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