I've finally found the time and energy to sit down and tell you all about work. To say that it's been a learning experience would be putting it lightly. In my two days for working with Heather, I have realized what I want out of the profession and how I want to achieve it. I have already gotten better at icing a cake- Heather's taught me a lot already about that. Essentially, I've learned that having the right tools makes all the difference. An icing tip is a God send- and a long pastry spatula makes getting the sides smooth much easier.
Heather's experience is fairly limited, she's taken a few classes at a place in Austin in order to learn the basics and some fondant work, but not too much, and other than that she's self taught. I was hoping to learn so much more this summer, like how to make gumpaste roses or how to decorate with fondant- not just cover a cake... but that's okay because while I won't be able to learn these things from her, Heather has made me realize that I want to go to pastry school, I want to make my cakes something much more grand than what she's been taught to do. I want to be able to make a seven tiered cake, covered with fondant with fondant drapes and gumpaste roses. I want to learn how to work with sugar so I can make 7 foot tall sugar sculptures. I know what I want out of it now, and I'm glad for it. All in all, you can not achieve what I want to achieve off of a few classes.
Having said that, I won't give away any of Heather's other secrets (though she doesn't really see her education in the field as a secret). She's a great, fun woman and I do enjoy the work. It's fun to work with cakes and icing and fondant all day, and it's rewarding to see a cake come together. We did a bunch of cakes in these past two days- Thursday we did a 3 tiered square wedding cake in butter cream, a three tiered wedding cake in white fondant, a four tiered wedding cake in pink fondant, a 3 tiered anniversary cake in buttercream and a baby shower cake in buttercream with pink and chocolate fondant accents. Friday we put together three groom's cakes and got the fondant cakes painted with luster dust and decorated almost in full. Heather won't travel more than 3 cakes high so we couldn't finish the pink cake- it was my favorite this week. The white fondant would have been except that the cake was going to have maroon ribbon around each tier-- maroon and white, give me a break. The pink cake had white buttercream scrollwork and then was going to have pretty gumpaste orchids all over it that were white with pink centers. SO pretty, I wanted to see it finished- I'll have to wait for pictures.
So that was my two days in a nutshell. It's enjoyable work and I will say that after being around cake and frosting for hours on end, the last thing I want to eat is anything sweet- so I thank pastry work for that! I'm just glad to be doing something so that I'm not sitting around the house all day alone anymore. Jethro's having to adjust, but I think it will be best for all of us that I do have two days at work and the rest of the time I'm home with the babies. It gives me a chance to relax and get things done for myself too- and for Zach. If I had to work 5 days a week, I can tell you that I don't know how our house would get cleaned or our laundry done because I've been beat coming home both days. Okay, so that's that and I hope you all enjoyed hearing about my little job!
Heather's experience is fairly limited, she's taken a few classes at a place in Austin in order to learn the basics and some fondant work, but not too much, and other than that she's self taught. I was hoping to learn so much more this summer, like how to make gumpaste roses or how to decorate with fondant- not just cover a cake... but that's okay because while I won't be able to learn these things from her, Heather has made me realize that I want to go to pastry school, I want to make my cakes something much more grand than what she's been taught to do. I want to be able to make a seven tiered cake, covered with fondant with fondant drapes and gumpaste roses. I want to learn how to work with sugar so I can make 7 foot tall sugar sculptures. I know what I want out of it now, and I'm glad for it. All in all, you can not achieve what I want to achieve off of a few classes.
Having said that, I won't give away any of Heather's other secrets (though she doesn't really see her education in the field as a secret). She's a great, fun woman and I do enjoy the work. It's fun to work with cakes and icing and fondant all day, and it's rewarding to see a cake come together. We did a bunch of cakes in these past two days- Thursday we did a 3 tiered square wedding cake in butter cream, a three tiered wedding cake in white fondant, a four tiered wedding cake in pink fondant, a 3 tiered anniversary cake in buttercream and a baby shower cake in buttercream with pink and chocolate fondant accents. Friday we put together three groom's cakes and got the fondant cakes painted with luster dust and decorated almost in full. Heather won't travel more than 3 cakes high so we couldn't finish the pink cake- it was my favorite this week. The white fondant would have been except that the cake was going to have maroon ribbon around each tier-- maroon and white, give me a break. The pink cake had white buttercream scrollwork and then was going to have pretty gumpaste orchids all over it that were white with pink centers. SO pretty, I wanted to see it finished- I'll have to wait for pictures.
So that was my two days in a nutshell. It's enjoyable work and I will say that after being around cake and frosting for hours on end, the last thing I want to eat is anything sweet- so I thank pastry work for that! I'm just glad to be doing something so that I'm not sitting around the house all day alone anymore. Jethro's having to adjust, but I think it will be best for all of us that I do have two days at work and the rest of the time I'm home with the babies. It gives me a chance to relax and get things done for myself too- and for Zach. If I had to work 5 days a week, I can tell you that I don't know how our house would get cleaned or our laundry done because I've been beat coming home both days. Okay, so that's that and I hope you all enjoyed hearing about my little job!
2 kind words:
yay for having a sper fun job! im so glad for you that you are getting to do what you love!
That is awesome!!! I am super excited for you! Maybe when I come up there, you can show me your secrets ;-).
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