this is what i did on my summer vacation

I'm baaaack! Okay, so I wasn't technically on vacation and the past six weeks have been filled with a variety of tastes. Unfortunately, I simply did not have the time to share them with you. But after finishing up my school term on cakes, getting married to a wonderful man two weeks ago, honeymooning in Maine, and then arriving back in Indianapolis just in time to start my next term of school, I'm ready to jump back on the blog wagon. 

We'll start by playing catch up. I may not have been writing much, but I did manage to snap some photos to capture my life in the kitchen (and out of it) over the last several weeks. Enjoy...

Two key ingredients of my cake class: lots of butter and hot sugar

Preparing Italian buttercream frosting and decorating cakes was not my favorite thing to do in the kitchen...

but I got a lot of practice.

And by the final practical exam, I could whip up an Italian buttercream frosting with my eyes closed.

We also made a Black Forest Torte (complete with chocolate shavings),

a Sachertorte (basically a brownie-type cake covered in chocolate ganache - YUM.),

and an absolutely delicious seven layer almond cake with chocolate buttercream frosting.

In the midst of all of this baking at school, I was knee deep in wedding planning and didn't have much time to bake outside of class. Or cook for that matter. This is Greg's favorite dinner from the past few months. Leftover pizza and cheese balls. No judgment.

Surprisingly, I didn't put a ton of thought into our wedding cake. I knew I was in good hands with one of the best bakeries in Fort Wayne and the cake turned out perfect (as did the rest of the wedding). This baby contained four different cake flavors: vanilla, chocolate raspberry, almond and lemon. And they were all good - I sampled several of our guests' pieces at the reception while mingling with everyone.

We ate a lot of good food during our honeymoon in Maine, but while Greg seemed to favor the lobster, I thoroughly enjoyed this delectable chocolate covered smores bar from a candy shop in Portland. And French pastries from an adorable bakery called Mornings in Paris.

That brings us up to present day and my new class at school. This term we'll be focusing on cookies and frozen desserts. Cookies are one of my favorite desserts to make and I'm excited to learn more about them over the next few weeks. They seem easy to master, but there's still a lot to know. For instance, why some cookies spread and some don't, what causes a cookie to be crispy versus soft, and how important it is to only just incorporate the flour at the end of a batter and not overmix it. 

 
The cookies on the left are the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever made. And the citrus shortbread cookies in front were soft and light. Move over Pillsbury dough boy, there's a new kid in town.