I used to make cakes.
When I was at film school (2007-2008), cable TV came with my apartment, so I was watching a lot of cake shows like Ace of Cakes and all those cake competition shows. (Don’t even mention Cake Boss to me- that guy is so annoying!) That, along with the general “cupcakes are cute” trend made me want to devote my life to making cute fondant-covered cakes and cupcakes. I bought a book of vegan (I was vegetarian/trying to be vegan) cupcake recipes and $300 of cupcake supplies at Michaels (unaware of how to get the most out of Michaels with their coupons, also 18 with no concept of money management) and started making and decorating cupcakes often.
So, then I decided to go to school for baking. I mostly did not enjoy it, but I still wanted to make cakes. Got a job at Michaels and after a year there, I decided to take the Wilton cake decorating classes, with the intention of becoming a Wilton instructor after. I taught cake decorating classes for a year. I’m really glad I did that. I really love teaching. But after a year, I was getting sick of teaching the same classes every month and ready to look for a bakery job. I got lucky and found one right away.
I loved making cakes everyday. I did not love starting work at 7am and spending my days in a hairnet up to my elbows in icing. But I loved the work and some of my co-workers. Actually, that’s where I met Juliana.
While I was still just teaching the classes, I also made cakes on my own for people. Once I was working at the bakery, though, making cakes at home seemed like so much more work. At home, I had to prepare everything from scratch for each cake. At work, I grabbed a cake from the freezer, and bags of icing were already filled.
The bakery closed at the beginning of 2015 (Hydro literally came and cut off the power- the owner was a terrible business owner). And I was ready to never work in a bakery again. I know you think bakeries smell delightful when you walk in, but you get used to it. I had to just throw out the clothes that I wore at work because washing could not get out the nasty smell.
Anyway, now I only make a fancy cake for my friend Kelsey’s birthday and sometimes my own.
See you next Tuesday, fatties!