Chocolate Ganache vs Bad Lighting: Why Nighttime Photos Don't Work (Plus Bonus Dream Talk)

This cake was a bit of a rush cake.

Four days. Birthday cake. Seems simple right? Anyone could make a cake in 4 days.

Fair enough; it's really not that hard. I just like to plan things out a little more.

Especially since I'm working a full time job that takes 45-50 hours of my week.

Then travel time to and from work.

Not to mention the taking and planning of orders, shopping, hunting down items or techniques to try and the order a little special and unique. Then the baking, and the cleaning. And the torting, and the whipping. And the spreading, smearing, kneading, covering, heating, swirling, cooling, sprinkling, dipping and all the other verbs that come with making a sweets order.

And then the picture taking, boxing up and getting ready for pick up at the end of the day.
Hence, this:

Bad, bad nighttime picture!

 Yeah. No natural light. Late time picture since this was finished in one night after doing a large cake pop order for the few nights up to this. So the pictures are bad no matter how I edit them. Not that the cake was really pretty.

It was delicious though.

Yes, I will fully admit that my cakes are not the prettiest, they are amateur(ish,) and my technique needs work. It's called the learning curve and I'm on the uphill battle.

But my flavour is fleek!

Why is that? I've been baking since I was a chubby, chubby baby. My mom has a picture of my brother and I baking together. I think we were making cookies or donuts. (If I had the picture I'd share. I'd also have it framed on my wall.) Any time my Mom baked anything I was right there. My Oma would even come get me if she was making something while my mom was at work. Eventually I was the one who was showing my loved ones how to make something. Oma and I made her very first pizza together and it was delicious! And I keep growing, and getting better with my techniques on getting that flavour perfect. Pro tip: Use honey in your pizza crust. No sugar. Your crust will be soft on the inside and have a crisp exterior and your tastebuds will thank me! (I also accept cash.)

So you will always get a damn tasty cake with me. Just maybe not the prettiest.

Yes, there is a swirl in that ganache
That's how to do ganache
Delicious ganache

This was my first ganache covered cake.

Mocha cake, espresso between two of the layers, dulce de leche in the middle with some fresh shredded coconut (by request of the client (who is a friend and got the cake for way to little... Never again!) to have coconut on top of a mocha cake, but I couldn't figure how to do that and ganache.) Covered with cream cheese frosting and drizzled in dark chocolate ganache.

Is that too much for you?

I mean check out that drizzle.

Drizzled chocolate is always good
'Cause chocolate

Not the best drizzle. The cake was too cold and my first bit was firming up before I could get out the squeeze bottle to get that drizzle down.

But I do it again. And again. And again. Until it's perfect. And then I'll do it some more cause drizzle is beautiful (just not here.)

And my handwriting piping could use work.

Bad bad picture
bad bad piping

I used to be good at it when I worked in a bakery (for a whole 3 months.) Half of this bad was the fact that I did not thin my white chocolate at all. Secondly I didn't plan it well.

Hello, I am a Virgo. I need to plan.

I'm planning how to get more orders. I'm planning how to get from my kitchen, to a studio kitchen, to sell at the Farmer's Markets. To create a kickstarter to open a cafe. There are a million little steps to it all and I'm going to do every damn one of them.

Because if I listened to myself when I was younger, and realized that I wanted this all along, I would've had it by now.

My best friend can attest to the fact that when we played imaginary store type games I'd always have either a cafe or a pet store (but that's only cause I want a place where the floor is the fish tank. Don't argue that the fish would hate it because of noise! You walk on the frozen lake when you ice fish, right?)

Growing up I always thought it would be amazing to have a restaurant or cafe. I'd hang out in as many privately owned cafe's as I could, talking to owners, writing, sipping on lattes. I would wonder why they wouldn't have more desserts or sandwiches or sell more variety of things. And then I would think what I'd do with mine.

So there you go. Now you know why I'm doing this. Why last year I made over 60 new recipes and why this year I'm making 12 (3 to go!) cakes. I'm making myself better so that I can make my dream a successful one.

That was share time.

Sailor Moon: International Praise for a 21 Year Old Role Model

If you're cool you'll know who Sailor Moon is.

She is a role model, an inspiration, and damn cool.

Infographic provided by CoffeeStained Studio
Aka the Mr.

August 15th is International Sailor Moon Day (or #ismd for short.)

So this amazing lady put on a show at Happy Harbor Comics about all things Sailor Moon.

Wands, brooches, bracelets, episodes, costumes, and movies galore.

And also cake pops.

Sailor Chibi-Moon with Space Time Key
Cotton Candy

Lots and lots of cake pops.

Sailor Venus with Love-Me Chain Hearts
Orange Creamsicle

And many many time consuming decorations to make.

Sailor Jupiter with Roses
Strawberry Lemon

And new flavours created.

First time I've done the above three flavours. The former were good but the ladder was amazing. Strawberry Lemon is a new fav for this girl.

Almost didn't make them. I seriously wanted to eat all the dough with spoon. Seriously.

Sailor Mars with Fire
Red Velvet

Lesson learned with these guys.

Doesn't matter how well you plan things can take a lot longer than you think and smash that plan to bits.

Sailor Mercury with Bubbles Blast
Vanilla

All these little decorations were planned to take one day. Instead they took 3.

Even with the new airbrush machine I got (and want to play with all the time.)

But it was worth it... Mostly.

Sailor Moon with Hair Pieces
Chocolate

This was the only Sailor Moon pop that got curls. They were stubborn to put on and kept falling off during packaging.

Also I overestimated the amount of people that were going to be there and made way to many.

Like I have lots in my freezer.

Lots for weeks. 

I didn't need to make the
Brigade of the Meatballs.
A few soldiers would have done.

I guess people will know what they are getting for presents for the next while.

But the best lesson learned: Having a solid idea in mind makes great results.

Sketch it out!

Always get those ideas out. Write them down, sketch, interpretive dance, whatever you need to do to get that down pat (who's Pat?)

Movie in a comic shop
Heck Yeah!