Be Stress-free ; Find Your Serenity (Choice*)

There are many ways to relieve stress and find your inner peace. I like to think that some people resort to, what I consider to be, the “old-fashioned” way of relieving stress. What’s the old-fashioned way you ask? Well, that could vary anything from crocheting to cleaning or taking long nature walks alone. It seems to me that over time people have turned to technology as a way to relieve stress. Instead of stressed fingers crocheting they are now texting away.  The tranquilizing journals have turned into traumatizing blogs that causes more trouble then their worth. Case and point the teacher that considered herself venting on a blog but wound up in trouble because of her harsh words on how she described her students’ animalistic behavior. If she would have resorted to the old-fashioned journal then her thoughts would have never been revealed for the world to see and her career wouldn’t be at stake.

I consider my various way of relieving stress to be old-fashioned while still keeping up with the times. When I have some thing(s) on my mind I like to get out all my baking ingredients and get to work, while other times a nice book will ease my mind just find. Like most people, I like to listen to music to lift my mood. Then there are times when I can just sit in a quiet room by myself and not do anything but think. Everybody has their own way to relieve stress. What’s your’s?

A Cake Recipe Makes A Comeback ! (Connection*)

As we all know recipes are what make up food taste a certain way. It’s what helps us distinguish a chocolate brownie from a “blondie” brownie. There are often times where people come up with their own recipes which make the dish “theirs”, separating their product from someone else’s. This is shown in the article Recipe Redux: Evelyn Sharpe’s French Chocolate Cake, 1969. Apparently there is a recipe for French chocolate cake that doesn’t require any flour! This is a revolution all in itself because usually bakers use flour as in an ingredient  in baking cakes.  

 Amanda Hesser, the writer of the article, explains how she began writing the column five years ago. As time progressed she came across various recipes that transformed over the years. The best example of this is the French chocolate cake.existing recipes to make them my own.

Adventure to the Puffery #2

Feb.11,2011 - During my second adventure to the Puffery, I must admit, I was bored.  I know that we (my mentor, my sponsor and I) all agreed that during the first few visits I was just supposed to sit back and watch how things are done but, I'm tired of waiting and watching! The best part of baking is the "mess" like making the dough - that's the part I enjoy the most. However, with me acting as a witness I can't enjoy it. Needless to say, I can't wait till the upcoming visits where I can finally get my hands dirty!



Even with the boredom that occurred, I still found interest in (what the employee's consider) the "Ribbon room" as shown in the picture above. The Ribbon room is a room filled literally floor to ceiling with ribbon. Ribbons are used as decorations made at the customers request to fit the order. For example, if it's a holiday like Christmas the employees usually gather green, red, and white ribbon to decorate the boxes/trays but ribbons can always be customized by  the customers. The best part is that this request is FREE!

What I'm finding that I love about my sponsor visits is that the Puffery genuinely cares about their customers which is something you don't often find in bakeries. The Puffery aims to please in every way and I hope if I were fortunate enough to open my own bakery that I could please my customers as they do.
Well, until my next visit......!

Talk With Trip #1

Following my visit from the Puffery, I met up with my mentor Mrs.Trip. She explained that prior to my visit she talked to the owner and they agreed that my first meeting will consist of me learning how to make the dough, next visit learn how to make the "creame" and then so forth & so forth.

"Bake-tography" (Choice) *

When I saw this picture I thought of my fellow classmate Rondel Parker. Why? The answer is simple. Mr. Parker’s senior project is photography; you can tell by this picture that it was taken by a photographer of some sort and if you look there are cupcakes located near the model. BOOM! There it is right in front of your eyes. If you were to join both Mr. Parker’s project with mine you would come up with what I like to call “bake-tography”. Where I would bake some treats and he would use his photographic genius to make a cupcake more then a cupcake but art.

Mr. Parker and I are both creative in our own ways. We have two distinctive senses of “style” but I believe together we can make magic. It’s a win/win situation because I’m selling my treats and he’s selling his photography. It would broaden his horizons so he won’t just take pictures of a typical model caked in make-up. Who knows? Together we can start a new baking/photography trend.

A Blog Baked For Bakers *

While browsing around on Blogger I came across a sweet blog - literally.  Bake At 350 is a blog that I fell in love with instantly! It has everything from cookies to brownies, even cakes. Bridget (the blog's owner) gives marvelous tips on how to transform your average cookie to a marvelous masterpiece. I plan on using her blog as inspiration to improve not only my blog but my baking! Hope you can enjoy/use it as much as I will... :)

- p.s The picture featured above ( of cookie necklaces) is not on Bridget's blog but I was just trying to give you a good example of how creative her work is.

Adventure to the CremePuffery #1

On Friday, February 4th,2011 I had my first official meeting with my sponsor. The picture (left) is the actual cremepuffery. The owner is Ms.Charlene Napoleon who unfortunately became sick prior to my visit so I didn't meet her in person. However, an employee by the name of Chrissy told me of Ms.Charlene's rise to success and needless to say I was more than impressed.
Ms.Charlene started her business in a small ice cream truck which is located right on the premises.She went to local flea markets and eventually when word got out about her delectable treats her business begin to soon take off. Even with all her success, Ms.Charlene does not believe in advertising her business. She prefers for customers to come by preference of other costumers, more of a word of mouth approach.
The thing that separates this cremepuffery from any other is that the puffs are not store bought or ordered online but handmade on sight. Therefore, whenever a costumer buys a creme-puff they are assured their puffs are fresh.

I was amazed that the puffs were made out of three ingredients..that's right three! They are whipped with big mixers until the mixture turns into something smooth and creamy. Once the mixture is smooth and creamy it is placed in bag which is used to squeeze the dough on to the cookie sheet. The batch could fill approximately seven to eight cookie sheets,  producing 168-192 creme-puffs each batch. Once all the cookie sheets are filled they all placed in the huge ovens.

Another aspect of the bakery I was able to witness was the rush. It was the Friday before Superbowl XLV so there were many orders coming in for the different treats the puffery had to offer. There were green and yellow as well as black and yellow steamers being made in order to decorate the boxes for the puffs.
Although I wasn't able to get my hands dirty this time I'm sure I will soon enough. Until my next adventure...!

Happy Birthday To Meeeee !

This picture was taken during my birthday (Jan.24th) dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. It's a simple strawberry cheesecake topped with whipped cream and sprinkles. Around the border of the plate is written "Happy Birthday to you !" with chocolate syrup. This was one of the many treats I enjoyed while celebrating my 18th birthday.