IBIE 2010 Day 1 & 2

The International Baking Industry Expo is half way through and although I would of loved to have taken advantage of everything the expo has to offer I couldn't since their hours interfere with my current crazy school schedule. I was there most of the day on Sunday which was technically opening day but I look forward to spending ALL day Tuesday perusing all the booths, buying stuff I don't really need but really want, and of course sampling all kinds of delicious treats. I also plan on watching the World Chocolate Masters Regional Qualifier competition it's put on by Callebaut. The winning team goes on to compete in the world finals in Paris France next fall! It should be exciting to watch plus the chef that teaches my Sugar Arts class is on the panel of judges.

Here are some of the amazing and wonderful things I got to see on Sunday.

Industry celeb sightings at the Expo so far: Food Network Cake Challenge winners Marina Sousa & James Rosselle at the Pfeil & Holding booth and then we snapped pics at the Dawn Food Products booth with Courtney Clark, Kendon Smith, Megan Dimitroff of Cake Nouveau, Roland Windbeckler and Marsha Windbeckler. Some of these faces should look familiar since they've been featured on Various Food Network Cake Challenges and TLC's "Ultimate Cake Off"!

So that's the re-cap of the first half of the Expo. Tomorrow (Tues) I plan to spend the entire day there so I will for sure have more great pictures to share! Stay tuned! :)

LAZY SUNDAYS...not so much!

WOW This past Sunday was such a great day! Although it's my crazy busy looong day (12hrs on campus) it still was great!
In my Breads of The World class we got to bake rustic country bread, french bread baguettes, rolls and cornbread. All which was very very deelish! Then in my Sugar Arts class the chef showed us the proper techniques for making pulled sugar syrup and melting isomalt. We also got to make our own pastiage and then made all sorts of beautiful shapes with it. Naturally this makes me extra excited for next week where we'll actually get to use the syrup we made and do work with pulled sugar and start putting together our pastiage pieces!!


Adding to the great school day when I got home I received a much awaited call from a very dear friend of mine. It's been 2 years since I've seen her and although we keep in touch through facebook well...it's just not the same. You see, my culinary soulmate met a fabulous handsome man, fell madly in love, got married and moved to OZ!! YUP! She very wisely traded Sin City for the beautiful country of Australia where she is now spreading her wealth of culinary knowledge and mad cooking skills! The people of Tasmania had NO idea what they were getting into when she rolled in to town!LOL! But wait! It's a good thing, because she is now exposing them to tastes and cuisines they've only probably read about and not ever dreamed of tasting. Dishes that to many of us are typical Monday night blah dinners are exquisite elaborate blow your taste buds out of your mouth flavors to them! I can't wait for her to start blogging so that I can share with everyone all the great stories she told me. But more importantly I can't wait to finally have the funds and the time together so that I can make the trip to Oz and embark on wonderful culinary adventures with her! She says we're sisters of the spoon and I couldn't agree more so talking to her and catching up drew to a close a very busy but yet very awesome Sunday! :)


This upcoming weekend posts should be interesting. I'm completely bogged down with tons of homework, overly stressed about my Poli Sci class, have a huge order for a cake & favors. PLUS it's that time again. The Freestyle concert is rolling into town and I of course can not miss it!! So stay tuned!

OH SUGAR!!!

I'm working on a new project based on cute little pops I encountered on a recent trip to Mexico. It's something that I've really seen here in the US yet and that's why I'm being a little vague about what exactly these "pops" look like. So the main decorative component is sanding sugar. I volunteered to make some of these pops for a friend's son's birthday party next weekend and I need red sanding sugar and allot of it! I tried making my own and it didn't work out so well so I guess I'll have to give in and just go and buy some!


On another note this past Thursday was the 1st day that we actually got to bake in my Quantity Baking Class and well....I didn't do so great. We made Jaconde sponge which is made with almond flour and powdered sugar and the Chef had us warm up all the dry ingredients and the eggs in the mixing bowl directly on the stove. Everything seemed fine until it started to smell really "nutty" he thought someone was burning the eggs. Well when I poured the mixture out into a bowl I realized that "nutty" smell was coming from MY bowl!! I could tell there was stuff stuck to the bottom but not how bad it really was, but when I went to rinse out the mixing bowl I saw there was charred black gunk at the bottom and no matter how hard I scrubbed it took a good 10 minutes before it all came loose and I could finally get the bowl back to it's normal state of cleanliness! So needless to say that I the one with actual hotel baking experience did not make such a great 1st impression. At least I have 14 more weeks to redeem myself!!

READY...SET...GO!!!!

Welcome to the place where I plan to rant, rave and complain about anything and everything pastry, life in general and you'll for sure hear all about any issues I might come across when I do my cakes. FYI Fondant has made me cry in the past!! (no joke!)
My sweet tooth is one that has evolved because I've always been a salty snack lover. Growing up I would always choose a bag of chips over a candy bar but as an adult I've definitely developed a deep love and appreciation for pastries and confections. That's what has led me to where I am today. I'm currently working on my Associates of Applied Sciences in Pastry Arts. It's my last semester of college so maybe I should apologize now for whatever stress fueled posts you might encounter. Thanks for coming along for this crazy ride!