Unlocking the Artist

Spending hours are spent learning how to make a basket weave design and creating flowers out of clay-like materials may sound like arts and craft at camp, but it actually the second half of module four.  Advanced cake decorating is where artsy people shine.  No-one cares that you cant bake a cake when you can make fondant roses and buttercream fleur-de-lis.  It is interesting how those who were trailing in other modules really shine now.  The skill set involved is different that the one required to make fudge or caramel sauce, similar only in the attention to detail that they both require (caramel goes from amberly-delicous to burned in split seconds). 

The class is structured very differently now.  We mainly work by ourselves and are sitting at the worktable while Chef walks around and corrects us, or else tells us the ins and outs of being a special events cake decorator.

Fact:  These flowers are so labor intensive to make that big-name wedding cake purveyors would employ dozens of people and pay pennies so that they could churn out enough azaleas to engulf a six tiered cake, creating gum paste-flower sweat shops.

Fact: depending on your exact design preferences, grand wedding cakes usually begin for about $10.00 a slice, and depending on how many peonies you demand, the price goes up from there.

Fact:  Most wedding cakes with this amount of sugar work taste terrible due to the fact that the cake is baked a week in advance and left out so that the sugar coating (fondant which is essentially preserving it) doesn’t get condensation from sitting in a refrigerator.

That being said, the cakes that are being made are beautiful.  Many cake decorators are trained artists who decide to go into the business, using the same techniques but swapping clay and paints for edible mediums. 

I am enjoying the module so far, and my only complaint is that the heat has been on in our workroom.  This means that working with buttercream is like a race against the clock.  If it sits out too long (it seems like twenty minutes is the limit) it begins to melt and wont hold its shape.  It also means that by the end of class, our pores have opened up and butter has seeped in, mingling with sweat, sugar, and luster-dust. (Incidentally, I LOVE luster dust- It is what we use to add some color and sparkle to marzipan fruits and gum-paste flowers.  Did I mention that it’s called LUSTER DUST?).  The heat also makes working with modeling chocolate (melted chocolate + corn syrup = tootsie roll like substance, once cooled) nearly impossible.  Warm modeling chocolate melts in your hands, smears on your worktable and droops.  The rose I made out of it looked like it was sad and dying (though the fact that it was dark brown probably helped with the death references).

I go back tonight to continue work in our sweat-shop. But dont worry, I wont be trading in my chefs jacket for an artist's smock.  If nothing else this, module will have taught me the devotion, fine motor skills and patience required to work in this line of pastry and reinforced that I lack, at the very least, the patience to keep it for long.

Sarah, Lover of Luster Dust

Below see pictures and prices, based on labor and sense of entitlement felt by all Pastry Chefs when forced to sell their art to the masses:

Lemon cake with orange buttercream, buttercream weave and marzipan fruits. $49.75

Butter Cream Rose Cupcakes $8 each, or $25 for three.  They are small.

Marzipan Easter Roses (NOT kosher for passover) $29.50 Each

Tootsie Roll Death Flower. $25 a dozen

Please note that i am not actually selling these confections; the prices and names for these items have been made up