6 weeks already?!?!

Good Afternoon Everyone,
It has been a terribly long time since I have posted anything. I really wish I had something fun, cute, and exciting to post, but unfortunately I do not. I promise that I did not forget about you at all. My internship definitely took over my life. I am doing about 40 hours a week with only a day off. In the beginning I was getting two days off in a row..but we have been ultra busy so I have been doing about 6 days straight.

On a more personal level, I am finding myself missing home. I'm missing being around my friends and family. I really love living on my own, but not out of state. I think I would be happier if I was happier with my internship. I'm just having problems more and more. I feel inadequate there. I really never had any sort of bakery experience or restaurant experience. I was once a hostess in a restaurant, and I did work at a Subway for several years. But that is nothing compared to what I am doing. I havn't done much in the last several weeks that I feel absolutely good about, I miss making and decorating cakes, making pies...everything that I love to do. And I know that I am good at. I am very overwhelmed at work, all I need to do is get through the next 5 to 6 weeks. Then I get to go home!

October is coming up in about a week. This is definitely one of my favorite months. the leaves are starting to change..I get to start eating Pumpkin Pie...I love watching the little kids dress up for Halloween...I just love everything about this month. I have been wanting to do Cake Pops for a long time now! When I do...they will definitely be Halloween related! And I will be sure to post them on here!!!

Please wish me luck with the rest of my intership! I'm going to need it!

But it won't be another 6 weeks before you hear from me again I promise!

Pinehurst!

Good evening everyone!
I promise I have not forgotten about updating my blog at all! I moved to North Carolina last weekend, the entire time down to NC I hit nothing but horrible rain storms on the road...where as on the highway the normal speed was like 55mph I was going 5mph. It was absolutely insane. But I had it down here safe and sound!

My condo I got with another student that I go to school with is really nice. We live right on a golf course.Which it neat, because every morning you see golfers out there playing golf. Which is really neat to see.

I had internet at the condo when I first arrived and I started writing a blog post but then I got distracted and I put in under drafts...then that same night our wireless internet stopped working. So I have not had internet at my condo for several days now. Which is really annoying and inconvenient because even though I am on externship I still have weekly journal assignments that I need to do...and the internet is quite vital to complete the assignments.

Anyways, I had orientation on Wednesday...it was great! Pinehurst is absolutely beautiful! There are golfers everywhere riding around in their golf carts...then even ride on the roads sometimes it's crazy!

This past Friday was my first day at work...and I was soo nervous because if it was anything like my restaurant practical I would not like working at Pinehurst...but it wasn't it is the complete opposite!The bake shop is really laid back...and the people that work in it are just wonderful..they don't made you feel stupid if you don't understand something.Which I like and it makes it easier to learn and be more comfortable around them.

I am currently working the shift 7am to 3pm...thankfully I only live like 3 minutes away driving which is really nice...less gas I have to use! So far I have baked tons and tons of cookies...muffins...plated some desserts...I do a lot but it is so much fun!I actually look forward going to work, but I have to admit my feet hurt by the end of my shift!

Anyways here are some pictures of the area:


I had to share my rainbow picture that I took while I the passenger of my car on the way down to NC! This was after a huge rain storm!


The front of Pinehurst Resort...but only half of it! This place is absolutely huge and sooo beautiful inside!


My backyard at sunset!


Fruit dipped in Chocolates that I did in the bakeshop!



Guest Amenities...this is one of their options. I did this today...for 6 chocolate covered Strawberries it costs about $35.00 dollars.


A chocolate covered Strawberry with the pinehurst symbol of on! I absolutely love this one! It's one of my favorites!

I hope you enjoyed my photos! Please keep posted...I'm trying to resolve my internet issues so I can do more blog posts! But I DO NOT forget about you guys!

Be safe!

Sarah

Update! Remember My Cake Pop Competition???

Hey everyone! I know I have not updated in a while, it have been absolutely crazy around here! I am just finishing up my last days at Le Cordon Bleu and I am leaving for North Carolina to intern at Pinehurst Golfing Resort for a few months. So I am in the process of getting all of that together! I am quite nervous but really excited...to be in a new town...meet new people and learn different baking techniques! MAYBE expand my horizons and learn how to golf??? maybe....

Here is Pinehurst's website if you want to check it out to see where I am going!

http://www.pinehurst.com/

Furthermore, do you remember my post about my Cake Pop Competition that I did back in March for the students at my school?

Just in case if you do not remember here is the link to that post on my blog
http://sweetasakiss.blogspot.com/2011/03/cake-pops-competition.html

Well I sent the photos in for Bakerella to see, and she told me that the next time she uploads more people to her "Pop Star," collection to her site that she would put out picture on there!

SO SHE DID!! I was so excited I felt like a 5 year old at Christmas! It was great!!!!

Here is the link so you can see our competition members on Bakerella's site!!!!

Bakerella's "Pop Stars" with us in it!!!!! :D

http://www.bakerella.com/pop-stars-sarah-classmates-in-pennsylvania/

Thank-You Bakerella!!!! :D

I hope you enjoyed my small blog post! I wish to have more stuff coming up soon!!!!!

Keep Posted!

Scooby Doo Birthday Sheet Cake

This past week my nephew Timmy turned 7! My sister had me make his birthday cake, she wanted half chocolate and half vanilla. And she wanted a full sheet cake. I have never made a full sheet cake before so I was definitely up for this challenge.


I bought half sheet cake pan a by 2a.m. the cakes were wrapped in saran wrap and chilling in the fridge.

Timmy wanted a Scooby Doo cake, in previous years it was either Sponge Bob or Spider Man...so I was really excited when he wanted Scooby Doo...I was happy because Scooby is just absolutely adorable.

I was not sure about how I wanted Scooby Dooo to look, so I googled Scooby Doo expressions and found a couple of them I really liked. On the cake Scooby Doo's is constructed of Fondant that I colored.

I used a very simple Buttercream for the entire cake.

My Buttercream

4 Sticks of butter-Sweet and Creamy works well
4 cups of Powdered Sugar- keep adding it in until you get the consistency you want
1 Tablespoon of Vanilla
1 Teaspoon of Ultra Pasteurized Heavy Cream

**Mix all together, if it is to thin add more powdered sugar!**
But for my sheet cake I tripled the recipe...at one point I had to go back to the grocery story for more butter.

Here is Timmy's Birthday Cake...............







I hope you like his cake....and I sure hope Timmy does!


Keep posted for upcoming posts!

Super Easy Lemon Cookies

I absolutely love anything lemon! When my mom told me that I can make really good lemon cookies using only 3 ingredients I was very skeptical. So of course I had to try them out. And boy was I shocked on how good they were...and you will be too if you decided to make them!


The 3 ingredients you will need are ........


That's right all you need to make these cookies are these three ingredient! Now you can add extra lemon just to give it that extra lemon flavoring. I would only add a teaspoon at a time.


What you need:
1 box of Lemon Cake mix
2 Eggs
1/3 cup of oil

*Bake at 350...until edges of cookies are a light brown (you don't want a gooey center, but not rock hard)**


Add all those ingredients together and mix...it should feel and look like dough



I like using scoopers it makes the cookies more even!!!



Line your sheet tray with parchment paper...no need to wash them when you're done ;)





Cookies that are all done! Don't they look good?!?!?



Cookies and Milk...the combination with this cookies is just amazing!!!! Trust me!



One down for meee! :)



I ended up with about 38 cookies all together!! So many more than what is being shown in this picture!



Now to spice up the cookies a bit...sift a little bit of powdered sugar(also known as 10x sugar) onto the cookies. It makes them look a little more fancy!



Cookies sprinkled with powdered sugar...don't they look cute??




These cookies were the easiest cookies that I have ever made. From beginning to the end it took me 45 minutes to make! the best part is they do not taste like they are only made of 3 ingredients.

Take my word for it...try them out...you won't be disappointed!!!


Keep posted for upcoming blogs!!

Cornelli Wedding Cake

This past weekend was Kathleen's and Anthonys wedding. The was the couple that I did the bridal shower cake for a few weeks ago. I thought since it was a wedding weekend for John and I , so I held back on blogging about my first wedding cake I did a few weeks ago.

At the end of my Sculpture and Design class we make our first wedding cakes. I was so excited, but a little apprehensive about it starting it. But that was not stoping me at all.

Thankfully the weekend before I started this cake I got some practice on Kathleen's bridal shower cake. I don't know if you remember in that blog post that I said I was nervous about putting the fondant on the cake. When it came to putting the fondant on my wedding cake for class I was a little more confident.

This wedding cake was a two tiered wedding cake. The top tiere was super easy to put fondant on, but the bottom tiere(the biggest one) fought me hook, line and sinker. I actually had to re-due the fondant over twice. The first time the fondant was too thin, and the second time it was at a perfect thickness but it started to tear.

TIP: WHEN WORKING WITH FONDANT MOVE FAST OR IT WILL TEAR!!!!

I fixed up the one torn spot, it looked ok but it definitely wasn't how I wanted to start off my first wedding cake. But nonetheless I was quite pleased UNTIL...I was putting the cake on the cooling rack and the side of my cake was rammed into the top part of the metal on the little shelves....so there was a nice size noticeable gash...there was definitely no hiding it!

So I walked away and figured I would worry about it tomorrow.

With this wedding cake practical I was completely in the zone...I swear I didn't hear any of the other noise going on around me....it was quite wonderful!



This is what Cornelli looks like, just in case if you don't know what it is. When you decide to decorate cake with cornelli lace you want to make little lines, but not tooooo little! The edges should never be sharp...ALWAYS ROUNDED! You always start from either the side of your pattern of the bottom...never start or finish at the middle of the Cornelli lace.

Doing the Cornelli Lace was my favorite part about the wedding cake! Very detailed and it takes a lot of patience! Cornelli Lace is a royal icing that is piped!

BEWARE: YOUR HANDS MAY GET TIRED...TAKE BREAKS IF NEEDED! :D




On our wedding cakes we had to do a border...I really love the pearl borders. So I decided to do a Pearl border on mine. I just used a small round tip with Royal Icing...always make sure the Royal Icing is a thicker consistence...if its not then the pearls with run together if that happens just add more powdered sugar! If it becomes tooo thick add small amounts of water! You want to have a happy medium!




Here is my topper for the cake! I was never very fond of people toppers for wedding cakes! The swan is blown sugar...I really don't care for this method...the swan gave me nothing but problems...it took me two tries to get it right...I kept blowing it up! The little spirals are pulled sugar just wrapped around a wooden spoon for about a minute! The hearts are pastiage, that is like a dough that turns turns brittle...one comparison would be a Necco Wafer!



Here is my wedding cake all done!!!! I received a 93% on it! Oh and just in case if you were wondering...that gash I put on the side of my cake from the cooling rack I filled it with Royal Icing and smoothed it out! It didn't turn out bad looking...so I really can't complain!





I hope you enjoyed my first wedding!!


Stay posted for upcoming blogs!!!

PS: I hope everyone had a safe and fun 4th of July!

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!!!!!!