Crumble Cake and Cookies

When I went in to the bakery this morning at 7, there was already cake batter made for me to scoop in to the cake tins.  For the very first time, I had to use my hand to scoop the batter in to the cake tins, which was definitely a different experience for me because I'm accostomed to using a ladle or spoon.  Although somewhat messy and squishy, this method was definitely faster than using a ladle or spoon and is the method that most traditional bakers use.  To measure the amount of batter in each tin, a scale was used.  On one side of the scale, there was a cake tin with a weight inside it.  On the other side of the scale was the cake tin that I filled up.  I had to fill each cake tin until the scale tipped.

There were nine trays, with five cake tins on each.  I put frozen mangoes on two trays, frozen strawberries on two trays, frozen blackberries on one tray, and frozen blueberries on four trays.  Next, I sprinkled a mixture of sugars on top of each of the cakes and finally put crumble onto each of the cakes.

Here are the mango tea cakes:

Here are the strawberry tea cakes:

Here are the blackberry tea cakes:

Here are the blueberry tea cakes:

After prepping the tea cakes and while they were baking in the oven, I made chocolate linzers and chocolate thumbprints.  I started with the chocolate linzers.  The cookie dough was already made, so all I had to do was roll the dough out using the rolling machine.  After rolling out the dough, I simply used a cookie cutter to make the flower shapes of the dough.  I made six trays in total, and since linzer cookies consist of a top and a bottom cookie, with a hole in the top cookie, I used a piping tip to cut out a hole in the center of three trays of cookies.  Next, I used the other half of the cookie dough to make chocolate thumbprint cookies.  I made three and a half trays of the thumbprints.  Unfortunately, I had to leave before any of the cookies were baked, so I wasn't able to help put the fudge in between the cookies for the linzers or put white chocolate and milk chocolate fillings into the thumbprint cookies.

Here are the chocolate linzers:

Here are the chocolate thumbprints:

Time Logged for this Session: 3 hours
Total Time Logged: 31.5 hours

I learned alot in my time working in the bakery, and although I didn't make most of the batters or doughs, I've learned several baking techniques that I will continue to use as I keep on baking.  Thank you so much to my mentor and the people at the bakery for being so welcoming, kind, and helpful in guiding me to become a better baker.

Sunflower Cupcakes

Tonight I decided to bake chocolate cupcakes decorated to look like sunflowers for my friend's birthday tomorrow.  I got the inspiration for the cupcakes from here: http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/cm/goodhousekeeping/images/VC/ghk-sunflower-cupcakes-with-ladybugs-0503-s3-medium_new.jpg.  I decided to make sunflower cupcakes because spring is coming up soon (the 20th).  The recipe I used for the chocolate cupcakes can be found here: http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2014/06/03/classic-chocolate-cupcakes-with-vanilla-frosting/ and the recipe for the vanilla buttercream frosting can be found here: http://addapinch.com/cooking/classic-vanilla-buttercream-frosting-recipe/#axzz2wYqdpHg6.  I reduced the sugar of the frosting by a little over a cup because I don't like frosting that's overly sweet and overpowers the cupcake itself.  I simply dyed the frosting yellow and used the star tip to make the "petals" of the sunflower.

Instead of little ladybugs made of M&M's, I decided to use little gummy butterflies that I found in the store.  In addition, since tomorrow is also St. Patrick's Day, I decided to use only green butterflies.  Just as the picture, I used mini chocolate chips to add texture to the cupcake to make the cupcakes look more like actual sunflowers.  To make the chocolate chips stay, I spread a little bit of the frosting onto the cupcake and then sprinkled the chips onto the cupcake.  This project helped boost my confidence slightly in my ability to see a picture of a cupcake and become resourceful to replicate the cupcake's design to the best of my abilities.

I hope to do to continue to expand my pastry decorating skills by seeing and replicating other cupcake designs to the best of my abilities.

Time Logged for this Session: 2 hours
Total Time Logged: 28.5 hours

I made and decorated a dozen cupcakes in total, but I took close-up pictures of a single cupcake to have a closer view of the cupcakes' details.  (Unfortunately, I don't have white-lighting in my home, so the colors of the cupcakes and the decorations may have a slight tint to them).

2nd Day at the Bakery

I went to the bakery for the second time, arriving at the bakery at 5:50 and leaving at 8:20.  When I went in, I grabbed an apron (luckily I did too, because by the time I left, the apron had multiple stains on it).  Unlike the previous week, in which I helped make sweet pastries, this week I helped make focaccia.  The focaccia was an order from AT&T park, and I helped make about 20-30 trays.  When I got to the bakery, the dough was already made, so I just helped open the cans with the pesto and tomato sauces as well as the bags with cheese.

While waiting for the dough to settle just a little bit more, Mr. Galli, my mentor, was making a coffee-and-caramel cake cream filling.  He taught me that when making cake cream filling, you have to fold the cream mixture and not mix because mixing would cause the cream filling to separate as well as add air to the mixture.

When the dough was ready, I helped flatten, shape, and roll out the focaccia dough.  While I was finishing doing that up, Mr. Galli used the rolling machine to fully roll the dough out evenly.  Once I was finished, I helped add the little holes into the rolled-out dough using an ateco dough docker, and then I made sure that the edges of the dough were flattened.  Afterwards, I helped spread the pesto and tomato sauces onto the dough.  Finally, I put the cheese onto the dough, making sure that not too much cheese was added (especially for the focaccia with the pesto sauce because pesto apparently looks better with less cheese).  Unfortunately, I had to leave before I could help with the wedding cakes, but hopefully the next time I go to the bakery, I will be able to gain more experience with sweet pastries, such as cakes.

Time Logged for this Session: 2.5 hours
Total Time Logged: 26.5 hours

In addition, I unfortunately had to leave before the focaccia could be baked, but here's a sample of what I helped make:

First Day in the Bakery

Today was my first day actually working in a bakery.  While I've baked many things before at home, working at a bakery is very different.  The pace is quicker at the bakery than at home and the bakery has different types of professional equipment that makes baking that much faster.  In the beginning, I learned that fresh eggs aren't necessarily the best to use when baking, and that aged, pre-whipped eggs are used to help with the texture and consistency of the pastries, especially with pastries like meringue.  In addition, although this was my very first time working in the bakery, my mentor and all of the workers were extremely nice, and I actually worked under/alongside two of the other workers as well as my mentor.

The first type of pastry that I helped make were the amaretti cookies, which I helped pipe on to the trays and then sprinkle white sugar on top of.  Doing so helped me with my piping techniques, increasing my piping consistency in particular because I had to make sure that the cookies were roughly the same size.

The second type of pastry that I helped make were the eclairs.  While each part of the eclair was already pre-made (the pastry, custard, whipping cream, and chocolate), I helped cut, fill, and decorate the tops of the pastries.  I learned another technique while piping, which is to twist the end of the piping bag to increase the pressure in the bag, which would make piping quicker and easier.

The third, and last, type of pastry that I helped make this morning were the Easter sugar cookies.  Although I had to leave before the cookies were baked, I helped make the dough by measuring the ingredients and using the mixer.  Next, I rolled out the dough using the rolling machine and then cut out the cookies using different cookie cutters.  I made two trays of each of the shapes, which were: two sizes of bunny heads, a chick, and two sizes of eggs.  After I finished cutting the shapes out, I put pink, blue, yellow, and purple crystal sprinkles onto the cookies by spraying some water onto the cookies and then putting the cookies on the trays with sprinkles on them.  Some of the cookies were designated to be decorated with chocolate, but I had to leave before I could help decorate those cookies.

The next thing I hope to do is to continue to increase my piping skills as well as continue to gain experiencing making different types of pastries.

Time Logged for this Session: 4 hours
Total Time Logged: 24.5 hours