Sesame Street Cupcakes!

I had the opportunity to make Sesame Street Cupcakes last week for a little girl's birthday party.  It was a lot of work-- actually, only7 hours or so-- but this was an after-midnight-apartment cake job, which always makes the job more difficult.  But, still, it was FUN!  After working a chaotic 12 hour work day, I went home and immediately started to make cupcake batter at around 2am, and then continued work on the fondant decorations (eyeballs, noses, beaks n stuff) and dyed buttercream... next thing I knew, I was finished and it was light outside.  I looked at the clock: 7am!  Time flies when you're having fun.  (Oh, and I had to be back at work at noon.  Haha.)

The cupcakes were pretty damn tasty, actually-- they were strawberry-rhubarb cupcakes, filled with strawberry jam and topped with buttercream.  AWESOME recipe, from-- don't judge me-- Martha Stewart's cupcake book.  I know she's the devil, but I have been using her recipes for years, and they are great.  I highly recommend her cupcake book, as well as her cookie book!

Ok, a few pics...

Fondant eyeballs, noses n' things

From top to bottom: Elmo, Cookie Monster, Zoe, Big Bird

Finished fondant features

Dirty bowls used for dying buttercream

(Doing this part at home is really FRUSTRATING 

if you're accustomed to having proper mixing bowls, rubber spatulas, 

and other people to wash the damn dishes.)

The whole gang on sheet trays

Cookie Monster, my personal favorite

Big Bird

Elmos and Zoes

(I was not completely happy with these-- Elmo looks like he's on crack, Zoe looks stoned)

7am: All boxed up, ready to go!

All in all, it was a fun and successful job, and I learned a few things in the process.  Just doin' what I love!  That's the goal.

Business cards arrived today!

Checkmate, bitches!

A few times in my life, I’ve come to make big life decisions after being asked simple questions.

• When I was in LA half-heartedly running a volunteer program while it was obvious my true passion was cooking, my friend Angelica asked, “Michelle, why don't you go to culinary school?”  I didn’t have an answer, and I went and took my life in a different direction.
• When my marriage ended abruptly in Vegas and I became frantic trying to get the hell outta town, my friend John asked, “Michelle, why do you feel like you have to leave Vegas?  What are you running from?”  I didn’t have an answer, and I stayed and had the time of my life.
• And finally, just last week I spent 2 days working on an elaborate cake (and loved every minute of it) and when it was finished, my boss Peter asked, “Michelle, why don't you open your own cake shop?”  I didn’t have an answer.

I used to think I wasn't good enough, but over the past few months at work, I've seen some HORRIBLE cakes brought in by customers, professionally made cakes that looked and tasted like crap.  If the people responsible for those fugly cakes can make a living selling cakes, I sure as hell can.  It's time to stop questioning my abilities and talking about what I want-- it's time to act and DO something about it.  Sure, I don't know jack about starting or running a business, but I have to start somewhere and some time, so what better place than here and now? 

So for the purpose of making the first step of making this a reality, I would like to declare right here and now and release into the universe... that I want to stick it to the man, make my own damn path, and I want to start my own business.

Correction... I WILL start my own business.

I don’t know much about it, but I think it might end up in California?  Will it be a funky little dessert food truck in LA?  Or an upscale, couture wedding cake business in San Francisco?  Or should I take advantage of my connections and start something in Monterey, a town with plenty of disposable income and outdated bakeries?  I really don't know.  I do know that I want to start small here in Philly—I mean microscopically small. 

Hmm… I think I’ll make some business cards!

“Treat it like an adventure. An adventure worth sharing.”

- Hugh MacLeod

Do it!

My job as a pastry chef is to rush to make food, put food on plates, scream for runners as ice cream melts into puddles, and, ultimately, work twice as hard to receive half the pay of what the waiter serving the food gets.  I realize that it's the nature of the job, but I know now that I don’t want to do this for the rest of my life.  I’ve said this many times before.  It’s time to DO something about it. 

Or as my fellow chef friend CJ likes to say, “Saying means nothing.  DO it.”

I've been looking for guidance and answers from a few sources lately, and I keep finding the same message: Do what you love.  I've been communicating with another chef friend Mikey about this lately.  He recommended a great little book to me, Hugh MacLeod's "Evil Plans: Having Fun on the Road to World Domination."  Everyone talks about what they want out of life, but how many people are willing to take action and commit to the work it takes?  

Time to shut up and do it already. 

Grrrrr.....

Got kinda pissy the other night at work.  I was really busy and behind, trying to get my department caught up before going on my weekend, and a shit ton of work was dropped on me unexpectedly, work that we normally wouldn't have done on such short notice but had to do because it was for "VIPs".

I realized then and there, that in my dream job situation, I would have the power to say one little but powerful word: NO.  (Or, rather, my natural instinct would be three words long: "Go fuck yourself," but my parents read this blog so I'll try to be better with the cursing.  But... there will still definitely be cursing.)

I've seen a few episodes of <don't judge me> the Millionaire Matchmaker, and I get a little thrill whenever the crazy matchmaker chick doesn't like a rude client and screams at him, "Get the FUCK outta my office, you're BANNED from my business!!!"  I can think of a few instances in my career in which I would have LOVED to have done that.

Example numero uno: at one of my past jobs, I was asked by the chef to work on a gingerbread house, a school project for his friend's daughter.  He asked me to construct the base and house, and let the daughter decorate it and make the finishing touches.  Although I was already overwhelmed with work and found it unethical, because my chef asked me to, I sucked it up and constructed the base and bare bones of the house.  When my chef's friend came to pick it up, instead of being grateful, she asked me to keep working on it and finish it.

<Insert PERFECT time to scream: "Get the FUCK outta my kitchen!  You don't even WORK, do it yourself!!!">

But, alas, no, I had to bite my tongue, grin, and through gritted teeth, say I would be happy to finish it.  Thankfully one of my cooks was happy to take on the project and finish it.

So, as my wise Pa would say, "What have you learned from all this?  I've learned this...

Criterion #1 for my dream job: the power to say NO.

I'm sure this would be ideal for ANYone in ANY profession, but it's especially difficult when you're in the service industry.  It may not be attainable at first, but hopefully I'll get to say No some day!

Inspiration

For me, the most difficult and important part of making a cake is the design.  Some people, like my friend Nicole Erle, are naturally gifted when it comes to design and presentation, and from the get-go just know what's going to look good and what isn't.  For others, like me, it takes a good amount of time and effort.

I do find a lot of inspiration in day-to-day life, however.  Every now and then, I see something that catches my eye, I do a double-take and I think, "That would look kickass on a cake!"  At that point, I really dork-out, and stop and take a pic of it.  

Inspiration comes from all sorts of random places... below are some pics I've saved over the years, some of which I took myself.

Cups for sale on display at Starbucks

A dress on display in a store window (love the lines!)

A henna tattoo

Whoa, how'd that pic get on here?  Sorry....

A mosaic by a local artist here in Philly

Pretty plateware I saw in a store

A FIERCE peacock clutch purse at the Wynn in Vegas

A pillbox

Stacked plates and cups 

(The other day I saw a busser carrying a small stack of plates and cups.  

I wish I stopped to take a pic, but I was crazy busy!)

I have a collection of these pics, which I've been collecting for a few years now.  I have yet to make any of these into cakes-- hopefully I will get the chance some day!

Passion, the most important ingredient

I have a pastry cook—let’s call her Middling.  Middling went to culinary school and has been working in restaurants for 3 years now.  One night during dinner service, she overheard that there was a table with a $400 bill. 

Middling: “Wow, did you hear that?  A table spent $400!”

Me: “That’s pretty good.  It ain’t the French Laundry, but it’s good.”

Middling: “The French what?” 

<jaw-dropping silence, as my eyes bulge out of my head>

Me: “Middling….you’ve heard of the French Laundry, haven’t you?”

Middling: “Um… no?”

Me: “Ok, this is your homework.  Go home, and look up the French Laundry.  Tell me all about it when you come back from your weekend.  It’s very important.”

When she came back from her weekend next Monday, I asked her about the French Laundry.  Silence.  She did not look into it.  I gave her shit and told her to look it up, and to show a little interest in her line of work.  Next time I saw her on Thursday, I asked her to tell me about the French Laundry.  Nothing.  I was so upset that I couldn’t talk to her the rest of the night. 

I figured out later why I was so upset.   It wasn’t because I was on some kind of power trip and was offended that my subordinate had not followed my orders.  I was upset because I, her boss and--I liked to think--mentor, had stopped to take an interest in her knowledge and development.  I told her it was important, and she didn’t bother to take 3 minutes to look into it.  Essentially, she was telling me that she didn’t care.  I was severely disappointed.

(In retrospect, the times I’ve gotten the angriest at work have been when people around me have been apathetic—a couple of times I even got to the point of throwing things at people, or chewing out a crowd of servers during pre-shift, definitely not my normal self!   I hate, HATE being around people that don’t care, while I’m busting my ass.)

Being a cook/chef is really tough, with very little monetary reward, so you MUST really love food.  Period.  I really do NOT understand why people like Middling, people who don’t care about food, are cooking for a living.  I hear CVS is hiring, why don't you send them your resume?  You’ll earn the same amount of pay but you’ll have shorter, easier work days.  Why the hell are you busting your ass in a restaurant?  

I have had similarly frustrating interactions with Middling since, and have decided to give up on her.  I have stepped down as Middling's mentor, and now I only serve as her boss.  I can’t get myself worked up over how another person is; I only have control over myself.  I can help a person only if he/she wants it.  During times like these, I remember a quote by Robert Louis Stevenson that I heard a lot in high school:

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

The courage to change the things I can,

And the wisdom to know the difference.”

I must choose my battles wisely.