Sorry I haven't been around much lately, I've been a bit preoccupied with school and work. Last Wednesday we were told that we would be participating in a food show; we would each be required to entire one piece into the show. We could choose from sugar sculpture, chocolate sculpture or a show cake. I'm so happy that my last few weeks of BREAD prepared me for this! Quite obviously I chose to do a cake since the other options might require a bit more experience.

When I decided to go to pastry school learning about cakes was one of the major draws. Now, I have no experience with cakes other than the little Wilton class I took at Hobby Lobby with Paige this summer. Even in that class I think I ate more icing than I practiced with. Anyhow, as anxious as I am about learning cake decorating I confess that I was less than thrilled when we were informed about the show. You see, I don't like to do things that I'm either not already good at or not fully prepared for. This was a complete blindside. Now, I know that those are things I have to move past if I'm ever going to excell, but blah blah.... that's another conversation. All I could really do was jump in and just start going with it. I looked around online for ideas forever, but in the end I came up with my own design. If I tried to copy another design I know I would just end up even more frustrated because it didn't look exactly the same. I showed chef a sad drawing that didn't look like more than a few circles piled on top of one another, but I tried to explain my idea the best I could. I really don't think she understood what I was talking about (if I was her I wouldn't), but she just nodded her head and let me go with it.



In the end, I had an amazing time! That is not to say that I didn't get frustrated and angry with myself, but I was really proud of my finished product. Of course there were flaws and things I need to improve on, but for my first cake and first time ever working with fondant I was really proud. I'm really glad we were forced to do this project. I think it pushed me to move past my fears not being good a little faster. My cake ended up scoring high enough to earn a bronze medal and I proudly tied with Dora for 3rd in our division (I know I told some of you 1st earlier, but when I looked at the check tonight it said 3rd.... I'm sorry. It was really loud when they were announcing and confusing when they called 2 of us for the same award. But, hey... I'm still fine with 3rd. I still got a little cash.) Here are a few pics of the progression of my cake and the cakes of a few others in my class.

I know I haven't posted in a while, and I actually have a lot to talk about, but not right now. I did this Flickr personality game today, and it was pretty cool to put together. Here's how it goes:

Questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you.
12. Your Flickr name.

My answers: 1. Haley 2. Cupcakes 3. Brenham High School 4. Green 5. I don't know 6. Coffee 7. Greece 8. Strawberry Shortcake 9. I want to own my own cafe 10. My family 11. Vintage (referring to style) 12. haleydglasco


Type the answer into the search bar on Flickr and choose an image from the 1st page that comes up. Then, use the mosaic maker to put together your personality mosaic. Yeah, pretty cheesy and a waste of time I know, but whatever. I like looking at people's pics on Flickr. So thanks for your photo if I used it!

Well, I did it! I finally baked something at culinary school! I know this may seem a bit strange, but safety and sanitation have finally ended and the baking has begun! We usually spend about 2 weeks on a particular subject (i.e. breads, sugars, cakes, chocolates), take a test and a practical, and then move on.



This week was a complete roller coaster. One day I loved class, the next day I was so frustrated, and then the next I was completely elated. Maybe I'm tired, maybe its PMS.... who knows. Let me explain. Monday was fine. Nothing too exciting. We took our ServeSafe exam, made some rolls, the end.

Tuesday was great! We made simple rolls (again), french bread, and some kind of white bread we rolled out and tied into knots. It was fun, and it felt really great when our teacher (who is very hard to please) complimented me on my technique and asked me to demonstrate to other members of our class. I'm not trying to brag, but hey, it feels good to be complimented. I think I left Tuesday with a great attitude considering the fact that our teacher turned the heat on to make the room a toasty 85 degrees to allow the bread to proof.... I think we swelled and sweated more than the bread.

Wednesday was more of a decline. You see, our teacher is trying to teach 2 classes as once, so he is quite absent during the learning process. Class has sort of become a "just start doing it and I'll come check it and make corrections." This method isn't terrible; I definitely believe that we learn more through trial and error, but it's just a bit frustrating when you have a question and there is no one to ask. Anyhow, we were paired off into groups of 2 except my group had 3. 2 is great, 3 not so much. Have you ever seen 3 people trying to measure out ingredients and mix 1 loaf of bread? I didn't think so. Its simply too many. It was hard to get involved, and honestly I could have really cared less about making another roll or biscuit.

Today (Thursday) was amazing! I had so much fun in class today. We finally started making some breads with a little more flavor and creativity. We made banana bread, focaccia and white bread for braiding. The foccacia was interesting to make. I had never worked with a bread that required making a sponge first. I flavored mine with garlic, basil, rosemary, and red pepper flakes. Yum! It came out so moist and soft. The banana bread was fine... typical banana bread. To finish the day off we made a basic white bread to practice braiding methods. We worked with the 4 strand braid and created a really cool star. Audrey and I were partners today and ours turned out beautiful! We worked really well together. I was really proud of our bread and excited to see what it would look like after it came out of the oven. Sadly, class ended before ours finished proofing so it never made it to the oven. I don't know if chef put it in the oven after class or not. Oh well.




Next week we will be learning danishes and croissants. Chef says they are difficult to learn and doesn't expect much from us (thanks). My goal is to prove him wrong. Guess what I'll be studying this weekend? Until then.... happy baking.

(Sigh) I need an iron. I hate ironing. When I was still living at home my mom usually ironed all of our clothes or we "fluffed" them in the dryer. When I was in college people expected you to wrinkled. All college kids are wrinkled, poor and starving; yet, somehow still 15 pounds overweight (I never figured that one out). In culinary school they expect you to look clean and professional, which means starched and pressed. I bought an iron 4 years ago and have never used it. I left it with Paige when I moved never thinking I would really need it. Well, I need it. I'm sure she will have no problem giving it back since the one time she used it Thumper Rabbit chewed up half of the cord. So Paige, if you read this, I need the iron back.

Not much to report on the culinary front. Just another long week of sanitation and history lessons. We did get to make biscuits and yeast rolls today. It felt really good to do something in the kitchen; although, it is kind of hard to be overly involved in the baking process when 8 people are working together to make one batch of biscuits.

Our ServeSafe exam is on Monday, so I need to spend the weekend studying. Most of the info is common sense, but there are a few chapters concerning specific food-borne illnesses cause by particular items and their effects. Also, memorizing temperatures can be a bit tricky since I have trained my brain to completely shut off whenever numbers are mentioned. The math aspect of baking will be a bit challenging to say the least. Yes, I know it's just simple math, but as I said before, my brain completely shuts off. For instance, when I go shopping with my sisters and we come to a store that is having a sale; if I pick up an item that is 35% off the marked price I kind of just verbalize the equation and wait for the answer. Here is an example of what this conversation may look like:

Me: "Oh, this is cute and it's on sale!"
Paige: "Yeah, I like that. Give me one in my size." (We buy all the same clothes)
Me: "The price says $39.99, so 35% off of that is...." (I make a face like I'm trying to figure out the price, but really I'm thinking about absolutely nothing, or I'm just wishing Paige would just hurry up and say the price so I can move on to the dress I just spotted that will look great when I dye my hair back to blonde)
Paige: "It's blah blah amount." (see, I'm not even going to try to figure it out now) Usually she just rolls her eyes because she knows the drill and we move on to the next item.

I don't know why I just went on about that. It really has absolutely nothing to do with culinary school. Hmm.... anyhow, next week we start baking! Whoo!

This post is for Paige. Happy Bithday!!!

I wasn't expecting to be able to see my family this past weekend; I thought I would be working. But, the opening day for the bakery got pushed back once again, so I was able to go! As excited as I am to start at the bakery I was more excited to be able to see my family, since I wont see them again until Thanksgiving. I know that may not seem like such a long time, but my family is really close, so it feels like eternity.

I love Fall. I love the weather, the clothes, the warm spices, but one of my favorite things about Fall is candy corn!! (I'm actually eating some as I type this) Now, everyone I know loves candy corn as well. Just the other weekend my mom and I made ourselves completely ill eating them. I guess I just thought that candy corn was one of those universal things that everyone loves. That is until I moved to Austin (ya bunch of hippie weirdos). I was talking about them at work the other day and everyone in the office looked at me like I was crazy. Then one of the ladies proceeded to look up the ingredients online and read out to me all of the nasty things that are in them. Thanks. Whatever, if people knew exactly what was in half of the things we ate..... never mind, that's a whole different post. Anyhow, in honor of my sister's birthday and our love for candy corn I made her these cookies!

Well, my first week of school has come and gone. If this week was any indication of how the next 6 months will go by I better prepare for a fast ride! I've only been out of school for 4 months, but already my study habits (if I ever really had any) have gone down the drain. Disciplining myself to read my book is going to be a challenge. Well, I guess I shouldn't say reading them will be hard, rather I should say that reading what I'm supposed to will be difficult. I've had no problem reading all of the delicious recipes and various baking gadgets. It's the baking history part that is harder to focus on. I like history, but I like recipes more.

This week is full of firsts. Tomorrow is my first day at the bakery as well. It's not officially opening until Wednesday, but they need some help finishing things up this weekend, so my time there this weekend is considered "volunteer" time. Oh well, I'm just excited to get into the place and meet the people I will be working with! Here is the link to the bakery site; its not much to look at but whatever. I'll give you guys a full report on Sunday or Monday! Until then.... happy baking!