, my kitchen range is sporting a 2x4 where the handle should be. One side of the handle came off yesterday as I was putting the first cake in the oven. Later, the other side came off as well, right in my hand. With the new chunk of wood, I can get in stuff in and out of the oven much easier. And that was all that mattered while I was baking the wedding cake. Tomorrow I will ice the wedding cake, Saturday morning I will deliver it and then enjoy my cousin’s big plain Mennonite wedding.
Just about the time I was headed off for a nice leetle nap, I saw that the USPS had delivered my box of broken NASA glass… which sent me downstairs to the kiln. I played with the pretty bits of dichroic glass and put a round in the kiln to fire up. I spent some quality time with the whammer, making broken glass into more broken glass, managed to wham my own finger like the genius I am. Owie! I just finally pulled that batch of glass out of the kiln just now, they were still 102 degrees, but that’s better than 1500 that they were earlier. I think they turned out beautifully in spite of the fact that three of the six have crack marks in the center. I’ll ask a glass friend what that was about but I’m pretty sure it’s because I opened the kiln door to peak at the wrong temp and the glass just couldn’t contain it’s joy at seeing me and it's heart just burst right there in the middle. Or something like that. Temperamental stuff, peaking in the kiln at the wrong time is a bad idea.
I was serious about getting that nap so I tried again. This time the phone rang just after I had
dozed off. The hubby was on his way home
and bringing the father-in-law with him.
He was just passing through but we managed to talk him into staying the
night. I would have cooked but he just
wanted food, a shower and off to bed with him.
He’s driving some kind of big rig through the area. We ordered a pizza and that was that. I like to cook, and I would have loved to
cook for them but they were looking for something a little more instant. To bad, their loss.
I managed to put some glaze on a series of wine
glasses. It seems like wine glasses were
good for me this month in sales. The
second round of glazing will come tomorrow and then I’ll get a feel for whether
or not I like them… so far myeh. That's how they always look after the first round, the second round is what makes them beautiful.
While I was working on the glaze my friend Michelle called. She was here for a few nights last weekend and I made home made hot poppers. She was making them and trying to remember what I'd done. Just cut the peppers in half, remove the seeds and membranes. In a microwave safe mug put half a block of cream cheese in the mic for 30 seconds. Stir in some salt and peppa, onions, paprika, garlic and some swiss or sharp cheddar (in fine chunks) or whatever your favorite cheese is. Stir it all together and put in a pastry bag (or a ziploc bag with the corner clipped if you don't have the other) and pipe it into the pepper halves. Line a pan with foil, put cracker crumbs in the pan so the peppers don't stick, top the poppers with more cracker crumbs and some parsley. I popped them in my toaster over at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, served with cold sweet n sour and duck sauce and YUM! Michelle was trying to remember what I'd done, she'd been watching while I made them when she was here. She'd found a recipe online from Emeril... but she said it was too complicated. Michelle liked my recipe better than Emeril's!! *wistful bits of happy joy and smug self approval*
I just put another round of glass in the kiln and set it off. By morning I hope it is back down to a temperature that I can get in there and see what they look like. I love working with glass, you never know what is going to come out of the kiln, but honestly, waiting to pull them out after they are back down under a hundred degrees is really hard. I am curious and impatient.
It’s time for full tilt production for the holidays. I want to get my work into a few more galleries and see if I can rock this holiday season. I hope so. That would be cool.
Then maybe the first of the year I can work on transforming my kitchen. I’m thinking a new floor – which I think means the old vinyl will have to come up. And since it’s been down there since 1975 I don’t know how hard it will be to get up. And everything needs a coat of paint. The walls, the cabinets… everything. It’s going to be a really big job but it will turn out fine, if I can ever make up my mind on the colors. I fear that I don't really want to live with the gray I've chosen. It would be beautiful in someone else's home, but other people can live with colors I can't handle and the opposite is true. (I remember well my fuchsia bedroom - it rocked - but to be fair it was mostly concrete, steel, glass and hardwood... but still the one fuchsia wall ROCKED!) Hmm...
I still hope that we can get the adoption in by the end of
the year, mainly for tax reasons but honestly, hope is waning for that. And the possible financial repercussions of
that kind of suck. But whatcha gonna
do? There isn’t anything I can do but
wait. Well... I can blubber over it, but I've already done my share of that. Honestly I don't know whatever possessed me to say that I'd pay thousands of dollars and wait hundreds of days for something I'm not sure I can handle when it comes. I'm just sayin.
That's a day in the life of an artist. Never a dull moment.
has made it to Cake Wrecks! It's a Transformer cake. But in the good section, not the OMG-can-you-believe-what-someone-made section! Thanks to Brown Suga for pointing it out to me! Score! =)
Someone wants a wedding cake for December 13th, so I sat down and did the math and came up with a price tag that would make me willing to do her cake. I am not crazy about the idea, but if she can pay the price tag then I can make the cake. I guess we'll see after she sees the figure. I won't hold my breath. LOL! So in the process I created a flicker account for a few of my wedding cake photos. If you've followed my blog through the bakery saga, then you've likely seen them all already. If not, they may look new. Either way, I'm glad that I have these skills and sometimes it helps pay the bills. What can I say?! flickr photos
Entirely tired and grateful that the wedding is over – at least as far as I am concerned. The kids may still be there dancing away, I don’t know. I spent a couple days making a wedding cake and we demolished that thing in less than 10 minutes. This is the first wedding cake I’ve done since I left the bakery. It came together very nicely.
I think it may have been the best tasting cake I have ever made. After my conversation with the bride about the flavors she wanted I tested out a number of things. Banana cake was new to me, but it turned out beautifully. I also kind of “invented” a filling for the white cake. It was white chocolate almond ganache. And I used some vanilla bean paste in it. Oh! Yum! So of the six tiers two were chocolate with crème de mint filling. Two were white cake with white chocolate almond filling and the last two were banana cake with butter cream filing.
Once I got my knives on that cake it came apart easily and away we went. I cut that cake up and hubby helped and we demolished that thing in no time flat. I didn’t even take the time to look up and say “hi” to the people I knew that were at the wedding.
It was a beautiful location, the bride and groom were beautiful and everything was gorgeous. It was just too hot, and too loud. As the evening wore on the temp outside cooled off and it became really nice. Inside it was really hot and the music kept inching louder and louder. I am not a loud noise person! We tried to communicate some at the cake table, telling people what the cake flavors were but you had to yell to be heard and sometimes someone would put their mouth right by my ear and I still couldn’t make out what they were saying. As I walked by a couple of 50 something folks sitting quietly at a table, I realized they were both wearing ear plugs. Too funny! Next time I’ll know.
The cake was beautiful, it tasted great, the people were happy and enjoying the celebration. And the bride and groom are hopefully well on their way to their honeymoon. All is well with the world.
I am making a wedding cake. It's my first one ever.
Well, that's not entirely true. I've made so many wedding cakes I've lost count years ago. I made my first cake in the late 80's - maybe 88? Not sure. And most of the time I'm pretty good at it. I'm finally out of the bakery so when someone wants a wedding cake I get to bake the thing myself.
Well… this afternoon I started baking the wedding cake. I'm doing it at church because there are two huge ovens and other great equipment and lots of room. So tonight I am realizing that I screwed this cake up every which way. WHAT?! Am I NEW at THIS? WHAT IS my problem?! (Same as usual – my back is killing me!)
So… I made the banana cake and then a little while later realized that I had too many bananas left over. Hmm… so I cut into the banana cakes and they look fine, it’s just that they don’t have the planned amount of bananas in them.
So… I made the white cake and then a little while later realized (yeah, this sounds familiar so far) that I had the pudding mixes left over. Hmmm… I had intended to use a white chocolate pudding mix in each batch and there they are sitting on the counter top just laughing at me. So the white cake is missing its white chocolate, the banana cake is light on bananas. I think I managed not to screw up the chocolate so far. But there is still time.
When I arrived at the church kitchen to work there was the Mother of the Groom there with her stuff all over the work space. Ok, so I had reserved the space but that doesn’t really mean anything. And the parents of the Groom are paying for the cake. I’m not a big fan of having the client watch the cake making process. I'm already feeling a little strange toward her because she's done a number of things to try to change the order away from what the bride asked for. I had never thought of her as being overbearing or anything but I have observed her making decisions without the input of the bride or groom. I guess I'm working from the bias that it's their wedding. But families are different. I wasn't real keen on starting the wedding cake with her in the kitchen. I already feel a little like I'm going behind her back because I've chosen to take instruction from the bride rather than then her on a few details. She kept putzing around and didn’t leave until I was well into the process. And when I pulled out the olive oil I thought she was gonna freak! Seriously! You should have seen her face!! Olive oil is good for you and I think it does something earthy, rich and marvelous in cake. Not that I could really tell the difference between a canola and olive oil cake in a blind taste test. But anyway. I was glad when she finely left, I found her presence there really distracting.
Oh, did I mention... I knocked two dozen jumbo eggs off the counter on to the floor - kersplat! They were still in their boxes so I only lost a few, but boy that is the stupidest feeling in the world.
I consider baking a cake as part of the creative process as much as anything else I do. I use a cake mix but I don’t follow the instructions on the box. Over the years I’ve developed a formulation that has worked very nicely for me. I add things and subtract things. All that to say, this is a cake mix cake, but it is better than the usual cake mix result. (And cake mix cakes are usually better than scratch cakes, they are lighter and the texture is finer.) Right now I'm feeling protective of that formula. And the mother of the groom peppered me with questions. How many times in the course of a conversation does one have to repeat that the details of my recipe will remain a mystery?! I wanted to just tell her that I wouldn't be answering that question just like I didn't answer her the first five times she asked the question.
The commercial dish washer was malfunctioning and it was very distracting. I did’t know what it was doing, but it was really loud and driving me crazy. I had to call hubby to help with that one. He walked in, pushed one button and there was instant silence. Grrrrrr! I was grateful for the relief from that racket but annoyed that it was that simple. If he had told me to push that button on the phone – I could have attained the blissful silence myself. That thing has a three minute cycle. I guess the dishes that were in there for 30 minutes could be considered clean.
And the back is killing me again today. It doesn’t make sense but there ya have it. And I got the lecture from hubby about how something is seriously wrong with me, the little tiny bit of work I’ve been doing shouldn’t result in this big pain… yibidy yibidy. ‘Little bit of work’ my a$$. And it's not that I didn't ask for help this time, I did. He thinks I’ve got to go back to the doctor and on and on he went. I’ve been to the Doc and after a whole pile of tests they don’t know any more about it then they did to begin with. So… what do I have to gain by going back there? I know I could blow another $1000 on tests, and that’s WITH health insurance. I’ve been hitting the pain meds, but clearly not enough because tonight I forgot the bananas and dropped the eggs. And even though I took a cute little blue (not viagra) pill, I'm still really feeling it. What's a girl to do?!
Hmmm… just another day here in the loony bin.
I didn’t get a real weekend. Actually, it was a lovely weekend but there was just so much of it that I woke up really tired this morning. Saturday I delivered a wedding cake and told my boss that I’d work through the end of May and that would be it for me at the bakery. Just between us kids, I’ll likely still go back and help out here and there but I knew I’d never get a raise unless I left completely and then made that a condition of returning. And the girl they hired for me to train came in for two hours a while back and saw my work and tried to decorate a cake with the icing I use. I’ve never seen her since. She got totally intimidated but I thought I had really encouraged her strongly, so either I entirely missed that boat on what she was actually feeling or else the intimidation got the best of her. Either way, it leaves the bakery without a decorator and that’s not cool. But it’s not my bakery, and therefore not my problem. Though it is harder to leave without leaving them someone who can take my place.
Sunday we delivered a wedding cake to Luray Virginia which is an hour and a half from here. I’ve never taken a cake that far. It was a small casual wedding on a lake and we set the wedding cake up in a picnic pavilion. I had barely gotten started when the first bugs came and started to hang out on the cake. A prospect that I do not find appetizing, but that’s just me. It was a beautiful day with an incredible view. And the groom was absolutely adorable. It just seemed like a very casual and comfortable group of really good folks.
Boss Lady and I stopped at an artisan food place for lunch on the way back and the food was incredible. (I paid for my own!) I made the mistake of saying that I didn’t feel like I had worked, that it was more like a day trip. And she indicated that she was glad I felt that way and something about not needing to get paid for the hours I was in the car. She said she’d have the Business Manager Elf talk to me about that. So apparently she’ll sick the “pit bull” on me to see if they can get me to agree to not being paid for working on a Sunday. If they even seriously try that I will be furious. Sadly, not surprised, just furious. I made $50 (before taxes come out) for working Sunday, and spent $57 buying sugar cookies that I had decorated to take to two parties over the weekend. I got really frustrated with myself for not putting quite a few of those cookies back but BL was standing there breathing down my neck as I was trying to make up my mind. So I bought more than I should have instead of taking my time. I was really annoyed with myself for that. So if they try any weirdness, I’ll just remind them that whatever I earned that day I returned to the till by buying overpriced cookies because I was not at home where I could have made a whole batch for waaaay less. So with my lunch of $10 and the sugar cookies, I ended up with a net loss on that day. *grumble*
I’m already at my first job of the day and will head off to the bakery at 10:00 this morning. After work there I will teach a friend whatever she can learn in the way of cake decorating. Sadly, she’s leaving the area for culinary school and can’t take my job. I think she has a natural knack for it though, so I’m looking forward to that.
This is my last week at the bakery. After fighting with BL once a week for the last number of weeks over not having the equipment I need to do the job… the battle is about to be over. I will do my best to end things nicely and leave on an up note. There are three of us leaving at the same time so it’s a good time to go. I know I’ve been saying the end was in sight for a long time… I may have to be a real hard a$$ to accomplish that goal, but I really think this is it. I hope. I'm ready for the next thing.
I'll post photos of this weekend's wedding cakes when I get the chance.
Last Saturday I talked with the woman who is to become my replacement at the bakery. And she was supposed to come Tuesday morning and start her new job and I had agreed to train her. Only she has not shown up. She spent two hours with us on Saturday and got really intimidated, she worked with the icing and realized how different it was than what she was used to. And she decorated a cake that turned out looking pretty bad. And it’s in the case next to my work. And she saw the Shakespeare cake I did that turned out especially nicely. And I haven’t seen her since. She called and said she hurt her back. I don’t think she’s lying but I do think it very strange that she hasn’t turned up – if even to watch. It throws off the schedule I had in my head of having her trained in the basics by June 1. And the girl who makes icing will be gone after June 1 which means heaven only knows what I’ll have to work with after that. No one else has figured out how to make the icing the way she does and it drives me bonkers. But I guess I’m stuck another week in this job. I feel like it’s a safe and comfortable place to be, and that I use it as an excuse to keep from the next stages of my new business. (Though my evening hours are all about my work.) But I’m not happy about it. I’m not upset either. I guess I’m just trying to be patient and hope that someday soon there will be another decorator taking over the day to day stuff. That will leave me with the most interesting and challenging cakes and then only if I can fit them into my schedule. And that will leave me with no alternative but to move on.
This cake went by so quickly that I hardly remember that I made it. The highlight is the fondant bow on the top. I made the loops early in the week and they had powdered sugar dots on them. Boss Lady fretted all week that the powered sugar wouldn't come off and I just told her it would be fine and not to worry about it. (Like telling Bush to complete an intelligent sentence with proper pronunciation.) In retrospect I should have gone over and cleaned one loop off so that she could see that it was going to be fine and quit worrying about it but I didn’t. Anyway, the powdered sugar came off fine and the cake came together nicely. The colors were gold and burgundy but I called it peanut butter and jelly. The consensus around the bakery was that those colors weren’t anything special. But the cake turned out fine. With this cake and the one last weekend, I am really tired of doing swirls.
Mary Baldwin graduates a group from their Master's Degree in Shakespeare program - both an MLitt and a MFA. And each year the bakery does a cake for the celebration. And they always want the names of the graduates on the cake. When the client came in she just kept telling me what they did last year and on and on over how great that cake had been. But when I asked her what she wanted this year she wouldn't answer, just told me to do what I wanted. Her only suggestion was to include the names and a fleur de lis. So this was my solution to the problem.
I am supposed to train a new woman to take over parts of my Cake Decorating job. She’s from Martin’s – a grocery store chain. So she’s used to doing the big bloppy sloppy cakes that cost a fraction of what ours do. I hope it works out but I have my reservations. Anyway, I had started this cake and when she saw it you could see how intimidated she got – right off the bat. I really felt for her! Anyway, I walked her through the stages that I went through to make the face and that seemed to help her calm down a little bit. I’ve got to figure out a way to make it work with her because I want out of the day to day decorating there and she’s the only option that I know of at the moment.
I am really happy with how this cake turned out. And when the client saw it she was thrilled. She kept saying it just gave her chills. And I looked at her arms and she actually had goose bumps all over. Now that is a nice compliment if I ever had one. A totally unique compliment I must say!
