Thanksgiving Cooking Lessons With Chef Julie

 

Today, I went to Chef Julie's Cooking Class and helped make a Thanksgiving Feast. The feast included:

• Harvest salad
• Stuffing w/ dried apricots, pistachios, & herbs
• Apple cider brined turkey rubbed w/ herb butter
• Pomegranate- cranberry glaze
• Shaved brussel sprouts w/ shitake mushrooms & sage
• Chocolate bourbon pecan pie

Birthday Cupcakes

I try to take every opportunity to practice baking by making cupcakes for special occasions such as dinner parties, birthdays etc. Recently, I got an order for homemade birthday cupcakes for my friend D'Vaughn. She wanted yellow cupcakes will chocolate cream cheese frosting. So I found some recipes on foodnetwork.com and followed the instructions exactly. The cupcakes turned out a bit dense but I added some sugar syrup and let them moisten overnight. Overall I am satisfied with the way they turned out and everyone enjoyed them. :)

Rob's Surprise Birthday Cake!



For Rob's Birthday on August 27th, I went back to Sweet Cheeks Baking Company (my previous internship) to make a surprise cake. My mentors prepared the cake and I decorated it with a hand- painted fondant cityscape. The cake was a red velvet cake with buttercream, white chocolate filling, and cream cheese filling. When we finished the final touches on the cake, my mom and I took it to The Glass Door in Downtown San Diego. It was great to go back and visit all of my mentors this summer. The atmosphere in the bakery was much different than my internship the year before. Being that it was summer, there were many orders to fill and not much spare time. I enjoyed my visit and I would like to thank Sweet Cheeks for giving me the opportunity to come back and my mom for sponsoring it.



Tuesday 1/26/09

Here is the project that I have been working on this week:

baked & filled the chiffon cake with italian buttercream, strawberry-banana mousse, and fresh strawberries. Yum.. :)


The cake had to be sealed in with italian buttercream so that the mousse and the moisture stays inside. Also, the buttercream has to be chilled and scraped to even-ness so that the fondant lays evenly over it.


The sheeter is used to roll out fondant quickly and easily.




It is important that the fondant is shaped quickly otherwise it will start to dry up and crack.


Piping swirls with white chocolate- buttercream.

Thursday 1/28/10

Here is a series of Natural Resources used in the bakery:

Friday 1/15/10

Project description

Internship site: Sweet Cheeks Baking Company

Department: Baking, Designing, and Decorating Pastries

Project Title:Frog Princess Cake

General Description:During the last week of internship, I will be making a Frog princess cake. I will be doing all of the baking, decorating and assembling with the help of my mentors, each specializing in something different.

Learning Objectives: To become familiar with the various procedures and techniques of professionally making a cake, which is what I plan on doing as a career.

Organization/Company Objectives & Benefits: Teaching others is a good way to improve your personal knowledge in this field.

Academic Skills: measuring

Technical Skills: using fondant, piping, sculpting, filling cake, baking cake, designing, etc.

Collaboration—Skills and Opportunities: mentors walking me through the entire process

Exhibition Plans: serving the final cake at exhibition night on January 29th, at 3 pm

Schedule & Timelines:
(To be continued)

Wednesday 1/27/10

This is Charity, the "design goddess" of the bakery. I would consider her my mentor, along with everyone else in the bakery because they each taught me something different. My official mentor is actually Donna Cellere, one of the owners, but I would like to consider both in this blog.

The Interview
Donna Celllere
Pastry Chef
Sweet Cheeks Baking Company
San Diego, CA 92120

1)What do you think is the cause of success in owning your own buisness?
~ having positive energy, selling great products, and building customer relationships

2)Were you concerned or worried about the instability that comes with owning your own buisness? What would you do if you were to go out of buisness?
~ Donna was of course aware that it was a risk, but it was worth it. If this buisness closed down everyone what get back on their feet and take other alternatives. Donna specifically, would work for a catering company or become a nutritionist.

3)Every career has its ups and downs. What is your biggest challenge?
~ keeping everyone happy and meeting their expectations

4) What is your favorite part about being a baker/ bakery owner?
~ offering her gift to the world and doing what she is passionate about

5) Did you know that this was your dream when you started college?
~ Yes, she has known that baking was her dream ever since she was five years old.

6) Lastly, what qualities do you look for in someone you hire? Do you take a risk when hiring or do you know what to expect?
~ Of course there is always a risk that people don't meet expectations. A good employee for this job is someone who is professional, timely, has a positive attitude, and a passion for this field of work.