Yeah, guess I can't count! It's not day 8, it's day 9 today! Haha!
Friday, March 20, 2015- Day 9
Today I worked under Salmina for the first time! If Wafa intimidates me, then I don't know what Salmina does! There's just something about her that makes me feel nervous and somewhat inferior- no, that's not right, like I have to prove myself. But anyway, she had me dip (filled) Cannoli, one batch into chocolate bits, the other into slivered almonds. Then I put them in the Sweet Dreams paper liners, and she brought some out for the storefront, the rest for refills. After that, I cut a small bowl of strawberries for cakes. Amal had me finish (all by myself) the Cookie Dough cakes from yesterday, I frosted them in whipped cream and then covered the sides in chocolate shavings. Oh, I had my first major mistake today, or big no no, or however you want to say it. I had just finished 3 or 4 of the 9" cakes, I was moving them from one end of the work table to the other, so I could cover them with the chocolate shavings. As I was moving them, my elbow caught on a box of strawberries that hadn't been put away, and one of the cakes went sliding off the end of the sheet pan, and SPLAT onto the floor!! I was mortified! Amal turned, saw what happened, and said it's fine, don't worry, they were heavy. (Usually carts are used to move anything or get product from one place to another.) I told her my elbow caught on the box. She reassured me that it was alright, and in a matter of seconds was cleaning it up, scraping the ruined cake off the floor and into the garbage. I felt so awful and amateur. I don't think it bothered Amal much though. I felt pretty crappy for at least the next 20-30 minutes and was extra careful and tried to do extra well with the other cakes. Anyway, I got through that situation, and did pretty well on the rest of the cakes, didn't drop any or anything! Haha! But Amal said I did well, and I think I did pretty good too. I know I probably took twice or thrice as long as Amal or any of the other employees would, I finished all 40 though, was focused and worked hard. A few times Sam (owner & "boss") tried to make me mess up, by "accidentally" bumping into me and claiming "Oops, I didn't see you there!" Haha yeah right, you didn't see one of the tallest people at your bakery, who happened to be wearing a pink plaid shirt! But he's really fun, and I am really glad he's my boss! After that was done and I had cleaned up my station and put the rest of the cakes into the walk in cooler, Amal had me put ladyfingers around the cakes she frosted. Rosa then wrapped them in glittery ribbon, which always makes a mess and is a pain to clean. But they always get wrapped in ribbon. Amal piped something between a rosette and a swirl on the top of them, and later they will get strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and maybe raspberries too. I cleaned up, then she finished up the last two cakes of the day, special orders. A 10" round (4 layer) Black Forest Cake, frosted in whipped cream, covered in chocolate shavings, and later on will have whipped cream rosettes with a cherry in each. The other was a half sheet (square with 4 layers), of the White Chocolate Cascade, which is chocolate cake, white chocolate mousse or whipped cream (it was already filled, so I'm not sure), whipped cream frosting, and white chocolate shavings. The final touch is a dusting of cocoa, it adds a lot of dimension to it. Amal & I put everything away, made sure everything was clean, and then went home a little after 3. :) She didn't try to follow me home this time! Lol!
Oh, today was the first day I didn't wear my uniform- they were all dirty, I really have to do laundry. Amal was just gushing about how cute I looked and that I should never wear my uniform again. She even jokingly exclaimed that she would cut it. She said there used to be uniforms at Sweet Dreams, but nobody liked them. But people were very surprised to see me in regular clothes, Steven was especially surprised- we usually have the same, or at least close to the same uniform of a skull cap and chef coat.
Also, Sam introduced- kind of, he didn't actually say her name, but had a girl who graduated from JWU's Charlotte campus come through the kitchen. Later there was a guy that Sam was showing around the kitchen. Amal and I don't know what he's up to, but she said no one else is allowed to come, she'll only work with me. I told her it's okay, we'll just take up the whole area next to her station and no one will be able to work there. :)
Another good day at Sweet Dreams! It's hard to believe tomorrow is already the weekend, but I'm tired out again, and might be getting sick, I'm not sure. Yesterday I passed out on the couch, and I've been taking a lot of naps after internship. I'm still getting used to 8+ hour days though, it's been since the summer. Kind of, I guess I had labs and was working at Kohl's at the same time. Anyway, for now I just come home and am a big ball of lazy!
Day 10, March 21st, 2015-
Today was really quite boring, there wasn't much for me personally to do, and it actually seemed pretty slow for most people. There were plenty of cakes for Mai, Kathy, and Melanie to decorate though. Anyhow, I wrapped up Rocky Road Brownies for Salmina, she is becoming less intimidating by the day. You would laugh if you saw what she looks like, she's really not intimidating at all, I don't know why I feel that way. She mentioned how the marshmallow part of most of the brownies separates and it looks like it was made separately. I didn't think about it until afterwards, but it's probably because the brownies weren't warm when the topping was put on them. Many years of making Rocky Road Brownies have taught me that, always put the topping on when they're warm, and make it while the brownies are just finishing baking. As I was wrapping them, I kept thinking about my mom, Rocky Road Brownies always make me think of her, and my childhood. They were always such a delicious, special treat!
Some of the other things I did today were practice frosting a (styrofoam) sheet cake, Mai said I was getting better, and her and Melanie were giving me tips. I'm liking Mai more and more, she is generally quiet, but is nice and I like the way she suggests things, she doesn't assume things and she isn't rude or mean about it. I helped Steven stack cakes to put into the freezer, and talked to him a bit, it's always nice to talk to him, especially since he speaks English! Lol! I put chocolate shavings on some of the cakes Wafa was finishing. I watched Amal make a Fruit Napoleon. It was a bit different than how we made it at JWU. The puff pastry was very thick, well the layers were, obviously a puff pastry is flaky and has many layers within each portion. But she had a layer of that, Bavarian cream, blackberries and strawberries, then another layer, topped with the final layer of pastry. The top was dusted in powdered sugar, then a criss-cross/lattice design was made over it. An edible image was requested for it, and placed in the left corner, and then more fruit finished it off.
Later on, I helped Amal with 4 fruit platters that had been ordered. She leveled an apple and secured it in the center by dipping it in chocolate. (I love it when chocolate is glue! Haha!) Then she added sections of pineapple, muskmelon, honey dew, and strawberries. The decorative touch was shish kabobs of pineapple, muskmelon, honey dew and strawberries, coming out of the apple. I did some cleaning to pass the time, I cleaned the mixer Amal and Wafa use for whipping cream and for frostings, I also clean 3 of the microwaves. Amal had me frost a 10 or 12" Berries Delight cake with whipped cream, and cover the sides with ladyfingers. That was the first cake that size that I got to frost, and I was happy Amal let me do it! The other significant thing I did was cut, fill and finish a Banana Delight cake- the first I've seen in the bakery so far. :) The Banana Delight is filled with white chocolate mousse, then vanilla crunch bits are added on top of that, and fresh banana slices (about one and a half bananas) complete the layer. The second layer is the same and then it is frosted in whipped cream, covered with ladyfingers, wrapped in ribbon. The top is finished off with whipped cream rosettes, fresh banana slices, and apricot glaze to keep it fresh and pretty.
I'm pretty happy it's the weekend now, I just wanted to sleep in this morning. I have been so tired, and am excited to get some more sleep and wind down. :)
Amal kept feeding me, or I would get bored and snag some fresh fruit.
She had me try a cheesecake bite and another cream puff. Before that she had me pick something out, and I tried a bite size vanilla cake with raspberry bavarian and covered in chocolate.
I had lunch with Amal, Salmina, Chad, Amal S, and Wafa. As we were almost finished, Rita came in with something I'd seen her make earlier, a bread like dough with sesame seeds and some kind of mildly spicy paste. It was delicious! She brought another with just cheese, of course those were delicious! I just want to try everything from other cultures now! Well, in theory! Haha!
On a side note, I made a Grilled Peanut Butter sandwich with honey & apples for dinner, and it was super delicious and healthy, with just enough sweetness to make it feel like a treat! :) I would highly recommend it. Just be careful with the honey, if it drips out onto the pan it will burn and leave marks on your pan.
No comments:
Post a Comment