I have a week off, and it is wonderful! *grins*

First I better fill you in on last week, the week started with ‘Mass Production.’ Basically some of the employers that are in contact with the school commented that students finished the course having only ever made single items, having never baked in bulk which is how it’s done in the industry. So now, we spend a day making 50-something cakes and 50lbs of buttercream ready for use on our sculpted cakes. It was interesting, mostly not much difference between that and making a single cake, just using a much bigger mixer (one that you have to get your arm in to scrape out).

Tuesday saw the start of our sculpted cakes. I will be honest, and say I was totally uninspired by our theme – food other than cake, I had voted for our theme to be Jim Henson but the less said about my thoughts on that the better! As I said in my previous post I settled on a cake of tea and biscuits. Though it’s undecided whether it looks like tea, coffee or hot chocolate.. it’s a hot beverage in a mug with biscuits!

I was pretty happy with it, it was different to everyone else in the class who had made one large item sculpted, I made each biscuit individually and covered them all separately so they could all be picked up and moved around. Useful in hiding the fondant flaws on the mugs. I made a wood-like fondant for the board and stuck it on in strips rather than trying to do it all in one piece so it looked like a table, though most of it was covered anyway. I scored 98/100 for it which made me happy, losing those two points for the fondant on the board being dusty, but the rest was fantastic, and the gingerbread men made my Chef’s laugh loudly.. a little disconcerting to hear when you know they’re grading you, but funny.

These are a selection of the cakes from the rest of my class –

Thursday we had a speed drill. Preparing us for work in mostly grocery store type bakeries. We had made the cakes and buttercream in advance and then after being given the details had 30 minutes to prepare (bringing the buttercream back after being refrigerated – it was Italian buttercream so it sets solid, colouring it appropriately, setting up all our piping bags etc). Then 30 minutes to decorate, that includes splitting the cake into 3 layers, filling and covering, then piping a top and bottom border, appropriate flowers and the message on top.

I was done in 20 minutes.. it’s not the best cake I’ve decorated, but given the time scale I’m mostly happy with it, the only part that really bugs me is the last line of the writing going off on a different angle! It’s good to see my writing getting better, and my shell border too.

Friday we finished the week with another day of mass production, this time making the gingerbread for the houses we’ll be making in groups of two when we get back. We got out early so a group of us ended the week with a visit to a Chinese restaurant which was gorgeous. DmentD and I split the duck fried rice as we weren’t overly hungry but it was nice to be social, and it was delicious! I think we both have a new favourite Chinese!

Saturday we had a busy busy day, starting with a cake delivery, a silhouette cake of a beaver. We then had friends round for brunch, they were visiting from Houston. Moving swiftly we had a puppy birthday party in the afternoon which was good fun. I had made some puppy safe cup cakes (from here on out called pup cakes) which went down very well indeed. Even the picky eaters finished them off!

We left there and went to the Bass Concert Hall (part of the university) to see Spamalot. The show was fantastic, I really enjoyed it, nicely put together and highly funny. Aside from the woman next to me who decided on the seats between me and her was the perfect place for her abnormally huge handbag that she felt the need to rummage through at regular intervals, there was nothing to bug me during the show.

The annoyance was before the show started. We got there and they were scanning the tickets at the door, except ours wouldn’t scan. They took us to the will-call booth and we were told we had been moved. Now aside from the fact that they were insisting that they tried to contact us when phone records and emails deny that point, and that we had no say in where we were moved to, it seemed fair enough, there were visibility problems with the seats in questions after a recent renovation and they were moving people who had already been sold those seats, and not selling them any more until it could be sold. So a little disgruntled but understanding we went to our new seats. Only to sit there and see people sat in our original seats. The theatre have now received an email complaining, we’re waiting to see how that turns out!

I would however recommend the show to anyone who appreciates the Monty Python sense of humour.

Sunday I was beating myself up again! Apparently discontent that my big toe was mostly healed with just a light bruise and no pain, I shut the bedroom door on my other big toe, bending the nail back, causing some blood and much pain! It’s not as bad as it could be, I’ve seen worse, I’m just back to limping again!

We had friends round and the tree stumps were removed from the back of the house, we were intending to leave them for a bit longer but the peas and the sprouts shot up, the peas literally a few inches in one night, so we really need to get the bed made this weekend and get them outside.

Yesterday and today DmentD took off work so we could spend some time together which has been very nice. We went and got me a new bike saddle, the one on his bike wasn’t exactly suited for the female form, and now my rides are getting longer I’m noticing it more. I’m building up to be able to do the 8 mile ride round town lake, that would be nice.

We went and had Indian for lunch today and got a bin for in the kitchen for the composter, so we don’t have to make a trip outside with every single item. The composter is now set up and we’ve gotten it started, and the rainbarrels are in place, just in time for the heavy rain we had mid week, they filled in one night. We marked out the bed ready so we know where to build it.

I have no plans for the rest of the week really. I need to finalise my details for the gingerbread house, and come up with my design for my wedding cake for class. Just taking it easy and enjoying the time off