Black forest and strawberry short!

Today was one of those crazy days!

I'm still trying to calm down from class. We decorated two whole cakes in the span of four hours! I know that amount is absolutely nothing compared to what we're going to be doing in the industry, but this was my first time decorating a cake! I like to get things perfect, which often means I spend most of my time re-doing something over and over again. I also get a bit tripped up because we are given a demo example, which I feel like I have to replicate exactly. Then I beat myself up because I made my rosettes a bit too big so there won't be enough room for the chocolate shavings. Then I spend some time thinking about what I should do. I'm working on not doing that anymore, though!

The bane of my existence today was the masking of the cake! The hardest part was trying to keep the icing covering the cake. I kept smoothing things down, and then the cake would peep through! So I'd have to do that spot all over again. And don't even get me started on the crumbs that would find their way back into the whipped topping!

Strawberry Shortcake

We also had to do all of our decorations/extras today- marzipan title flags, little chocolate garnishes, chocolate covered strawberries, whipped topping, and kirsch and triple sec syrup. I was in charge of whipping the 35% cream (we used a mix of whipped topping and whipped cream) and I looked away for one second and it was over-whipped! Luckily, we were able to save it- if I had left it on a second longer, it would have indeed turned to butter! That seems like an interesting experiment unto itself.

I am very thoroughly excited for tonight, as I am having my first slice of a Black Forest cake that I've made!  I'm even more excited because the cherries we used for the inside are very fancy cherries. Very fancy cherries from France, soaked in brandy. I can't wait! I also got to take home an extra sponge cake. Does anyone have any suggestions with what I could do with it?

I had no time to take pictures during class (as I was running around trying to clean things and get everything organized) but I was able to take some pictures before I walked these two lovelies home!

Black Forest Cake

It's days like this where I have to remind myself that I need to be confident in what I do. Questioning what I've done and re-doing things is what slows me down. It's in my nature to do things perfectly, but I really need to get that combination of quality and quantity that is needed in the baking industry. I know that this comes with time and patience and hard work and I know I'll get there!