Love & Sugar

I'm in love with cooked isomalt (pure artificial sugar made for diabetics).  If it was a man I would marry him and be very much in love.  Talk about perfection.  Working with sugar is kinda similar to dating, it's annoying, it hurts sometimes, but it definitely pays off when it works out.  Tomorrow is Friday and I'm so depressed that our sugar week is over.  I could do this and only this for the rest of my time in cake school and be very happy.  I may not be a natural born sugar artist, but I understand why people devote their lives to mastering this skill.

Chef Scott's demo on pulling a sugar ribbon....


Today we learned how to pull sugar ribbon.  It's hard to do!  During demo Chef Scott made it look easy as pie, and then we were set free to try it.  Luckily, when I went to make my sugar ribbon I had Chef Scott by my side giving me the play-by-play... "now flip it over", "smooth out both sides equally", "roll down the top"... the end result was lovely green & black pulled sugar ribbon.  We didn't have to have a ribbon for our cake tomorrow, but I already hand my heart set on making one, so I'm so glad it turned out!  Once my ribbon cooled on the marble table, I heated up a knife and cut it into strips.  It is now ready for tomorrow!

Here is the ribbon cooling on the marble counter....




http://www.frenchpastryschool.com/follow_us/10_gma.html


Chef Jacquy (Instructor & Co-founder of the School) was on Good Morning America this morning.  He is part of the documentary coming out, Kings of Pastry.  I'm seeing it this Saturday night, I can't wait!


Watch the trailer!
http://kingsofpastry.com/

Spread the News!

Look what came in the mail today!  Cards that share the magical goodness, a.k.a my blog.  This website will someday be the website for my cakes, and you can be the cool person that knew about it from the beginning.  If you would like some of these cards to pass out to your friends, family, that weird cousin, the pool guy, or the boss's daughter you're not dating then be my guest!  Click the "Contact Me" button to your right ("Ohhh that's what that's for") and I will send you 2 or 20.  Yes, my cell number is on here, so if you crank call me in the middle of night... I'll kill you.  Thanks for the support!

Hot Sugar.

Here are the "best girls in Chicago" that I was telling ya about...

I know I said I'd talk to you on Monday, but I lied.  Instead I tackled my pile of ironing the size of Mt. Everest.  Ok, can I just say I hate a newly washed pair of jeans.  Male readers you can just tune out for a sec.  You pull them out of your drawer forgetting that they have shrunk to an uncomfortable level.  Then, while trying to hurry out the door, you pull them on and... "ughhh I forgot I washed these!"  You squat, lunge, shimmy, and very slowly inch your way into those stubborn jeans.  It's like trying to shove a watermelon into a sandwich bag and its just upsetting.  












Well this week we are working with pulled sugar! It's a painful skill to learn, but I have absolutely loved working with it! Pulled sugar is amazingly forgiving.  It's too hard? No problemo, just heat it up.  It wont glue? Just melt the end over a flame.  The shape drooped? Just heat it under the lamp and reshape it.  Don't get me wrong though, I said forgiving, not easy.  The first time I pulled my sugar I guess I got overly zealous about it, because I pulled it when it was too hot and ruined it.  Also if you are too firm with it, it will shatterer into pieces.  

This is me casting my piece for the top layer of the cake!  Right after I poured this I torched an air bubble on the surface, also tarnishing the side of the disc.  Chef Scott passed by after and once again wanted to punch me in the face.  Those were brand new discs.  (Just for the record, Chef Scott would never actually punch me in the face.  Well, maybe if... yeah no... he would never) 

The worst thing about working with sugar is that it is HOT.  If you are a fan of pain, this is the thing for you.  We wear gloves, but it still feels like you are placing your hand on a hot stove just for fun.  My friend in the class pulled off her gloves and also pulled off three layers of skin from her thumb.  Today, the sugar melted right through my glove and seared my thumb.  I'm not one to use fowl language, but this stuff makes you want to scream the f-bomb at the top of your lungs.  You get in the zone after a while and that can be dangerous.  We are working with an open flame, and sometimes you get distracted and forget it's there.  "What's that smell?" Oh just my gloves burning, or my partners arm hair being singed off.  It's all for a good cause, and on Friday I'm going to show you a cake covered in sugar decorations.  Stay tuned. 

My first pulled sugar rose!

Tomorrow we will be forming more spheres, birds, twigs, and roses for our proficiency on Friday.  I'm making a boat load of pieces this time, I'm just gonna plan on an unlucky amount of them breaking.  Below is a picture of Chef Scott showing us bubble sugar, and blown sugar.  We used the blown sugar to form our birds and spheres.

I'm afraid I don't have any train stories for you today.  But I did stop at Five Guys on the way home for a cheeseburger.  Best decision I've made today.  If I get married I hope my husband will understand my random cravings for cheeseburgers.  By random, I mean constant.  It's funny I've never felt unsafe in Chicago, but when I walked out of there holding my Five Guys bag, I suddenly felt vulnerable.  Mugging people isn't my thing, but I would be tempted if they were holding a bag of Five Guys goodness.  Well my cheeseburger made it hope safely and then suddenly vanished.  I may be typing this entry with my jeans unbuttoned but I couldn't be happier about it.  Stretchy pants, here I come. 

Airbrushing Test

Friday.  (a.k.a.. test day)  For our proficiency we had to cover two styrofoam cakes in fondant.  Then we had to airbrush one to look like wood flooring, and the other to demonstrate the other skills we learned about airbrushing.  We started with a demo showing us how to cover a styrofoam cake in fondant and then we were set free to get to work.  I stared at the clock... ok by 4 pm I need to start my wood flooring cake, then by 5 pm I need to get started on my second cake.

I got going on my wood flooring cake and I was having trouble adjusting to the new gun.  Yesterday, if you barely pulled back on my gun's lever paint would come rushing out, but this new gun you had to pull back halfway.  You HAD to stop halfway, or suddenly the paint would gush out.  Six unwanted dark lines later I figured this out, and got the flow of the new gun.  I was so grateful that our proficiency was wood flooring, because the more rugged it looked the better.  I kept my eye on the clock, it was almost five so I needed to wrap this sucker up and be done.

I cleaned the brown paint out of my gun and set up my cutting board to cut out some stencils.  My instructor came by and asked me, "Emily where is the paint cap for your gun?"  I glanced over at my gun, naked of it's precious paint cap.  Background info.... half of the guns had broken during the week, so my instructor had woken up extra early that morning to drive out to the company and personally fix each one.  So being careless with the gun was like spitting in his face.  Ok back to the story.... "Um, I'm not sure I'll find it."  He gave me that look that instructors give you when they want to hit you in the face but it's illegal.  I kept going on my stencil, I had a schedule to keep to, but I was panicking because I had no idea where that freakin cap could be!

He came back later and I still had no idea where it was, he started telling me how expensive those guns are and how misplacing a cap would make one useless.  I felt so horrible, if I could say sorry in every language known to man I would have.  I looked at the clock and it was nearing 6 pm.  I made a ghetto cap out of plastic wrap, and started on my second cake, determined to finish.  I was super flustered, so I over-sprayed my stencil, and was barely mentally present as I quickly sprayed on my dots.  My friend later found my cap in the dish room and it wasn't a big deal.  But I couldn't shake the feeling.  I think my instructor could tell my spirits were crushed, because he was super gentle about any criticism of my cakes, making them sound more like suggestions.  The only thing I was proud of was holding it together the rest of class.  I kept my composure all the way till I dropped down in my seat on the train.  Then I stared out the window and cried like a teenage girl, grateful to be wearing a hat that shielded my face.  It sucks pissing off your instructor, especially when they are a professional you admire.  It's like a country diehard pissing off Garth Brooks.  But one thing is for sure, these pathetic tear-filled Fridays have got to stop.

Don't feel bad for me for a second though.... I woke up this morning to a GORGEOUS Saturday morning, and I then made the responsible adult decision to eat pizza for breakfast.  Afterwards, I curled up back in bed and watched some of the first season of "How I met your mother", while my paint stained uniforms soaked in the laundry.  Now to top off this lovely Saturday, I'm going out with some of the best girls in Chicago.  Talk to you on Monday! Ciao.

Latex Gloves

I really have a problem wearing gloves in class.  I would much rather get paint all over my hands, ruin my pastillage pieces, or burn my fingers with sugar rather than wear those stinkin gloves.  I get made fun of for it, and people ask me what my deal is with gloves.  At first I just figured I didn't like loosing my sense of touch, or that nothing good comes from people who wear gloves.  Think about it... dentist, surgeons, unsanitary restaurant employees, the list goes on and on... But I figured out the real reason.  Remember when you just hit puberty and you were crushing pretty hard on a guy?  Remember when you two nervously held hands for the first time....  Well there ya have it.  Wearing those gloves is like being eternally stuck holding hands with a teenage boy's clammy fingers.  No bueno. 


So for the past week or so I've riden home on the train with this old man.  If he was about six decades younger I'd probably have a crush on him.  We were always standing on the platform together waiting for our train.  So, last week I finally sat next to him and we became instant friends.  Well this week he has been a no show!  I'm sure it's just me, but it has been totally disappointing.  He's probably at home, eating popcorn, happy as a clam...  "Emily who?"  On Monday I shrugged it off, Tuesday I got thinking this kinda sucks, and now it's Thursday and I am having old man withdrawals.  There is a big difference between riding the train home, staring out the window, and counting down the stops till you're home; and, talking incessantly till it's suddenly time to go.  I keep waiting on the platform hoping he'll come stumbling through the gate.  My train comes and I'm faced with the dilema, "should I wait?!"  No that's totally ridiculous, so I just get on the train and slump depressed in my seat.  Old man if you are out there, I miss my train buddy. 


What? You want to know about cake school?  Geez you readers are needy.  Yesterday and today, as promised, was filled with more airbrushing.  After the dots & lines we moved onto a dagger stroke.  Then today we painted mountains, clouds, smoke, and some other stuff.  Tomorrow for our proficiency we have to airbrush wood flooring on a square cake, and airbrush stencils on a round cake.  I'm kinda freaking out about it.  Anyone who knows me, knows my natural artistic ability... and that it's zero.  If I can pull this off tomorrow, than anyone reading this can also do it.  Wish me luck!

My Mountains & Clouds.

Chef Scott demonstrating wood flooring. 

Dots & Lines.

I saw my raccoon again!  See I'm not crazy or a liar... he really existed and he wasn't a skunk this time.  Do you see him underneath the car? I named him Melvin.  I was waiting for the owner to come out and scream at me, "why are you taking pictures of my car?!".  "There... uhhh.. was a raccoon.. I was...ummm taking a picture of it... cause I do stuff like that".  "Oh there was a raccoon was there? yeah suuuure" as he punches me in the face.  I probably would have had it coming for what I did yesterday on the train.  I was bored as ever, so me and this guy next to me started making fun of this girl in hair school.  Her mannequin head was face down in her shopping bag, so it looked like she was just toting around a severed head. It is amazing how many serial killer jokes you can think of when you are bored on the train. 


Sorry for that tangent.  We are learned about airbrushing in school today.  We learned how to disassemble the airbrush gun and clean it throughly.  Then we practiced using the gun by painting dots and lines.... only dots and lines.  The average person would be bored after 10 minutes.  The high-off-of-life cake student enjoys it for about 30 minutes.  Well we did it for 75 minutes and that was just a taster.  We will be doing more dots and lines all day tomorrow.  If Chef Scott knew I was complaining on the wide web he would murder me.  It's just so mind-numbingly boring but, at the same time so necessary.  My dots and lines had improved by the end of the day, but they were still far from acceptable.  I'm already on Chef Scott's bad side for today though.  I forget what he asked me, but I vomited out the phrase "your mom" before I could register who I was addressing. (Thanks Amy for that lovely habit) I need a filter badly because last time I checked "your mom" jokes don't fly with your instructor.  Luckily he cut me a break this time, but I still wanted to die in that moment.

Dont judge.  Lets see how good your dots & lines are by your 5th page of it. Gag.

 And here is Chef Scott... making it look like child's play

Molds.

I had my second stage at "Henri" last Saturday night.  It is the sister restaurant to "The Gage" located off Michigan avenue.  It was very different from my stage at Rolph's, but equally beneficial.  I assisted the pastry chef there making dough, shaving chocolate, rolling puff pastry, and slicing sugared jelly.  The staff was incredibly friendly, everyone who passed by our section introduced themselves and shook my hand (even when it was covered in chocolate).  I was impressed by the friendliness towards someone who they knew would only be there for a night! Also the kitchen was very clean.  For all my fellow germophobes out there, I have seen every part of that kitchen and I would gladly eat there!

My experience walking to the train this morning was much more animal friendly.  I saw approximately 2400 squirrels, so finally I was like "this is ridiculous I'm taking a picture".  Here is my picture.

I think we have made a huge mistake in overlooking the fact that squirrels are mass producing like crazy!  At least in our neighborhood I know they outnumber us 2 to 1.  Today this squirrel looked at me and thought to himself "stupid human, someday you will be my slave".  I'm just sayin, they look cute now but I would start sleeping with one eye open.

Ok so in school today we are learning about making molds.  No, not the mold you find on your PB&J sandwich, or the mold that invades unhygienic people's bathrooms.  This is the type of mold you pour yummy chocolate into and you come out with the same yummy chocolate, but in an awesome shape.  We cake designers want to make a mold out of whatever we want, so that we can shape yummy things into whatever we want.  Chef Scott showed us how to make a mold out of....

Coco Powder....

Corn Starch....

Gelatin....

Silicone... 

and a two-part mold made with silicone...

This is the machine that tempers our chocolate.  I think it should replace the drinking fountain in the hallway, but for some reason the school didn't go for it.   I'm gonna buy one for my room.  How wonderful would that be? You make popcorn... douse it in chocolate... you buy some almonds... douse it in chocolate... you grill a steak.... douse... ok that's too far.  But ya get the idea.

Epic Fail.

I could write an entire blog about riding the "L" here in Chicago.  Actually most of my stories happen walking to and from the train.  Yesterday night I was walking home when I saw an animal walk across the road.  I was thinking "that is a GIGANTIC cat!" So I ran up to it to take a picture... yeah not a cat but a raccoon!  I didn't snap the picture in time.  Tonight I was walking home and I saw a similar animal walk out into the road.  I knew exactly what it was... another raccoon! I grabbed my phone and silently ran for it.  The flash is glaring on the animal when I see that it is definitely not a raccoon but a skunk! I didn't even wait for the camera to finish the photo... I saw him lift his ugly behind and I made a run for it back the way I came.  So now I'm stuck between the train and skunk stench which is blocking my way home.  My next brilliant plan is to just make a run through the stench so that I can get home.  Unfortunately my sweatshirt and my hair are now paying the price for that smart move.  As I'm sitting here writing this blog I can smell the skunk butt in my hair.  That's devotion.

So you are probably wondering why I titled this post "Epic Fail".  Well did you forget that I had to make a showpiece on Friday? Probably.  Here is the story of my showpiece.

I worked on the pieces all week and I was feeling like they were decent for just having started.  I made eight leaves, knowing I only had to get three on my piece.  Some of them were ones I made in the beginning of the week, and I only wanted to use them as a last resort.  My biggest concern was that my triangles were too thin, and when the hot sugar glue touched it, it would crumble to pieces.  Bu, I had plenty of spare triangles, so apart from a total disaster it was going to be fine.

We made our center flowers the day before. 

I started on my piece and I was taking my dear sweet time.  We had hours to complete it and being naturally anal, I had to make sure every piece was exactly where I wanted it.  I placed my pressed sugar base, set up my foundational stones and prepared to place my triangles.  Deep breath.... one triangle placed, two triangles, and a third! I was ecstatic, they were firmly in place!  Next comes the leaves, I picked up my favorite one to place it.  "Snap!" The hot sugar made a snapping noise as it attempted to crack my leaf.  I placed it quickly on my piece before it was ruined.  It stayed! Not only did it stay, but it was glued so that you could not see the lower crack.  Here is my show piece at this point. 

I went to go place another leaf, and I selected my next favorite.  Before I could even go to brush it off it snapped in my hands!  I knew that this was a possibility so I decided just to shake it off.  I grabed my next leaf, and begin to dab some hot sugar glue on it... "crack!" The leaf split into two.  URGH! That's two in a row! I grabed the next one.... "crack!" Well now all my least favorite leaves are left.  Whatever, I just had to get some leaves on this piece! "Crack!" .... "Crack!" .... "Crack!"  I'm seriously freaking out at this point.  I only have two ugly leaves left and they HAVE to make it on the piece! I'm handling it as if it is a fossil, so careful.  The sugar glue made it onto the leaf successfully until I placed it on my piece and it snaps into two pieces! I don't have a choice so I hold it in place.  It glues so that it fits together, but you cant still totally see the crack in the leaf.  

I asked my instructor if a cracked leaf still counted and he said it did.  I then went for my last leaf and it snapped before I could even get the glue on.  I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes; but, I'm determined not to cry over a showpiece, especially since our instructor said a million times not to freak out if parts break.  My friend taught me to say this when I feel like I'm going to cry and I don't want to...  "I'm a man, in a man's world, and I don't let my emotions run my life".  I repeated that 18,000 times in my head but I could feel tears starting to brim around my eyes.  So, I decided to suck it up, I was going to fix my last leaf and get it on that good-for-nothing showpiece.  I leaned down to glue the seam and my head bumped my one good leaf.  It snapped off my showpiece, and hit the counter shattering into pieces.  "I'm a man, in a man's worrr..... yeah too late!"  I excused myself to go get a drink of water.  I just made it inside the girl's bathroom when the tears streamed down my face.  I was SO mad! I didn't have any more leaves, and my showpiece was a total mess.

Well I had two options. 1.) Forget cake school, "I'm outta here!" & make a run for it.  2.) Realize it's my first time working with thin powdered sugar pieces and go fix that hunk of sugar.  Well duh I picked option 2.  I went back inside to see what I could do.  I wanted to curl up and die when my instructor came around to look at how we were doing.  But, I fixed the snapped leaf, and I glued it right where my previous leaf had fallen off.  I plugged in as many vines as possible to make up for the lost volume, and I then added my flower.  Done. Unfortunately I had to add so many stems that it looks as if my piece is going to attack you.  Well here is the moment you've all been waiting for... my showpiece.

When it was all over, we had to do our Friday deep clean.  I'm scrubbing the floor in the pantry when my friend Haley goes "Hey Emily what do you want me to do with these extra leaves?"  I was like "huh I don't have any more leaves?"  I had completely forgotten that I had two beautiful leaves on my drying rack in the pantry.  Now isn't that just the cherry on top of a perfect day?  By that point though all I could do is laugh.  One of those laughs where people are like "is she laughing or slowly losing her mind?" haha Well I'm glad it is finally all over, and next week is airbrushing! Hooray.  I'm gonna go now and spend the next few hours washing this smell out of my hair.  

Yes... more pastillage.

I'm sorry for not posting last night, I'm sure many of you could not sleep.  I must have thrown your whole bedtime routine off balance.  Well that's because I didn't have much to report, this entire week is solely for designing our showpieces.  We must make and re-makes our leaves, stems, triangles, and pebbles until they are perfect.  Perfection will never come in a week, but at least we will be a smidge closer after all of this practice.  I am half way through the week and I am on my fourth batch of pastillage.  If you were wondering, pastillage is simply made out of powdered sugar, vinegar, and gelatin.  Here I am working on my showpiece....

If you would like an update on the infamous fruit cakes, they are done baking and still soaking.  By the time we get them they will be drenched in booze and glycerin.  My sister-in-law had a good idea, when I bring it home we are going to set it on fire.  I'm curious to see how long it will burn for.  It looks like the dog will live to see another day.

Raisins much?

So my instructor's wife is making a wedding cake for her cousin.  She has been working on the wedding cake topper in our classroom.  She let me take a picture of the finished product.  All of these flowers were made by hand out of sugar.  Amazing huh?

Pastillage

Today we learned how to work with pastillage.  (Pronounced pas-tea-yage, it also rhymes with collage)  It's basically a sugar play-dough that you roll out and cut into different shapes.  The problems is that it dries insanely fast, so once you start working with it you better pick up the pace or you're done for.  We are cutting out shapes for our showpieces we have to assemble on Friday.  Chef Scott put together this one for us as an example.  So when you see the wonky white mess I post on Friday... this is what's it's suppose to look like.

The base support structure is made out of pressed sugar.  Chef Scott demonstrated this before hand and he told us "do not spend ten years making this".  I think what he was really saying was "Emily... do not spend ten years making this".  I get in my zone when I'm making things, unfortunately my zone is at snail speed.  This is Chef Scott showing us how to make our base...

Story time.  I was spending my ten years on my base and I had just finished.  It looked just like I had hoped.  As I was staring at it, I tried to move the wooden board forward.  Unfortunately, I didn't look where my hand was reaching and I put my hand right into my partner's finished base!  Talk about awkward.  What was I suppose to say?! "Uhh.. my bad?"  "Maybe they won't notice the gaping hole?"  Well of all the things to ruin this was the best thing.  I compiled the classrooms left over pressed sugar and made her a new base.  I'm so lucky it was a simple fix.  If it had been anything else it would have been a long awkward week.  

Want an update on the fruit cake?  Here it is baking away.  They still need to be soaked several times till they are indestructible, and then frosted.  I promise to show you the finished product when it's ready.

These cakes are so heavy! I think they secretly gave us the recipe to make homemade bricks.  I want to give it to my neighbor's obnoxious dog.  A couple bites of this cake and he will bark his last bark.  I hadn't heard him in a couple nights so I figured he died of natural causes.  But then last night in the shower I could hear him barking away.  I was going to open the window and hurl my shampoo bottle at him, but lucky for him shampoo is expensive.  I'm rambling, it's time for bed.  Night y'all.  

My First Stage (it rhymes with collage, not gage)

Yesterday morning I had my first stage! What is a stage you ask? Well it is a fancy way of saying I job shadowed an amazing pastry chef. It all started when my instructor let it slip that he first started at Rolf's Patisserie, which is right by where I live. I then transformed into an obnoxious little sister incessantly asking him for the doorway into a stage there. He, being used to my endless questions, gave me the contact informations and the "what-to-do's". So everyone clap for Chef Scott because long story short, Chef Ford Culbertson (Co-Owner & Executive Pastry Chef of Rolph's Patisserie) let me come into his kitchen yesterday!

The American Culinary Federation’s 2009 Pastry Chef of the Year for the Central Region

My brother and his wife were running a 5k that morning so I had to turn to Plan B... beautiful public transportation. I got an early start and walked for the bus, thankfully last minute my brother shoved an umbrella into my bag. I get walking and it starts to mist, being a stubborn mule I refuse to pull out my umbrella. Well Chicago showed me, because two seconds later it was pouring. I jumped on a bus and then walked a little bit more to the patisserie. It was then that I truly proved to myself my desire to be a wedding cake designer. It's earlier than is legal on a Saturday morning, I'm in the pouring ran in a short-sleeved shirt, and I'm carrying three-hundred bags. The usual Emily would be like... ummm I think I've made a huge mistake. But the weird dream-crazed Emily could only think "great... now the bottom of my pants are going to be wet when I meet Chef Ford".


I got into the patisserie and met Chef Ford! After all the creepy internet reading I had done on him, I felt like I was meeting a celebrity. Yes I now know the names of his kids, and where he met his wife. Yeah I know... creepy.  He was extremely friendly and he showed me where to change into my uniform. After I changed I wasn't sure what to do next! Chef Ford was no where to be found and all I could do was think "uhhh Chef Scott.. now what?". I must have looked like a lost puppy because soon this sweet lady told me I could come help her make carmel apples. That was all it took! Soon I was in a group of 5 or 6 girls who kept switching off starting me on different projects. It was hard work, but it was incredibly fun! Well most of it was. One of my projects was to shave milk chocolate over three cookie sheets filled with miniature chocolate cakes. It was done by holding a slab of chocolate in one hand, and a paring knife in the other. I thought my wrist was going to be permanently jammed in a 90 degree angle. I could hear Chef Scott in my head "I may have not known how to shave chocolate, but after I did three cookie sheets of chocolate shavings... believe me I knew how to shave chocolate".


The ladies I worked with were incredibly sweet and patient with me. One time I was placing a chocolate covered pastry in a small cupcake wrapping, I was balancing it on a small spatula when in toppled onto the counter top first... completely ruined. I gasped and the lady next to me just laughed and told me to keep going. I then looked down at my apron, it was covered in whip cream, chocolate, and orange melted chocolate. Chef Scott was in my head again "If you look like a mess, with your apron just covered in chocolate and such, then people will think you're a mess". Ahh get out of my head! Luckily I have a new apron for tomorrow, so he will never have to know.  Eight hours later and it was time for me to go. Luckily the manager asked me "So are you coming back?" I felt like saying "you seriously want me back?" But I just said "Yeah if Chef Ford will let me". He said that he was sure he would! Well folks... I made the cut.

After the long day I came home and crashed for the night.... NOT.  I made the trek down to the city and met up with one of my best friends, Ana Lee! We went to a delicious German restaurant, then slumber partied it at her hotel room eating gourmet Ben & Jerry's. 

This has nothing to do with cake school. I'm sure you all have seen the movie Julie & Julia. Well in one part of the movie she said that there is nothing more wonderful than butter. I completely agreed! I thought it was pure scripture. But then I decided there is something better... Sunday naps. You can have a long week, an even longer weekend, and then in one Sunday nap you are back at the top of your game. This is me if I don't have a Sunday nap...

Compliments of the blog "Hyperbole and a Half"

Figurines

This morning we made a traditional English fruit cake. I'm not exactly a fan of fruit cake, I'm not sure of any American who is, but that is because Americans do not know how to make a proper fruit cake. If fruit cake was ever going to have a chance, it would be with this recipe. I'll let ya know how it goes....

This is what Jim Gaffigan has to say about fruit cake... all cake in fact.

Jim Gaffigan – Cake – Beyond the Pale @ Yahoo! Video

While my fruit cake was baking I modeled my first figurines! They are made out of marzipan, chocolate, and sugar so they are completely edible!

Strawberries

Ready to make some

strawberries...

Sweet let's get started.

It's all about the details...

Put the stem in and we are done! Good work :)