Day Seven

Before setting up the printer and laptop again, Tammy and I patiently awaited a delivery. The back of the bakery, where the kids' camp is held, has four tables, two made of steel and two smaller ones made of wood. To make more room for the twelve campers that come each session and to make the back look a little more presentable, Tammy ordered two new steel tables to match the two that are already set up. Once the man arrived, together we helped bring out the two tables and he set up the new steel ones. After a little more cleaning up, the man left and I got back on the computer.

I typed up a few more recipes, including apple pie, two types of pie dough, butter cream frosting, etc. Tammy found a recipe for chocolate mousse she definitely had to include, however the measurements for ingredients were in ounces and grams, and not many people have a scale at home for the kitchen. So as I was busy typing and printing, Tammy was making a small batch of chocolate mousse to test out the measurements. As accurate as possible, she converted the measurements in ounces and grams to cups, making it much easier for people to make the chocolate mousse at home.

I printed as many copies of all the recipes as I could until the printer ran out of ink. Before I left I was able to meet another client eager to take one of Tammy's cake baking classes. She's very busy at this time of the year, considering her daughter is a senior and has a lot of events coming up, in addition to the kids' camp coming up in a few short weeks. But the man was so nice and clearly interested in learning, so she couldn't say no. As he filled out a few forms and spoke to Tammy some more, I was able to leave.

Day Six

We took a day off from actually baking today. Tammy got a brand new printer so we set that up and connected it to the laptop. For weeks, Tammy has been putting off what I had to do today simply because she doesn't enjoy working with computers. 

For the kids' summer camp, each camper takes home a recipe booklet at the end of the week. Some documents were started with a few recipes, but I basically spent all day typing up recipes. A few recipes were unfinished, others were added to the document. Tammy has a huge, messy binder full of recipes and she knows exactly which ones are good for kids, which ones she wants to keep as a secret, and which ones should just be thrown out. After I typed up a few recipes and organized the document, I began printing 24 copies of a few recipes to start the booklet to be handed out after week one of the camp. It took a few tries to figure out how to print front and back, but once I did, everything went smoothly. 

Day Five

More cake baking for the camps was done today, similar to last Thursday. Mary came in again and together we made two more giant quantities of vanilla cake for the kids' camp this summer. Mary used most of the first batch to fill the pans, and I scooped the last two. Mary also taught me how to get rid of bubbles in the cake; getting rid of the air pockets creates a cake that is much more moist. She started on the second batch while I finished the batter and cleaned some dishes. When she finished the batter, Tammy took a look at the cake and noticed something was missing, maybe water. Mary was positive she put both the water and oil in the batter, but when I scooped the second batch I agreed it was much thicker than the first. Fortunately, the recipe is hard to mess up and the second batch tasted just as good as the first! We cooled and cut off the tops of the cakes to level it out. Then wrapped the freshly baked cakes and placed them in the freezer for future use. 

Day Four

The bakery was closed today due to my supervisor's personal reasons. I'm excited to come back on Wednesday and start working again!

Day Three

I walked into the bakery this morning to find another baker, Mary. She is a college student who has been working with Tammy at The Art of Cake for almost two years and was a ton of fun to work with. I started by spraying pans with non-stick cooking oil, making sure to spray the bottom and the lining around the bottom of the pan, but not the sides. Then I filled the pans with the cake batter, using the scale again so they all had the same amount. These cakes were all for the kids' camp in the summer, so after they were baked and leveled off on top, they were cooled and put into the freezer. Some of the cakes that were already frozen were taken out for me to individually wrap each of them in plastic wrap, and then put back in the freezer. 

After, I worked with Tammy again in final preparation for tonight's pasta dinner for her daughter and the River Dell track team. I helped her cut strawberries and a watermelon, which we placed in a big bowl with blueberries to create a fruit salad. We also arranged the gluten-free oatmeal chocolate chip cookies we made the other day onto platters. And lastly, Tammy melted a chocolate ganache and I took sixty cupcakes and dipped each of them in the ganache, to create a small coating on top of the cupcakes. Hopefully, the desserts we made for tonight's dinner aren't too sweet and will still allow the team to run their best at this weekend's state sectional meets!

Day Two

Today was a short day at the bakery because an electrician came in to install a new outlet and it wasn't safe to bake while he was working. Tammy needed an outlet installed higher on the wall so it wouldn't be hanging around tangled on the floor. She has a camp during the summer for a few weeks. Each week has about twelve kids, and it's dangerous for them to be working near the hanging cords. When the electrician left, we waited for a bride to come in for some cake tasting, which included a piece of the carrot cake we baked yesterday! We set up the different slices and the bride was able to choose between the many different types and combinations of cake. 

Day One

Today was the first day for my internship at The Art of Cake!

When I first arrived at the bakery, Tammy, my supervisor, owner, and baker of The Art of Cake, and I were talking a little bit to get to know each other. It turns out, her daughter is a senior at River Dell High School and is also going to Middlebury College! It was so coincidental to find out that her daughter is going to the same school as me, because whenever I tell people I'm going to Middlebury they always ask where that is since they have never heard of it. Eventually I'll meet her and I'm so happy I'll know someone once I arrive at school next year.

Tammy was asked to bake dessert for the River Dell track team's pasta dinner this Thursday. We tried to stay more on the healthier side, so we made large quantities of carrot cake and gluten-free oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I got to try both and they were delicious. I helped measure out all the ingredients before pouring it into a giant mixer. When the carrot cake batter was done, I used a scale and poured exactly 6.2 ounces of batter into small cake trays, and then filled about a hundred cupcake liners with exactly 44 grams of batter. With the raw cookie dough batter, I scooped small spoonfuls of cookie dough onto four trays to be put in the oven, and then scooped small spoonfuls very close together on another tray, to be put into the freezer for whenever Tammy might need them again.