Happy first day of spring! It seems very appropriate that I begin writing again today. SO MUCH has changed since my last post, allow me to bring you up to speed.
I have to mention that Christmas, although it feels like ages ago, was AWESOME. I got my fondant crimpers! A definite highlight was my golden 26th birthday, complete with high school friends, family, Mr. Scott and his family,
dulce de leche cupcakes, and ruckus games of Pictionary and Wits and Wagers. To have all of my favorite people in one room was the best gift ever.
Of course, upon my return to Minnesota, shit got real again. The bakery was in a downward spiral, and I was ready to abort. Within about two weeks of job searching, I landed a decorating position at
Queen of Cakes. This 8-year-old specialty cake shop in Edina, MN, produces over 100 cakes a week, and projects to book about 500 weddings this year. My prayers were answered for a job that took me out of the pastry chef/manager role and into one that let me go back to just decorating and building my strengths artistically. On top of that, I was instantly enamored with the owner, Terri. I am eager to learn as much as possible from her, and her kind heart is as apparent as her skills.
That being said, it was instantly challenging for me to switch from decorating predominantly with chocolate and fondant, to a traditional, all buttercream style. I've been practicing one way of doing things for 7 years now, but this was exactly what I wanted: A new outlook and new skills. {QOC does use fondant and other decorating materials other than buttercream, just not on the majority of their orders.}
My free-hand drawing was atrocious in the beginning, but I am improving, thanks to the "cheater" methods I've learned. These may seem elementary to some, but I really was never exposed to these before! One is the Piping Gel Transfer. Much like how I would trace an image with chocolate before, here you trace it, again on parchement paper, with piping gel. The paper is placed gel-side down on the cake, leaving lines to guide you in your design. You can read a little more about it
here. We also have a projector, that allows one to project any image on the top of a cake and easily adjust the size to fit. We trace the lines with a toothpick and pipe the design accordingly.
This dragon cake is an example of where I used the projector to position the image on the cake and traced the outlines to fill in. The details are free-handed over the top.
One more trick I had never heard of was using a make-up powder puff to flatten a piped buttercream design. The powder puff is dipped in powdered sugar to avoid sticking, and then used to pat down, say, raised dots and lines, the body of the dragon above, or to blend away flaws in your base coat.
See how the dots are flat in this picture?
Airbrushing was something I had done a few times at Fresh Fields, but never had formal training with. Its actually quite fun! You can create some really neat effects, and I can't wait to get better at it. The trick is to dilute your colors with rum and blend thin layers rather than heavy ones.
My first airbrush sunset!
And there is so much more! Buttercream flowers (tricky little bastards), figure piping (making people gives me a panic attack), the UMBA conference coverage, and some super exciting news about my new partnership with Premier Food Products!
Even though I don't feel completely "settled in" to this new job yet, I am looking forward to three months from now when I don't feel like the new girl and I'm more comfortable with these new techniques.
I'm excited to go to work again, and that, my friends, is priceless.
Love,
Rachel
