Here Comes The Homestretch!

Time is flying by here in Toronto, I cannot believe I only have 13 more days! These past couple weeks were busy ones, with class focusing on specialty skills, and Mr. B coming into town, which was a huge blessing.

I wont blab a lot here, mostly share photos from projects I have been working on. 

First up in specialties was Lambeth Method...this is basically advanced piping where we learned to layer different patterns to create a cohesive look. This technique is a tricky one, not only because it is difficult to make perfect, but it also looks very dated in most applications. My goal was to create something that had a little more of a modern spin on this classic technique...

Practice Lines

My 'finished' cake. We were pretty rushed through this one, 
so it isn't as clean or detailed as I would have liked it.

Up next was pulled sugar. We heated the sugar up to boiling and used our hands and a few tools to pull it into shapes. We were assigned an underwater scene, which come to think of it, is SUPER random. But I did learn a lot in this class and think I may have some uses for it in the future (sans water scene).

This is an example of blown sugar bubble, I would love to use different shapes and sizes of these on a cake!

On my walk to the subway I passed Cake Opera's new window display. I know I have said it before, but I LOVE her work!

Figure Modeling was something I was incredibly nervous about and kind of dreading. After two days of frustration, I came out with Granny. She turned out ok, but I need a lot of practice!

Granny was still drying, she wouldn't normally

 have sponge under her knees. 

"Flowers in her hair, flowers everywhere!" 

Unlike figure modeling, I LOVED flower class!  One of the main things I wanted to improve on while at Bonnie Gordon was flower making. I still have some practicing to do, but I do love how my flowers turned out and I know I will just continue to grow in this area since I love it so much! All the flowers below are made of gumpaste (very similar to fondant; it is basically a sugar mix)

Roses formed and painted

Sorry, a little blurry

Cymbidium. My FAV!!

Calla Lily

Topsy Turvy cakes were up next, which is basically creating a cake that looks like it is falling, while keeping it structurally sound. We were practicing the technique on this assignment, so we didn't actually decorate it completely.

Little Naked Topsy Turvy Cake

One thing that always intimidated me in the cake world  was sculpted cakes. Last week I was able to create my first sculpted creation and while I am not ready to add this to my menu, I think Hello Kitty turned out pretty well!

Hello Kitty's body is made of all cake,
her head and arm is Rice Krispy Treats. 

How could you not love that face?!

I thought this was a fun photo to share so you could see my classmate's cakes. Everyone did so well!

Up next was painting on cakes, which really should have been called 'how to use stencils'. This was a surprisingly helpful class on how to get images onto fondant when difficulty surpasses your ability level. Since I am not a natural artist, I loved this, and along with all the other skills learned recently, I will start incorporating it more on cakes!

Please excuse the mishmash of design on this cake, it was really just to try out new shapes, colors, paints, etc. 

And now, to the REALLY GOOD stuff. Mark came to visit this past week and I could not be more thankful. He was exactly what I needed and has me so darn excited to come home in 312 hours!! I cannot wait to start spending every day with that guy again. 

Since I was in school and he was working remotely all week, we didn't really go crazy on activities, but really just enjoyed our time together. We spent time cooking together, going to the farmers market, trying out a restaurant or two that I have had my eye on and watching a few of our favorite shows.  

I am so ashamed to say that we did not get a single photo together the entire week, but I can tell you that if we had, you would have seen the biggest smile that has been on my face since I arrived in Toronto. That man makes me one happy lady. 

Below are the only 3 photos that I took on our week long adventure. 

A Swiss cheese stand at the market

Snack time for the Burfeinds... I got the cupcake, Mark got the jerky--surprise, surprise! ;)

We both thought my mom would enjoy this fancy accordion  we saw at the antique show, but didn't have room for it in our suitcases. 

This morning I dropped my man off at the airport with 45lbs of fondant in his suitcase, he is a Saint.

This week I will be working on a fabric inspired wedding cake, I can't wait to show you how it turns out! Talk to you all soon!

Into The Fun Stuff

 Whew, what a week! I have to say, being away from home has its hard days, but I am loving being so focused on cake and The SweetSide for a few weeks.

Class was mostly focused on design and décor aspects this week (Yay, the fun stuff!!).  Unfortunately, this girl was so busy in class, she didn’t take many photos (fail), but I created a cake yesterday and wanted to share it with  y’all (I am allowed to use that word, lived in TX for 10 minutes).

Before we get to the cake porn, I want to give you a little insight into the way that my creative process sometimes works… Last week I was catching up on a few of my favorite blogs and came across this photo:

x

Photo from Here

The pages of this book grabbed my eye and I couldn’t help but fall in love with the pattern that was being created. My brain was spinning with ideas and I knew I had to figure out a way to put this look onto a cake. After some resistance from my instructors, I decided to tackle it yesterday. Knowing I was headed to a ladies networking potluck, I decided to lighten up the colors and make it a little more fun. Here is the outcome:

I am very happy that I worked through this yesterday and proved to myself that I could tackle such a daunting task in a short amount of time (less than 4 hours). As I bring this technique back home to The SweetSide, I would love to implement it around the entire tier of a large scale, mostly all white wedding cake. When I imagine what the final large scale cake could look like, I just about squeal with excitement! I cannot wait!

As I have mentioned, I am taking some additional classes while here, the first of which being on french macaroons last Sunday. I was pretty intimidated by these little suckers. They are very temperamental meringue based sandwiche cookies filled with ganache, jam or  buttercream that are pretty much the most delicious little treat I have had in a loooong time.  The class was great, I met some new friends and my macaroons looked great. 

And a few more  from the class itself...

My partner Mona piping some of our cookies out

The cookies resting before the oven

The finished product!

I am making some great friends from class and have really loved getting to know this hodgepodge of uber talented ladies. I am hoping to get permission soon to share photos of the work they are all creating, you will not believe your eyes, cannot wait to share!

That about wraps up my week for ya! I am SOOOOOOOOOO looking forward to this week as we learn sugar flowers, painting on cakes, and sugar art. I should have some great photos to share with you next weekend.

Speaking of next weekend, I am pretty much holding my breath for the next 7 days. The wonderful, handsome, beyond supportive Mr. Burfeind is coming to visit me! I think it is an understatement to say that I am excited. Woop Woop!

Peace out homies!

Baking, Masking and Friend Making--Oh My!

I have officially completed my first week at The Bonnie Gordon School of Confectionary Arts, and oh, what a week it has been. My brain is on overload from the nearly 40 hours we spent in the kitchen this week learning about different cake baking techniques.
 

I have been getting a lot of questions about what my instructors and classmates are like, so here is  the skinny:


My classmates are from all over North and South America. There are 9 of us ladies in total; 2 from Brazil, me from Seattle, 1 from Calgary, 2 from Winnipeg, 2 from around Ontario and only one from Toronto proper. Our skill levels range from 'baking a year' to 'been in the industry for 11 years.' A few of the girls have websites, including 2 of my closer friends in the program; Lesi and Kayla, check them out if you would like!

During each section of the class, we will have a different lead teacher that specializes in that department and 2 assistants that will stay with our class throughout the entire six week session (that makes the student/teacher ratio 3/1...not bad!). Our two assistants are Marli from We Bake in Heels and Nadia of Nadia & Co. Both are incredibly talented and such great teachers!

In addition to learning new cake and buttercream recipes this week, we also  worked on fillings; including jams, jellies and compotes. They were so stinking good, my mouth is watering thinking about them now.  I am so glad I didn't buy Smuckers jelly at the store last week because my leftovers came home with me and are going to be my breakfast staple for the next week or so.




 
The week was fun, but pretty stressful. Lesi and I decided after one particularly tough day, decided that we needed a beer. So, here she is at the sports bar  is in our neighborhood...You can't see the beer, but believe me, they are there! (sorry the photo is blurry, not my finest photography)

Thursday and Friday were especially exciting to me since we were focusing on two things that I have struggled with in the past. Pricing my cakes and gluten/egg/dairy free baking. Both days went very well and I am excited to come home and start implementing both! Below is my gluten free vanilla cake with dairy free chocolate hazelnut buttercream and a coconut soaked chocolate cake disk filling. Yum! 

  
I was so happy to be able to sleep in this morning and catch up on laundry and lounging. Tonight  I am headed out to a birthday dinner for some people I have never met (I can explain later) and tomorrow (Sunday) I will be at school taking a class on French Macaroons, YAY! 

Toronto, Eh?

Well, hello there!  I have finally made it through the Seattle snow, across the border and into my cozy little apartment in Toronto. Since arriving on Thursday night (many hours later than scheduled) I have been quickly trying to finish up The SweetSide's paperwork, familiarize myself with my neighborhood and catch up on sleep lost over the Wedding Show week/weekend.  

While I don't have a lot of pics to share with you, I wanted to try to start a routine of posting every few days if possible (high hopes considering my track record). 

To start, I need to fill a few of you in on my journey getting here. Seattle gets about one "big" snow storm every few years (you know, like 4 inches or so). And, when this happens, the city is crippled...if not paralyzed. There are two ways I look look at our snow days: 1) 'Yay! No work, stay home, play in the snow!' and 2) "Oh, shoot! All the businesses are closed and I can't get any of my errands done!" 

Among those that are not prepared to handle the snow is SeaTac International Airport. Hmmmm.... So, Thursday morning my amazing SMF dropped me off for my flight at 4am (zzzzz) and after many tears, hugs and Mark/Murphy kisses, I headed in to my 'on time flight'. Once boarded, we sat on the runway for 3 HOURS. Yuck. Thankfully, I am an award winning napper (thanks Dad) and I don't remember much of it. Once we finally arrived in Chicago, I had missed my connecting flight, was scheduled on a new one, boarded, taxied and sat on the runway for an hour (this time due to snow in Toronto). Ok, ok, it wasn't awful. I had a cute little forgetful grandma sitting next to me that asked me 3 times where I was from, so at least I had good conversation :).  Once I had finally arrived in Toronto (3 hours late), you guessed it, my bags did not. So I went home empty handed, to my first meeting the next morning at my new school in my day old clothes.Finally, at 3:30pm Friday, my luggage showed up. 

But you know what?? It was worth every minute of waiting because inside was a white envelope with "Mrs. B" on the outside. Inside was this...

Inside the card it reads "and now is your time...congratulations"  

SMF wrote a really sweet note in there too, but I will keep that private. I just can't put into words small thoughtful acts like this mean to me (and most women I know). I am so insanely blessed to be married to a man that takes the time to make sure that I know he is thinking of me. I am pretty certain that I am the luckiest lady in the world. 

Once I unpacked, showered, and changed my clothes, it was off to the grocery store for some dinner supplies...I was pretty excited going in; I know Canada and the US are pretty similar, but there are always fun things to look at foreign supermarkets. For me, the big discovery I had here was that their milk primarily comes not in a carton, but A PLASTIC BAG!!! What?? I actually could not believe it and had to open the refrigerator and poke it with my finger to make sure I was seeing correctly! Aside from that, the store was pretty normal (snoozer), so I headed back home to make this....

Minestrone Soup! 

My temporary roommate doesn't cook much, and when she does, it isn't in Marty family proportions, so I had to use 2 pots since there wasn't 1 big enough. You would think I am having a family reunion over here with all the soup I have, but really I am just lazy and would rather eat leftovers this week than cook all the time. 

The weather has been cold, but beautiful and today I decided to take a walk with Lise,  a classmate so I could soak up some rays and explore a little more. We stumbled across this little gathering outside the coffee shop that just cracked me up.

 Each time the front door opened, they all perked up to see if it was their doggy mom/dad.

Once we had walked for a while, we came across a little pastry shop, and being the cake ladies that we are, decided to try it out!

Pink Velvet on the left and Lemon Mouse on the right.

Lise has been building her part time business for quite a while now and, let me tell you, the lady is talented! We sat in the shop for at least an hour or two chatting about the industry, techniques and lessons learned. This one conversation has reaffirmed the importance of me being here, now. I am so excited to continue conversations with other professionals that face the same, or similar challenges that I am. I am ready to learn, create and connect; I am ready for Day 1 of class tomorrow! 

-Kara