My flower Pots

I am officially on summer vacation, it started yesterday! I'm off for 10 days, then I am returning to LCB to finish up my last 6 weeks there, but I do not have anymore kitchens.

In my sculpting and design class we finished up our wedding cakes(future blog), that was my last kitchens practical. We had 3 days left, so my chef decided we can make cakes.The best part is, is that we were allowed to be creative and do what we wanted. Any design...any color...just pure fun and imagination!

I was really excited about getting my cake started. I wanted something with some color, but different. A lot of my other classmates did topsy turvy cakes with dots,bows, stuff like that. I wanted something a little different. I wanted to incorporate flowers since it is summer and I just absolutely love colorful flowers!
So I decided make flower pots with flowers coming out of them. Once I shaped and torted the cakes I crumb coated them with butter cream.

At the top of each flower pot I cut on a little circle so I can fill it with crushed oreos for dirt. The cakes were covered in modeling chocolate. I never covered anything with modeling chocolate before.

TIP:When covering something with modeling chocolate it isn't like working with fondant, where you can cover it all at once. You have to covered the cake in pieces starting with the top and then the sides.


I really wished I was able to take pictures of this process for you, but I was not able to in my kitchens class.

Then I added a rim around the tops of the cakes to give it definition and covered with edible dust. It turned out awesome! The longest part was covering the cake in the modeling chocolate!

When it came to my flowers, I used Marzipan. I colored the marzipan to my desired colors. Then rolled it out like of you were making a pie crust. Then I used a daisy cookie cutter, and then took my marzipan tools and thinned the flowers out. Then I cupped the flowers so that the edges of the flowers were on the table standing up. Before I started the process I cut floral wire to my desired length and wrapped them in floral tape, and at the bottom of the wire I made a loop.

Once the flowers were somewhat dry, not tooo dry I dipped the loop of the floral is pasteurized egg white...it's used as a glue. I made a small amount of brown marzipan and rolled out medium sized balls. And put them over the round loop. Then I took a flower, I took a paint brush and put a little of egg whites in the middle of the flower. On the opposite side of the loop dip the edge in egg whites and then side the flower up. Turn the flower so that the edges of the petals are supported on the table. Once the flowers are dried you should be able to hold them by the stem you made.

Then I just stuck the flowers in the pots at the very end.


Here are my flower pots!!!




Full view of my flower pots!




The top of my cake!!


I hope you like my cake!!!! I really enjoyed making it!!!!!

Keep posted! I'm in the mood for something with bananas!!!!!!

Kathleens Bridal Shower Cake

This past Sunday was Kathleens bridal shower, and I was asked to do her Bridal cake. She said she wanted a fairy tale theme and I couldn't wait to start making it. I strategized for a few dayas to what her cake could possibly look like..I wanted to make it funky but not childlike. I know she liked the color purple, I knew it would be covered in fondant, chocolate edible butterflies, and pulled sugar roses.

A few days before the bridal shower, I went up to Michaels Arts and Crafts and came across EDIBLE GLITTER!!! I was so excited, this was definitely something I could use for Kathleen's Cake. So I went and bought Purple and Gold Glitter.

I made the cakes 2 days before the bridal shower, I wrapped them in plastic wrap and put them in the fridge to get chill.

TIP: IF YOU ARE GOING TO TORT CAKES IT IS MUCH EASIER TO MAKE SURE THEY ARE CHILLED BEFORE TORTING...LESS MESSY :)


I torted the cakes and filled them with strawberry puree mixed with almond extract, and made a simple buttercream.

TIP:When you want to put a filling in the center of a torted cake you must put an buttercream or icing around the edge with a pastry tip and bag. This Helps keep the cake from sliding and keeps everything in place!!

The next day(day before the shower) I put the fondant on the cake, I colored the fondant with Wilton Violet Gel (only a few drops). I will honestly admit I never put fondant on a cake before, so I was really nervous. I received some advice from my chef, I would say that it helped a bit but it sure didn't ease my butterflies in my stomach. All I could think about was I could absolutely ruine these cakes if I mess up putting on the fondant. I took a deep breath and just covered the cake with fondant, It turned out awesome but I was still uneasy about continuing with the rest of the cakes. By the 3rd tiere I was definitely more relaxed!

TIP:WHEN PUTTING FONDANT ON A CAKE MAKE SURE THE CAKE IS COVERED IN EITHER BUTTERCREAM OR ICING. MAKE SURE IT IS SMOOTH, AND PUT CAKES IN FRIDGE WHILE GETTING THE FONDANT READYY, YOU DON'T WANT THE BUTTERCREAM OR ICING TO BE REALLY SOFT!!!

You always want to smooth out the fondant with you hands or a fondant smoother, always start from the top of the cake then the sides.

I glued the butterflies on the cake with tempered chocolate, I heated the ends of the pulled sugar roses so it would stick to the fondant.I put the edible glitter all over the cakes, but I put a heavier amount of glitter on the bottom of the cakes and lighter as I went up the sides. Where there was butterflies I put gold glitter around them to give it a different look.

When I was assembling the cake I stacked the cakes on top of eachother, but when I looked at it it looked to formal, and that was not the look I was going for. So I thought why don't I angle the cakes so that they were not stacked perfectly on top of each other.


So here it is!!!!.....(more pictures will be added very soon! I wanted to get this up)


=



Thoughts???


Keep Posted!

Hey Everyone

Hey everyone,
Blogspot is giving me such a difficult time uploading photos. Tonight's blog was going to be about my Friend Kathleens Bridal Shower Cake that I made her.

I am going to try to upload the photos at school tomorrow so we can have some photos that go along with my blogpost. So hopefully it works.

My add videos button works but not my add photos...weird.


Sorry about the delay! Hopefully everything will be better tomorrow!

Hang tight!

Personal Update and Good News

It has been a long while since I have update my blog. Things have been terribly chaotic. I personally have had a really hard time getting over the death of my grandfather and dog last month that I basically started pulling away from everyone.

I felt fine then all of a sudden, I wasn't myself at all. I hardly talked to any of my friends, when I was in school I wanted to be home and when I was at home I wanted to be in school. The only baking I was doing was in the kitchens at school. I basically sat around and was miserable half of the time, and really distant with everyone. I was exhausted, and tired of everything that kept going wrong.Everything fought me hookline and sinker. To be honest I had no desire to update my blog at all. I lost my dog, grandfather, and job all within 2 weeks of eachother. When I went to Dc that was a great escape, I was really happy there. But then reality hits you in the face when you come home.

On top of everything else, I did not have an externship for the months of August to November. I need an externship in order to get my degree. Every company that I was signing up to do interviews with would cancel. So at the time with only 10 weeks till I am supposed to leave I had nothing. Now, when my grandfather died when my family and I were down in West Virginia, I received and email from my school stating that two more potiental companies were coming to my school to interview for externs. One was Oglebay in Wheeling WV, and the other was Pinehurst in NC. I signed up for both interviews. Oglebay canceled interviews the day before my interview because only 4 people signed up(myself included) so it was senseless to travel an hour away to conduct 4 interviews. They sent in my resume there because they were going to do phone interviews, but I never received a call. So Oglebay was out.

After when I returned to Dc, my interview for Pinehurst was only 3 days away. I had a portfolio together and everything. Thankfully they did not cancel. They interveiew I thought went really well, I remember one question they asked me was "How do you keep up on current trends in baking?" I personally read a lot, especially on the internet. I mentioned CAKE POPS! He did not know what a Cake Pop was, so I told him about them, about Bakerella's Blog, her book. He thought they were quite awesome!! Another question I got was "what was my most recent book I've read?" I said Dantes Inferno. which is true...and I'm still trying to read this book. They said that there were taking a bunch of culinary students from different schools, and only 2 pastry students all together. After that, I was worried, because I'm closer to my leaving date, and they are only taking 2 pastry students. What are the chances.

About a couple weeks later, I received an email from the pastry chef, he wanted to have interview over the phone(actually a week ago from today, this entire process was about a month. We spoke over the phone for about 20 minutes, even then I was still skeptical about everything, there was no way I was going to get my hopes up. They had to perform backround checks and everything (that was the easy part).He said I would know about 2 weeks if I have the position or not.

Yesterday I slept in, my mom drove into town. Normally I get into town around 845 and don't have class until 11am. So I just read on the internet or tutor students. My mom asked me if I received a letter from Pinehurst if I wanted her to open it. I said "yes," because I was unbelievably eager to know if I had the position or not. She dropped me off at school and all I could think about was Pinehurst, it was driving me insane! My phone started to viberate and I thought it was going to be a text but it a wrong number. After class I received an email from Pinehurst.

I GOT IT!!!!!

I basically sat at my computer and just staired at the email. I was in complete shock. I was so excited my hands started to shake!!!!! So I ofically have an externship!!! That made me so happy! I believe my Bella and Grandad was working some magic up there!! ;)

And it looks like you my readers and I are moving down to Pinehurst, North Carolina in August!!!

Keep posted!!! tons and tons of updates coming along the way!!!!