Showing posts with label cake. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cake. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Update

I suck, I know. I always say to myself, "Okay you're baking this today so take photos and blog about it". Well I take some photos and either things don't turn out how I'd like or I don't have good photos. I don't know. I have an excuse for everything. Anyways. Little update for ya'll who may or may not care, I've been doing a lot and not a whole lot. I had my 1 year post op since my breast reduction. And I filmed a video on it. But I think I'm going to re-do it and actually write up a bunch of topics I want to discuss about it. I was all over the place and kept going back and forth on what I was talking about and I was worried someone was gonna walk in my house and then my camera died. So. Much. Drama. I did my graduation ceremony for my pastry and baking certificate. I quit my job. I got a new job a month later; that was a painful month. I found out I only have one more semester to finish and I'll get my AA in psychology. I had tonsillitis :(. I went to a concert. And I turned 22 since I posted last. Wow I suck. It's been 6 months. Okay wow. If you could see my drafts for this blog you'd be amazed/confused. Like why do I have 20+ posts that are basically done but not posted? I don't know either. Life's confusing. Anyways, here's what I've been doing.

<- Me and my best friend at the concert. The concert was all a part of my birthday present from my co-pilot/best friend/boyfriend. We went out to a wildlife place and got to see giraffes, cheetahs, rhinos. And then a couple months later got to go to the Kenny Chesney concert. I got my face painted too. :)




Fun side note. I had tonsillitis the weekend of the concert. The medication I had to take had super fun side effects. Like: headaches, fatigue, stomach aches, hearing loss, and so much more. And since it was antibiotics, I couldn't drink. Wooooo. But a woman in line at the snack bar bought me chicken strips and french fries so that was fun. And after the concert I thought it made more sense to walk to a location then call Uber because the rates were gonna be so high at the stadium plus all the traffic. We ended up walking 2 miles and we were nowhere near an actual place we could be picked up. My feet were blistered and bloodied and we were tired then we saw a Taco Bell and called an Uber. $40 and a 4 minute ride later we got to our hotel. 

I also started trying to date again. Which was weird. Still is weird. Went on a couple dates with a couple different guys. One guy was really nice but didn't seem interested. The other seemed really nice and fun but turned out to be an ass. Basically I found out dating is super awkward. After one date I really had to pee but the restaurant was closing and I didn't wanna run to the bathroom before we left and I really had no clue how to get back home without GPS. And when I say I had to pee I mean I thought I was going to pee my pants it was horrible. Luckily after driving for 20 minutes and being too stubborn to use my phone navigation I found a Safeway and took a selfie before going home.  

I went to the beach with my parents on Valentine's day since I'm extremely single. And who passes up a trip to the beach and sandwiches and taffy? Not me. We went to a local deli and got sandwiches and lemonade and then drove out to the coast with my dog. Of course every beach was at capacity until we drove out further and hung out at this one. It had really cool tide pools but the beach wasn't sandy it was more like tiny rocks so my feet were raw at the end of the day. Then we stopped and got salt water taffy on the way home and I didn't feel like a single loser, instead I was a 22 year old third wheeling it with her parents. :)



 And here we have me being an ass and not leaving work when I was clocked out because who knows.  This is the lovely job I quit unexpectedly. Which sucked because I put in my notice because I wasn't happy but I didn't have another job lined up. I found one applied, interviewed and they had me come in for a "shadow day". Worst. Experience. Ever. I've only had a couple jobs. I was an assistant soccer coach, cashier at a candy store, and associate at Panera. And I've had a million interviews. But man. This place was horrible. I won't name what the place was or where but WOW. Let's just say I wanted to leave a few minutes after arriving and I actually told the manager I wanted to go home so I left halfway into my shift and never looked back. It's a funny story to tell now but my God it was bad. 
 Here's me and my cousin at the Giant's game. This is actually the night before I put in my notice at work. But we took the ferry into the city, got a little drunk, ate chicken strips and cotton candy. She fell asleep on the ferry home and we ended up getting back around 1:30. And I had to be up for work at 4 am. Guess who didn't fall asleep until after 2? If you guessed me, you are correct!

 Some nights you just feel like buying Four Lokos and getting drunk on your couch, getting into an argument and then having your dad drive you and your best friend to In N Out. I'm pretty sure we wanted to watch a movie but ended up watching Chopped or Master Chef all night. I don't know why we wanted to drink and get really drunk that night but we went to like 4 different stores to get alcohol and almost walked to Target to buy my sister slippers. Thank god we didn't because it was really late and we were really drunk and Target doesn't sell slippers in April.





Here are some cupcakes and a cake I baked for a bridal shower for a family friend. I still gotta work on my cake decorating skills. And my social skills. I like working behind the scenes, not the business part. Like I can sit at a consultation and find out what the person wants and how many and what date. But I am not as strong at selling my product or discussing price. Soooo I brought my dad to set things up and pep talk me through it all. It was a cool but really stressful experience. I forgot how difficult it was transporting a cake and then not knowing what the environment will be at the actual event. I destroyed my kitchen and mental health for a couple days but it was easily fixed by a million loads in the dishwasher and oversleeping the next few days. I made 40 cupcakes, 10 chocolate, 10 vanilla, 10 strawberry, and 10 lemon blueberry. And then I made a 6 inch chocolate and vanilla cake on top. Everything was edible except the gold ribbon. I made white chocolate plastic roses and white chocolate starfish. Only bad part was, the table was super unstable and the cake stand was too. The top cake was super heavy and basically if someone ran into the table the cake was going down. At this point my motto is "Once I'm paid and out the door it's not my problem" and I told the woman the situation so I didn't look like a jerk of course. Then I got to go home to a destroyed kitchen I had to clean. Awesome. But that's why we charge so much as at home bakers right?!


Thursday, July 10, 2014

Update: Why I Suck at Posting

I suck at posting… I know. It's okay. I admit it. To be honest I have like 8 drafts of posts I want to talk about/publish but I don't feel like they're perfect. I have so many ideas on what I want to make posts about but I just hit a brick wall and forget or write a post and forget about it.  I also finally got a job! I hadn't worked since the first week in January which was very frustrating and annoying but now I have a job with a great company and I couldn't be happier. So that happened. I want to make a little list for what I will be posting about in the upcoming weeks!

  • How to make cake pops
  • Breast reduction story and 6 month post op summary
  • How to make a princess cake
  • Review of Urban Decay Setting spray
  • A review of a restaurant in Sausilito
  • Tips on baking for an event
  • Dealing with anxiety/depression/stress
  • Reese's peanut butter cake
  • Maybe some favorites videos????
Here's what I've been up to as well!
 Plain/chocolate chip banana bread
Reese's peanut butter chocolate cake 
Black Bear Diner trips 
Spicy pizza 
 Cuppycakes
Wedding guests 
Oodles of hikes
 Cake pops
 Mini cuppycakes
 Lemon Bars
 Hazelnut ice cream
 Drinking at a concert
More mini cupcakes! 

Monday, April 14, 2014

Cakes and Cake Decorating Class

I've been MIA because of school but I'm hoping to get back into the groove of things. I've made countless blogs in the past and tend to give up after 5 posts but I'm determined not to do that with this blog. I took a two week long cake and cake decorating class and it was an amazing experience. There were so many tips and tricks I learned about baking and decorating that I couldn't have learned any other way. My teacher owned and operated an amazing bakery close to my town and now works at an extremely successful bakery. The bakery he owned is one of my favorite places to get cake. Anyways, here are some of the cakes I've made since school started. I plan on making a post about how to make a princess cake, which is my favorite cake on earth. Also I'm going to re-do my strawberry shortcake and perfect it before making a blogpost about it as well.

Princess Cake
Strawberry Shortcake
Making a wedding cake was one of the most exciting/challenging things I've ever done. It took so much time and effort and there were times I just wanted to sit down and cry and times I wanted to drive back to school to work on my cake. I learned a lot from making this cake. I had always feared making a tall multiple tiered wedding cake but I realized this was the perfect opportunity to practice. I still have so much to learn and I'm extremely excited to practice my skills in school. 

Bottom Layer: Chocolate cake
Top Layer: Vanilla cake
My next set of classes being on the 22nd and I'll be taking a tarts and pies class followed by an ice cream and soft desserts class. I plan on posting what I create in class on here and also include any recipes I loved! 


Sunday, March 23, 2014

✿ Spring Lemon Blueberry Cake ✿

Spring is finally here! The sun is shining, days are longer, and flowers are blooming. The weather in California has been beautiful lately! It's been warm and sunny all week and it's gotten me really inspired. I kept saying "I'm going to bake cupcakes. I'm going to bake cookies. I'm going to make ice cream". None of that happened. I make a lot of excuses but today I knew I wanted to bake a cake. I was thinking chocolate then strawberry then vanilla. But ultimately I thought lemon blueberry would be the perfect thing for a Sunday evening. The cake is lemony and decadent, the blueberries are a nice surprise when you take a bite! And the frosting is perfectly lemony without being too sweet or too sour. The ingredients are things that you would normally have in your house, most likely you'll only have to buy the blueberries and lemons. This recipe is also pretty simple to execute. I followed the recipe made by Sweetapolita, but I did a few things differently! If you want to learn how to make a delicious lemon blueberry cake then keep on reading. :)

The ingredients you will need are:
  • 2 cups and 6 tbsp all purpose flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup greek yogurt (I used vanilla, it said to use plain but who cares)
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice (about one lemon)
  • 2 tbps lemon zest (I used one giant lemon)
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 2 sticks (one cup) butter (room temp)
  • 1 1/2 cup sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 6 oz of fresh blueberries

  1. To begin, pre-heat oven to 350* and butter two 9 inch pans, line with parchment and then re-butter
  2. Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl, set aside
  3. In a separate bowl mix milk, yogurt, lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla extract together, set aside.
  4. In a stand mixer cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy
  5. Add eggs one at a time and then scrape down the sides of the bowl.
  6. Put one third of the dry mixture into the mixer, then half of the liquid ingredients, add another third of the dry then the rest of the wet ingredients followed by the rest of the dry ingredients
  7. Before the batter is completely combined take the bowl off the machine and fold the batter by hand
  8. Wash and dry the blueberries, then gently fold into the batter
  9. Evenly divide the batter between the two pans and put into the oven. Bake for 25 minutes or until the top is set and lightly golden.
  10. Let the cakes cool for 15 minutes out of the oven then remove from the pans and place onto a wire rack.

Lemon buttercream
  • 2 sticks of softened, unsalted butter
  • 5 cups of sifted powdered sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 tsp lemon zest
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • a splash of milk, half+half, heavy cream
  • yellow food coloring (optional)
To make the frosting
  1. Cream the butter until light and fluffy
  2. Slowly add the powdered sugar one cup at a time until fully combined
  3. Add the vanilla, lemon juice, and lemon zest and mix until fluffy and delicious

This cake was so delicious! Light and lemony. Hint of blueberry. It would be perfect for after dinner, a midday snack and even something to eat with tea in the morning. This recipe also makes delicious cupcakes with or without the blueberries. If you try this recipe out let me know! 
Happy Spring! 




Hello, three years later

Weeks after my last post my world was turned upside down, this will be explained in a future blogpost. Since then I've left jobs, gotten...