Cake!

This week at work I finally had the opportunity to decorate some cakes! Everyone who knows me, knows I love to make cakes........and cupcakes of course. Each week I have baked lots and lots of cake that has been used for birthday cakes, grooms cakes and of course, wedding cakes.  All of the cakes and cupcakes at Bittersweet Confections are made from scratch which does take a little longer, but the results are well worth it and I know the customers appreciate it too. 

Well, this week I finally was able to actually decorate some of the cakes that I baked. Eric, the pastry chef, was out of the shop on Tuesday and we had two orders for cakes so Grace and I finally got to decorate. :)

 

Red Velvet Birthday

Our first cake was a joint effort and was a 6in. red velvet cake that I baked the day before. I iced the cake with some of the yummiest cream cheese icing I have ever made. I masked the sides with cake crumbles and Grace wrote the message in chocolate. Grace is wonderful with writing in chocolate and I can't wait to learn more from her. She has worked in the industry in different New Orleans hotels for a few years now and said they all of them write in chocolate so she has had a lot of practice with it. I have more experience with writing in buttercream icing than she does so we make a pretty good team.....lol

Petite Cakes

In the shop we have what are called petite cakes. They are small approximately 3 inch chocolate cakes that are filled with chocolate mousse and covered in chocolate ganache. These are very popular in the shop and would be a nice little personal sized birthday surprise for a friend or co-worker. They really are the perfect size for a good chocolate fix or you could share if you really wanted to and both people would be satisfied. I have tasted these cakes and personally I'll keep mine to myself thank you very much.

Obama Cake

On Election Day we had an order for a 6in. vanilla cake decorated with the Obama symbol. Since Grace had already left for the day I got to do this one all by myself! I made this cake from start to finish, the baking and the decorating. :) The vanilla cake was a chiffon cake that we make from scratch. We make the base cake batter with butter, sugar, flour and leavening ingredients and then a meringue is made and folded in. It can then be flavored accordingly and baked into a cake that is so fluffy and absolutely delectable. It was decorated in buttercream and I piped the design in stars (appropriate for Election Day don't you think???) I kept waiting for a Romney order to come in too, but nope. I thought it would be fun to take a picture of them side by side. 

Eric makes all of the wedding cakes, grooms cakes and really most of the orders that come in.  I am hoping that as Grace and I have opportunities to decorate cakes he will let us help with some of the orders.  He is very talented and I am really looking forward to learning from him.  A couple of weekends ago he made a grooms cake that looked like a red and white popcorn box.  I wish I had taken a picture to post, but that was a very busy day and there was no time to stop and take out the phone and snap a pic.  The fake cake that is on display now (pictured below) is one that he made and it really a neat design.  I can't wait to learn more and get some more experience with fondant. 

More to come later.  Keep it sweet folks!

Amenities

First, just in case you are saying.......What the heck is an amenity?  An amenity is just a little something that someone (usually a business) provides to their customer or guest as a little something extra.  For example, at my old job I planned a meeting at the Grand Bohemian hotel in Orlando, FL and when I arrived and checked into my room there was a beautiful fruit and cheese platter with a very nice bottle of red wine waiting for me as a thank you for booking the meeting with them.  Chocolate covered strawberries or an assortment of chocolates is another common amenity.

There is an upscale hotel here in New Orleans that Bittersweet Confections provides the amenity boxes for the hotel's special guests.  The hotel colors are red, black and silver so the amenities are prepared using boxes that are a combination of those colors.  We place some shreds of black crinkle paper and silver strands in the bottom of the box, and place little bags tied up with ribbon of items that are either a nice treat or are indicative of New Orleans.  Each box is then tied up with a pretty red ribbon and is ready to go.  We usually prepare at least 100 of these boxes each week for the hotel.   

Some examples of things that I have learned are well known in New Orleans are:

Cheese straws are something I had heard of before, but really wasn't all that familiar with.  They taste similar to a Cheese-It cracker.  They are piped into short "sticks" with a star tip so they have ridges and baked until crispy.  We actually used these in the box lunches we made last weeked instead of chips.  These are probably better for you than chips anyway........maybe.

Pecan roca is yummy deliciousness in your mouth!  Roca is basically a nut brittle with chocolate on top and can be made with several different nuts.  Each time I have helped with boxes it has been pecan roca, but we also have almond roca in the shop.  Cheryl (the owner of Bittersweet Confections and a confection queen) explained to me that when making the roca you can tell if you have it right if it is shiny when you pour it out to harden.  If it looks cloudy then it is going to be too soft and you want it to have a nice snap and be crunchy when you eat it, not chewy.

Amaretti cookies sweet little almond flavor cookies that are made with almond paste, sugar and eggs and are piped onto a cookie sheet to bake instead of scooped.  Once they are baked and cooled we dust them with powdered sugar before bagging them up for sale.  Although they can be kind of expensive to make because of the almond paste, they are well worth it!

The Fleur de Lis is seen all over the city.  Almost everywhere you look you see a Fleur de Lis somewhere.  We make some molded chocolate Fleur de Lis for the shop and they are very popular.  We pipe the tempered chocolated into the chocolate molds and let it set, then once the chocolate has set we pop them out, dust them with silver dust and place them in individual clear bags.  They really are pretty and Cheryl uses quality chocolate so you know they taste good too!

Hmmmm, mental note.........this is definitely a little nugget to tuck away for coming back to Tally and the some of the nice hotels there that may consider amenities for their special guests.  I just need to come up with treats that represent Tallahassee.  Any ideas?

Until next time......Keep it sweet!

I survived my first week!

My first week of externship is over and I have lived to tell about it. This week was amazing! I am exhausted and ache all over, but it was so worth it!!! You not at a desk job anymore Dorothy......LOL

With my parking dilemma solved I was ready to get started. Oh, and to make it better there is a parking lot directly across the street from the one I was using that is the same price for an hour longer of parking. This may not seem like a big deal, but for me this is a Win! :)

Wednesday was my first real day. I left the house around 7:00am thinking this will be plenty of time to get there by 8:30........wrong, well almost. I parked in the lot at 8:25 and ran to the shop and made it just in time, so now I will be leaving at 6:45.  I met Eric the pastry chef and then it was off to the races. We didn’t use the commercial sized mixers much in school so I got a crash course in commercial mixer 101 (which really is pretty easy). We started with a big batch of buttercream icing which I felt pretty good about since I have made this TONS of times. Then he had me make a batch of chocolate cake batter for cakes later in the week. We had several cakes for this weekend so we made a few batches of different batters. Chocolate cake, red velvet cake, white cake.....etc.

My days for this week kind of run together, but I really got to make a lot of fun things. We made bagels, brioche dough, chocolate chip cookie dough, Oatmeal raisin chocolate chip cookie dough, Amaretti cookies, chocolate dipped strawberries, muffin batter, buttercream icing, cake, cake and more cake.

I have learned so many little things to keep in mind for when I come back to Tally and get ready to open my own place. Some of them seem like common sense, but I just haven't really thought about it before. We made huge batches of cookie dough and scooped them out, flatten them a little and then froze them for later. They only bake a few for the day so that we have fresh cookies for sale every day. With the cake batter we always bake whatever is left after measuring out the cakes into cupcakes. The cupcakes that aren’t needed for the case right away are tightly wrapped and frozen for the next day or two.  When they are thawed later they are just as moist and yum-o as when they were frozen.  Bagel dough is also made in a big batch, shaped and frozen before the dough starts to rise; then each evening we take out enough bagels and croissants for the next day to thaw in the cooler overnight and be baked fresh the next morning. Can you say YUMMY! Again most of this is common sense for shop/bakery/restaurant owners, but you and I really don't think about it.  In my mind it was everything made from scratch everyday........what a mess that would be, I would have to get in waaaaaay too early.

I also had fun making "cup"cakes for the Wednesday in the Square event where Cheryl has a booth set up.  The picture below is of the chocolate caramel "cup"cakes.  I piped a little caramel buttercream into the bottom of the cup, placed a chocolate cupcake in the cup, then piped a little ring of the buttercream around the top.  Some caramel was piped on the top and sprinkled with mini chocolate chips and then finished off with another drizzle of caramel.  I thought this was such a great idea both for transporting and for serving at events like this one. It's like a little cupcake parfait.  :)

 

 

Cheryl doesn't normally serve sandwiches, but she had an order for some box lunches that we prepared and delivered on Saturday.  The picture is of the veggie sandwich with sauteed portabella mushrooms, roasted red peppers, sprouts and a cream cheese spread.  We also make chicken salad sandwiches and roasted turkey sandwiches.  Let me tell you, I have had box lunches before and I only wish mine were as good as these.  Each box had a sandwich on a fresh brioche bun, a little bag of cheese straws, and a chocolate dipped strawberry.  Mmmmmm!

 

I do miss everyone back in Tally, but I am having a blast learning and spending time with my parents.  Well, what little time I am home.   LOL 

Until next time.........Keep it Sweet!


Have a HAPPY HALLOWEEN everyone!!!!!

My First Day.......well sort of

Ok, so I am finally getting started.  Well, sort of.......yesterday I told my boys good-bye and went down into New Orleans to Bittersweet Confections where I will be completing my externship.  I met with Cheryl, the owner, and got my official job description and went over company policies, etc.  I also got to meet a couple of my co-workers Grace and Andy. 

Grace is sort of a newbie like me, but she has been there for a little over a week and already looks to be having a great time.  She is a baker like me and looking at the schedule it looks like we will be working together a lot.  We already chatted a little yesterday and she is super sweet.  :) 

Andy is in the front of the house and seems to be one of Cheryl's key people.  I remember meeting him when I came to visit in July and he seems to be a pretty cool guy.  He is going to be teaching Grace and I all about the front of the house and the coffee/ espresso machine.  Oh boy!  You know I love coffee so I am really excited to actually learn the right way to make all of those yummy drinks.

Eric is the kitchen manager and will be my direct supervisor.  I'll get to meet him tomorrow on my first real day.  He writes up the schedule and since today (Tuesday) is my scheduled day off I thought I would go ahead and catch everyone up to speed.  (Hense, the My First Day.......well sort of) 

My biggest challenge thus far is parking.....lol  Since I am from little ol Tallahassee where pretty much every business has a parking lot, I'm not used to having to hunt for parking.......or parking on the street........or getting a contract for a parking lot......or just flat out paying for parking.  Anyway, everyone thinks its funny that it is the parking that is stressing me out.  Alas, I have found a lot that is a few blocks down on the same street that is $6 a day so that is where I will be shooting for getting a spot for now.  I have been told that there is a lot 3 streets over that is $4 a day, but while the walk would be great I just dont feel comfortable enough with the city yet.  I know, I know, quit being a weenie.  :)

I'll let ya know how the espresso machine tutorial goes.......keep it sweet!

The time has come

Ok, so I know I have been completely MIA.  I have no excuses, just life and the craziness of it.  :)

I'm here and this time I can't fall back on my promise to keep everyone posted of my adventures in pastry.  Yesterday I moved to Slidell, LA to complete my externship in New Orleans at an awesome place called Bittersweet Confections on Magazine Street.  Seriously, this place is great!  If you are in the area you would be doing yourself a disservice if you didn't stop in and have a little something and if you are not in the area then you should at least check out their website at www.bittersweetconfections.com. 

I will be living with my mom and dad and I am super excited to have some time with them!!!!  My boys (husband Lane and son Brandon) are on their way here now for the weekend and I can't wait to show them where I will be working.  Anyway, my point is because I have now begun my externship I will be keeping up my blog on a regular basis because now not only will I actually have some things to share with you all, but keeping a journal is also a requirement for school.  :)

I have had a couple of adventures since my last post such as TWO WEDDINGS!!  As soon as I have some good pictures I will blog about the weddings. 

So, without further adieu.......the time has come!

Pastry Live 2012 (Day 1, Part 1)

Oh Wow.....I dont even know where to start.  Pastry Live in Atlanta was AMAZING!!!!  My plan is to post about it one day at a time.

Day 1 (Friday)
Today was the big day for the Student Chocolate competition and I could not be more proud of my two classmates, Laura and Toni, that participated.  I served as the extra pair of hands and cheerleader for Laura during the competition.  Toni and Laura both did fantastic!  We reported to the venue and started at 8:00 that morning.  The girls had 30 minutes to temper chocolate and put together their pieces and both finished just in time.  Laura's piece had a African safari theme and Toni's was Under the Sea. 

After the competition was over the competitors in the Cake competition started bringing in their amazing creations.  The competitors bring in their cakes already completed or they may do some light assembling on site.  They also have to bring in a seperate cake for tasting.  I attached a couple of my favorites below.  The Dr. Suess was really fun and I liked the mermaid, but she kind of had a freaky face.



Needless to say this was so exciting for me since I love cakes!  I have pretty much convinced myself to consider entering the competition next year.  It all depends on my confidence level and where I am this time next year. 

We attended two seminars that day which will come in post #2...........so stay tuned.  :)

Please forgive me.......

I am a terrible blogger so far.  I haven't posted anything in at least 2 weeks.  I attribute this to the schools out for summer brain.  Like I said in my last post I finished up my actual classes a couple of weeks ago and are now just waiting to go to my externship in October.

Anyway, I vow to get back on track!  I am headed up to Atlanta, GA today for Pastry Live 2012 this weekend.  I promise when I get back to catch everyone up on all of the happenings that have been going on.  Thanks for understanding and I'll catch ya later!