cake and bread

I am happy to report that I survived wedding cake class round one. I made six (yes six) delicious round cakes, trimmed them in every way possible and crumb iced them with buttercream. Here is one of the six cakes.

Chef P requested a three layer cake with a minimum of 3 inch layers. I definitely delivered on the height. This weekend we're going to spread on a final layer of icing, decorate the sides with some filigree and strategically position a few gum paste flowers on top. Here are my layers waiting to go into the freezer for the week.

I made a different kind of cake last week as well. Two varieties of cupcakes, both topped with a glace icing. It was a double duty endeavor. First, good practice for my co-worker's upcoming baby shower and second, cupcakes for my parent's wedding anniversary.

The cupcake recipes were very simple - almost too simple to be fabulous - and the icing was made of lemon juice and powdered sugar. It was very easy to drizzle on and it set prettily on top of the cupcakes, but the taste was rather tart. I think I'll stick to buttercream icing in the future.

My most exciting news from last week is that I have officially started my pre-internship at a local bakery. I am on bread duty and I love it. I was fairly nervous the first few days, but now I feel like I'm really contributing to the bakery and getting a great experience in return. I have made several types of bread already and my specialty is quickly becoming baguettes. I made one on my second day that I was pretty proud of and was allowed to take home at the end of my shift. Here she is.

I immediately scarfed down three quarters of it when I got home, but Greg did get to sample a few bites. This week I had more good baguettes than slightly inconsistent ones and I'm getting faster every day as well. It's fairly monotonous work that might not make for good blog posts, but I am definitely enjoying myself. And I'll continue to entertain you with projects from class or items from my home kitchen. Like the orange chocolate bundt cake that I'm making tomorrow. Get your eyeballs ready.