Cake Competition... Success!

The Food Network Challenge cake competition is finally over! Yesterday was a success, if I do say so myself.  I'm very happy with the turn out of my cake... I know it wasn't something outrageous or death defying, but we had only 4 hours... 4 hours to make everything on site.  With that, comes some limitations.

Breakfast At Tiffany's

Unfortunately, we don't know our grades on the cakes, or who won.  It'll be a while until we find out.  Which is a bit annoying because we put in all that work and effort into our cakes, only to have pretty much no feedback whatsoever.  

The 4 hours pretty much flew by.  It felt like we only had 2 in total.  There was a little chaos during the whole competition, which was totally expected.  There were 21 of us in one room!  Yes, I know this sounds crazy, and it was.  Space was something that I did not have much of, which is why I am glad I didn't take on something too big.

We're being judged on 4 areas of critique:

Arbeitsweise (method of work)

Handwerklichkeit (craftsmanship)

Gestaltung (layout)

Geschmack (taste)

In the criteria of "method of work," most of that is cleanliness.  Let's just say this area of expertise is not one of my bests.  Just ask my mother.  However, I think I did a really good job of keeping my area clean during the competition.  Except for one set back...

In my cake, I had thickened cherries which I had to make first because they had to cool so that they could become part of the filling.  Before 8 o'clock... before the competition officially started, I opened the big can of cherries.  While bringing the can of cherries to scale, what do you think I do?? I spill cherry juice all down the front of my coat.  Keep in mind that I'm wearing all white.  Cherry juice?!  Why did it have to be cherry juice?  Of course it wasn't water, or something I could brush off like sugar... or basically any other ingredient in the entire bakery other than cherry juice.  So there I was before the competition, stained with cherry juice and absolutely nothing to do about it.... that's how it goes sometimes...

Here are a few other of the cakes made by some other students.  I have to say the competition was pretty great with some of these!

Round Up

Round up of events:

1. Cake competition is officially tomorrow... Wish me luck!

2. Our mid-term exam has been moved two months earlier... to April... Waaaaah!?  That's like telling me we're gonna have to take the exam in Japanese...

3. Ireland with some absolutely fabulous people for St. Patrick's Day is in only 2 weeks!

Breakfast At Tiffany's

Remember how I talked about a cake competition at school?

Remember when I was thinking about a really complicated idea?

Remember when I came up with the idea of "The Wizard of Oz?"

Remember how that was a long time ago?

This is what happens when I'm given a long time to think over and idea.  I stress over it and then it completely changes.  Not that I think The Wizard of OZ was a bad idea.  It's an absolutely fantastic movie... one of my favorites.  It's just that the concept in my mind was too complicated...

So I changed it. Classic and simple... Breakfast At Tiffany's...

Today, I spend the end of my day at work testing out some ideas...

This is, most certainly, not the end result... I was just checking some things out, testing my recipe again, and checking some little factors so that I am prepared next week in school.

I want more detail in the piping, and I really want it to be cleaner.  Let's hope I'm up to the task for next week!

Let me know what you think, I'm always open to some criticism!

Disney Fantasy

Ahhhh Valentine's Day.  What to do with you?...

Should I buy a bottle of wine, delicious Milka chocolate and celebrate by myself by watching a good movie...?

Yup.

Okay. Done... don't have to ask me twice!

As I talked about in my last post, my celebrating of this holiday (and most likely the years to come because of my choice of profession) was celebrated by make a bunch of heart-shaped treats, as well as the others I talked about before.

However, the heart-shaped Berliners (doughnuts) are killing me... As I'm typing this, I have a smile on my face... I don't know why.  Trying to keep the attitude positive, I assume?  I hope you enjoy those Berliners, Bremerhaven...

Remember last year when I saw the Disney Dream as it was being worked on in Bremerhaven?

Guess what?!  The Disney Fantasy is now here!  Last week, I was called into the office for some reason I was unaware of.  I saw 2 guys from the Disney Fantasy and was wondering what was going on.  As it turns out, the two men from the Fantasy were pastry chefs and were looking for a specific product.  Apparently they were directed to our bakery, as the product could not be found in the stores.  They were from France and only spoke French and English... lucky for me!  I was asked to translate!

Really, it feels fantastic when I'm asked to translate.  After spending most of my days completely stumbling over my words, attempting to have conversations in German, and feeling frustrated... it's pretty great when I'm needed like this.  It means that my German is good enough to be able to go back and forth from the two languages (which is actually way more difficult than solely speaking one or the other).

In the end, I walked away with a business card, a little networking, an idea for a possible future job, and a good feeling.

Valentine's Day is Approaching!

Valentine's Day is coming!

Whether we like it or not, the day is only next week.  Contrary to popular belief, you don't need a "significant other" in order to celebrate Valentine's Day.  I don't have a "significant other"... thankfully... No wait, I take that back.  I don't mean thankfully as in having a "significant other" is a bad thing.  It's not.  It's just that, I'm around that age where I feel like I should be a little selfish with what I want to do with my life... meaning, things I want to accomplish, goals I want to achieve, and so on... Only you know what you want, and only you know what's best for you...

Anyways... with out without a "significant other" don't be alone on this so-called holiday.  Spend it with someone you love (even if that may be yourself!)... easy peasy... the pressure is off...

What I came here today to write about was what was happening at work.  We went from almost nothing to do for the time after Christmas and New Years, to 10 hour work days... all because of the 14th of February.

Christmas is a holiday that includes a lot of traditional baking products (meaning breads), as well as pastries.  Valentine's Day can basically be summed up as a pastry holiday.

Chocolate.

Chocolate.

Chocolate.

We hear that a lot about Valentine's Day.

So what are we making that's special?
Chocolate cupcakes with an Amaretto-cherry filling, topped with toasted meringue. Ummm YUM!
Strawberry cream hearts.
Berliners (doughnuts) traditionally filled with jelly and topped with glaze, but shaped as hearts!
Bailys-filled Berliners (doughnuts) with a milk chocolate frosting.
Little gingerbread hearts covered with a milk chocolate and a dark chocolate coating.

This is just for the week before Valentine's Day... wait until the day of to see what's coming out of the bakery...

The Coldest I've Ever Been... Sweden

My weekend in Stockholm, Sweden turned out to be a fantastic one.  I can't think of a reason why it wouldn't have been?
A friend of mine, who's traveling around the world for 6 months (that's right, I said 6 months) came to visit me in my little town of Bremerhaven, and we took the weekend to check out what Stockholm was like.

Let me just say that Stockholm may be one of my favorite cities I've ever been to.  It was gorgeous... and this is despite the -20 degree Celsius weather.

Ever heard that Swedish people are the best looking people in the world?  They are.
Ever heard that Swedish people are the nicest people in the world? They are.

Being purely superficial, we didn't  see one bad looking person while in Stockholm.
Being purely judgmental, we didn't meet one person who was  not extremely friendly and helpful.

Stockholm has definitely put itself on my "must return" list.  Next time... summer.  Even though I loved the winter scenery, I know that Stockholm in summer would definitely have a different vibe.

So here's what we did:

We checked out the Stockholm Ice Bar...

We ate delicious Swedish food, at the fantastic indoor market called Saluhall...

And I hate to say this, but we cooked at ate one of Santa's reindeer... Donner, to be exact...

Last but not least, we headed out on a boat, to check out all the Islands that surround Stockholm...