Reflection #6

Yesterday, April 14th, I started my job at J.W Desserts. When I first got there John showed me around the kitchen, showed me where he kept all of his things, showed me the ovens and the walk in freezers. He got out about 50 bake boards for me to wrap in colored paper to put his cakes on. After I finished that, we made his specialty cupcakes. They are HUGE cupcakes that you dip the first two layers in white chocolate, then when they have cooled down and hardened a little bit, you do half of the cupcake in dark or milk chocolate. All of the chocolate is melted of course. So it is easy to get onto the cupcake. John has a wine banquet he is catering on April 17th and the 18th. There are going to be about two thousand people there. Before I came to work, he had made the crumb bars and the flowerless cake pans. Then he cut them up and I helped transfer them into little cupcake holders. I worked for about three hours. It was a lot of fun for my first day.

Reflection #5

At the beginning of my project, I checked out 16 books from the library on making and decorating cakes. I am going through them right now and taking out all of the recipes I like and making a cook book. I like looking at all of the pictures from the books of amazing cakes that other people have made. Some of the cakes are pretty amazing. I am going to have a pretty bog book of ideas and recipes by the time my project is over. I am also doing all of my annotated bibliographies right now so I can return my overdue books.

Reflection #4

A few weeks ago, I interviewed John Auburn at his bakery, J.W Desserts. I had all my questions ready ahead of time so I was all prepared. When I first got there, he offered us a piece of a cake he had just baked and frosted. It was delicious. It was like a coffee caramel wonderland! It was SO good, I couldn't stop eating it!

After my interview he let me and my mom go to the back and see his kitchen and all his equipment. It was so cool becuase his ovens were HUGE and they rotated so every side of the cake baked the same. He also had the biggest mixers I have EVER seen. They were like big enough to mix the world's biggest cake.

After my interview, he offered me a job. Of course, I accepted. He needs a long term assistant and I am so up for the job. This is my first real job besides cleaning house for my aunt. I have to get my food handlers' license and everything. I feel so grown-up! I start my job on April 15th. Wish me luck!

Interview

Q: How long have you been making cakes?
A: 19 years, professionally.

Q: How did you get started?
A: My older sister's "easy bake" oven, when I was seven.

Q: How many cake do you bake per day?
A: It's not so many"cakes" that I make, it's the amount of batter that I make. About 25 lbs. a day.

Q: What is your favorite part about your job?
A: Talking to my costumers. Being very creative. Tasting my cakes.

Q: Do you cater?
A: Yes and no. It depends on what season it is. In the summer, I'm really busy making wedding cakes.

Q: Is this your only job?
A: No. I'm a dad and a landlord. I also have my house and my kitchen to clean.

Q: How long have you owned J.W Desserts?
A: This is my 10th year.

Q: What is the worst thing that has happened to one of your cakes?
A: I dropped a cake but caught it in my other hand.

Q: What is the most expensive part?
A: The labor. 7 days a week. Work, but not working. Marketing, sales calls.

Q: Who have you made cakes for?
A: The Food Network, the Presidential Debates, the Academy Awards, the Golden Globes, movie stars, bar mitzvas.

Reflection # 3

This is my final cake<.

Over the month of March, I have started and finished Course Three of Wilton cake decorating classes. I have had 8 hours of in-class instruction and approximately 40 hours of preparation and homework for this class. The third course covered fondant and tiered cakes. We learned how to make morning glories, poinsettas, lilies and petunias out of royal icing. One cake looked like a wrapped present and I gave it to my friend, Kendall, for her birthday.

The final project was a two tiered wedding cake covered in roses. We learned how to make fondant roses in class and then went home and had to make 48 more. They took up so much of my time! (About 9 hours.) The bottom layer of the cake was lemon and the top layers were white. There was a layer of white fondant over both of the cake, smooth as a baby's butt.

Our last night of class, we assembled our cakes, put on the ruffled border, put on the columns to make the cake "tiered" and put on the roses and leaves. Then, right after we assembled them, we had to take them apart to get them home.

Over all, taking the class, learning how to make decorated cakes, borders, flowers and working with fondant was very fun and gave me lots of experience.
This is the cake i made for my friend,Kendall.

Reflection # 2

Thats my final cake.ver the past few weeks I have started course tow of the Wilton Cake Classes. In course two we started making our flowers. We first started the basic daisy, then the tulips and daffodils, In addition, we did the primrose. In the next class we were taught how to make the leaved for the flowers. On our final cake there will be two bluebirds, so we took out our royal icing and our correct tips and made the blue birds. In the last classes in course tow we realised that we ad a lot of hardened flowers, to many to carry around in cake pans. Before class on Sunday we went to the plastic storage area at Joann's, and picked out a storage container with four drawers to carry our flowers and blue birds in.

For the ending of course two we are making our " final cake". This cake has two layers of white frosting surrounding the sides and on the top. To add pizzazz, we are putting an arrangement of flowers we have made on the top of the cake. On the left side of the cake is our main arrangement of flowers. On the top of the flowers we are putting one of our blue birds. On the right side of the cake there is a small bunch of flowers. On the top in this bunch we are putting our second blue bird. I'm looking forward to seeing what our final cake will look like all pieced together.

Reflection #1

When i first started this project, my mom checked out two books on fondant icing and cakes.I was very curious to know if there was a class i could take take to be taught how to bake and decorate cakes. My mom found a class at Joann's Fabric in Lynwood. We are taking course 1.2 &3. Course One is all about cake basics. The second course is on borders and flowers. The third class s decorating with fondant.

My mom and I started course two on Thursday, February 5th. We had to buy materials for the class before hand to prepare us for the session. At the class our teacher taught us how to make royal icing. If you leave this type of icing out in room temperature for three days, it becomes very hard and can last up to two years. After making the icing we filled our icing bags an put the first tip on the bag. Then we got out our practice boards and started our first practice sheet.

The instructor,Jill, then demonstrated how to make cones and flowers with icing. Then we were able to practice them on our boards. I learned that over a small period of time, your icing could become hard. To avoid this road block you may need to add a little bt of water to think the icing out. Im looking forward to doing this project because it;s alot of fun to bake and decorate cakes.
This was the final cake for course one.