So they said they'd call either last night or today... it's now 7pm.

So now what should I do? Just wait? Call tomorrow? (thing is I don't know the name of the last person I need to speak to)

If you missed my other thread, Paradise Bakery decided after all of that to train an internal for the job. Jerks. But mere seconds after hanging up the phone I got a call from a local organic coffee shop opening soon for a pastry position. It's unclear if I'll be Pastry Cook or Pastry Chef, since the owners are pretty much unclear on everything (we're having a staff meeting on Monday to discuss shifts (and when they're actually opening) and what we're going to be paid) I'm hoping I can assert myself into Chef role .

PLINKO CAKE! (It worked too! We played Plinko to see who had to clean the dishroom tonight )

So for class we had to make a Children's Birthday Cake. Some argue The Price Is Right is not a Children's show. Those people have never seen SM watch The Price Is Right. He goes bananas, especially for Plinko. I slaved on this cake. I got an 84. I don't know what I'm going to have to do to get an A in this class besides cough up the 10,000 Chef won on my Plinko game

Cake:



The Plinko board/supports, stairs, and the 8" circle it's sitting on are made out of the devil pastillage. SM, colored coverings on the board, birthday sign, and stage lights are made out of marzipan. Plinko chips are made out of modeling chocolate. All piping except for happy birthday is done in royal icing.

Cocoa painting to match birthday cake:



I am NOT an artist, we know that much . It's a pastillage sign on a pastillage easel painted with various ratios of cocoa and cocoa butter.

Tomorrow we start gum paste flowers for our wedding cake so we can continue working on them over our weekend...ha. SM will so not stand for that but I HAVE to get an A on that cake so we'll see how much I get done...

The cake was functional and you got a B????? What's the chef's name? She can be the victim in my next book.

I think your plinko cake is amazing.

I agree. Sic Faye on her immediately.

It would be easy to kill her off since she has a really really common name, she'd never know .

Just so frustrated. She pretty much told me I'm not allowed to come in and do my whole wedding cake at school, I can come in and do some little things if I need their supplies but that's it. How in the world am I supposed to make gumpaste flowers with SM around? Ugh. We have one friend that is willing to watch SM and she's our babysitter for when I work so I'm not going to harass her more since we appreciate that so much. Looks like naptime will be cake time and the house will just go down the tube for awhile

That cake is simply amazing. You are too an artist, MS.

I agree with Nina. Send in Guido Faye.

Thanks OT . I'm really really disappointed. I'm going to have to slave this weekend to get these flowers perfect and keep them safe from SM...ugh. I've come too far to get a B in my last class!

OMG, I love the Plinko cake! You deserved a 100!

Thanks Daniel I think so too! I do see flaws but I don't see enough flaws to warrant an 84. I'm still stewing about it. I should just move on..but it's hard. Our wedding cake is due on Thursday! I'm trying to decide on what I'm going to do I could a) play it safe and take little risk or b) try to do something cool and risk another 84

I'm making white flowers out of gumpaste and then using a torch to caramelize the edges instead of just coloring it. I think it looks prettier. We'll see if Chef agrees

Give Faye the torch. When she's finished with The Ignorant Chef, you'll have your A and the chef will be perfectly fine, once her eyebrows grow back.

I *finally* got an A on something in this class I got a 96 on my first exam! (only 2 in this class, next one will be a huge one over the entire program. Yuck!) Which brought me up to an 89.something. Whew. I did NOT come this far to get a B in my last darn class.

Right now we're working on our wedding cakes, due on Thursday. There's a whole lot of requirements so it's hard to come up with something that I actually want to do to meet all of them. I finally decided on doing a piano theme'd wedding cake I'm doing to do fondant cutouts for the piano keys around the sides of the cake. Right now my flowers are white because I wasn't sure what type of cake I was doing, I might brush them with dark pink petal dust. We have to do a few different techniques of filigree and I'm not really sure where that will tie in...but I'll make it work .

Yesterday we had our first day of work! The owner definitely had his head on better than the kitchen manager I've been dealing with. But yesterday was still a waste of 5 hours. Kitchen manager told me to show up an hour and early and train with some of the kitchen equipment. She forgot. So I sat outside of an unfinished coffee shop looking like a bum for an hour.

After everyone showed up I learn that there's 2 people on the morning pastry team, and one prep girl in the afternoon. The other 6 people in attendance are baristas. They didn't separate us out or anything so when I asked about the menu etc I got looked like like I had 9 heads. All I know is we're doing a lot more than she said we would (sandwiches, salads, and quiche to start) and that she wants the menu to change seasonally. Where is the menu????????? They want to open on Friday (pending a last visit from the health dep and the gas company and some stuff). They talked all day long about the baristas practicing their "craft" um..what about us practicing the food? I understand it's a larger product waste/cost but we could make it and take it to the area businesses to double as marketing.

At the end of the 5 hours I learned nothing useful to the kitchen except for the fact that my shift will be 5a-2p (45 minutes from home. Ugh.) and that there will be 2 people in the tiny hole of a kitchen. And the dish sink is in there so I'm going to forever yelling at people and doing their dishes because I scared them away.

At least I'm getting my externship out of this! (I STILL don't know what I'm getting paid. Should find out thurs/friday when we sign all of the tax/legal stuff)

(Nina, we're going to do a friends and family party in a week or two if you want to come up and get free stuff )

How frustrating, all around.

Hugs

I would never work where I didn't know what was expected of me and what my pay was suppose to be.

Are they taking advantage because they know that you have to do something like this? or just have no clue?

[quote]filigree and I'm not really sure where that will tie in[\quote]

Music desk, decor on top of cake (make a 'vase' to hold some of the flowers) ?

Mucho congrats on the test!

LL - I think they're just completely clueless! I would not work here if I didn't have to (at my externship meeting last week I was the *only* person in a room of 30+ people that had an externship lined up). I'm hoping things will get better as my externship hours don't start counting until May 15th (the first day of the "class", we now get a letter grade for externship!). I would really just like to get a job and stay there but this is really just weird. I'm hoping things settle in when we open and people can just leave me to my work.

Another wrinkle in life is they want to open on Friday. The wedding cake for the bridezilla is due on Saturday. The reception starts at 5 but people will probably show up around 4:30 so I have to have the cake set up by then...I'll get off work at 2 an hour away from the location.

I'm talking with my friend (bridezilla is her husband's sister) and she might take the cakes to the reception site for me so all I have to do is stack them when I dash in the door.

Bridezilla asked if I was going to stay and cut/serve the cake I couldn't say "no" any faster.

quote:

Originally posted by piqaboo:
[quote]filigree and I'm not really sure where that will tie in[\quote]

Music desk, decor on top of cake (make a 'vase' to hold some of the flowers) ?

Mucho congrats on the test!

Thanks!

I'm doing a pastillage arch on the top of the cake with lace points attached to it. Maybe pipe music notes directly onto the arch?