1/27/05 - Uniform Fitting

I went to the Institute for my Uniform fitting. What horror! I'm excited about the jacket and little pastry cap, but the pants are like parachutes on me. I receive 3 uniforms for the year. I'm going to find a tailor to bring the pant legs in and droopy butt up a little. I researched culinary uniforms on the web and plan to have a nice little number when I get out of school. The fashions are more playful than they used to be. Leopard printed pants are available, even hats. I think I need pink.

1/18/05-The best January ever!

I have had the most amazing January off. I've had nearly a month and a half to myself to do whatever I please before buckling down with studies. School starts February 14th, Valentines day!

What could I possibly do in January? Go on a tropical vacation of course!

Rich and went to Maui to visit my fun old high school friend, Siobhan. I missed her terribly! We had a blast with the rum and the sun and the palm trees. We almost ran over a chicken, drank keylime martinis...oh my sweet tooth, ate delicious healthy vital foods, went to a "Princess" birthday party for Siobhan's friend, Kim's little girl ( I made a fancy tiara out of pipe cleaners), and chatted up a storm. I was just getting relaxed when we had to leave.

Siobhan shops at a natural food store, Mana Foods. They have a most amazing selection of healthy organic food and at reasonable prices you wouldn't expect for Maui. I'm interested in vegan and raw food cakes, which the store provides and I purchased. (I'd like to provide the option of raw and vegan cakes soon.) We bought a raw berry cheesecake, a princess cake, and carrot cake. The first bites into the raw berry cheesecake were grim. We ended up calling it "vomit cake" The coconut was kinda tainted...tainted = pukey flavor. But, the seed crust and berry topping was yummy. We later tried a "Princess cake". It was a vegan cake with 2-3 layers of thin white cake, then a custardy filling, then a berry filling. It was topped with a lime green colored layer of marzipan. Very pretty presentation with the green contrasting the berry. We then tried a vegan carrot cake. In sampling several vegan carrot cakes, and creating a few of my own, it's hard to tell it's vegan. It's easy to bake a vegan carrot cake with lots of flavor. This one was hard to stop eating. The icing was hard to identify. It wasn't quite a tofutti icing as I expected, atleast it didn't taste like it. It was more of a buttercreamy flavor and texture. Hmmm.

Since the Maui trip I've painted the Tiki Room "Aztec Dream" and "Bonzai green". Rich painted clouds on the ceiling. I was inspired after Hawaii to finish off the Tiki guestroom. We still have to line the walls with bamboo.

Rich bought me the DVD set of "Freaks and Geeks". 1980 high school trials and pursuits. I love this show and fill a bit of spare time with it. I was only in 5th grade in 1980, but my sister was in 9th and this show hits home in simple realistic and hilarious ways. It's a true comedic teen experience unlike the glammy teen dramas you see on FOX these days. Buy this DVD set or borrow mine!

I've also been a baking goddess. I found a fabulous chocolate cake recipe after 6 attempts, 6 different recipes. My vanilla and lemon cake are based of the same recipe. I thought I'd be decorating more in my time off, but switched to researching the core, the cake itself.

I've been researching and testing natural organic ingredients too. I'd like to provide organic cakes, but they are pricey. I'm researching "how much more" organic would cost. But, I feel obligated to do this. Baking wouldn't be as much fun without working with the finest ingredients and knowing that who provided these ingredients were treated fairly and treating the earth fairly as well.

Why I'm going to Pastry School

I'm obsessed with cake and chocolate! Over the last 4 years, visions of cake and chocolate slowly overtook me. I'd be working on tasks, like web design or cleaning when those thoughts strayed to visions of cake sugars, cake batter, buttercreams, little sugar flowers, spun sugar, shiny chocolate, melted chocolate drizzling over candy fillings...on and on.

I love the way cake and chocolate can be sculpted. I love the way it makes people smile by just looking at it. I knew this was for me when I started dreaming in cake.

My first vision came to me about 3 years ago, it was beautiful. I was mixing sugar, butter, and vanilla into a fresh buttercream frosting. I just stared into the bowl as it mixed in circles, all soft and fluffy. I could even smell the sweetness of the sugar and hint of vanilla. When I awoke I could still smell it. I then began the quest for the perfect buttercream icing.

Very shortly thereafter, I was reading the newspaper's Food section and noticed the local cake supply store, The Decorrette Shop, was offering decorating classes. "Hmm", I thought. "I used to enjoy cake decorating when I was in baking school*. I shouldn't let this skill go to complete waste. Plus I'm having crazy cake visions." (*I attended cooking and baking vocational school 1988-1990, ruling the cake station, plus spent 5 years in the culinary industry as a pantry cook and line cook.)

I took several courses and improved with each cake I made. I had my disasters, melting icing and falling cake, but I learned through these troubles and developed a process that leaves time to fix the unexpected, yet the unexpected are less and less of an occurrence as I become more educated. I reached a point where I have to know more to work faster and with more confidence. I want the vast knowledge of the science of baking, so I can create new recipes that are my own. This lead me to enroll at the Western Culinary Institute.

It's a risk switching from a well paying computer job to a lower paid and weekend working pastry job, but I'll just regret it horribly if I don't try. If I eventually decide this field isn't right for me, I'll atleast have the skills to kick ass at baking bazaar's when I'm old and gray.