I think I've killed my pet!

So, another week in the bakery passes. Twas a crazy one at that. To start with, I believe that just as I starved my hamster when I was 10, (I know, horrible, but devastatingly true, and I've since realized that I hate rodents anyway), I have also starved my pet sourdough starter. I'd been using it to make some breads lately, and they always turned out like little rocks. I've been doing some reading lately on starter maintenance, and there is one highly respected baker who insists that unless your starter isn't going to be used for a while (i.e. dormant and therefore refrigerated), you should probably be feeding it 3 times a day! I don't think I was feeding it even daily, cause I usually just don't have time! I was only feeding it when I used it, to make up for the loss of starter. So there you have it folks, I will have to start from scratch I think, and that means 2 weeks to build a new one. Well, I learned something, that's all I can take from this.

Also, the bride to be and her mom came for the wedding cake tasting on Thursday. There was some miscommunication at first about the timing of our meeting, as she kept wanting to come in later and later in the afternoon, and I kept trying to stress to her that I could make a special work schedule for that day but I'd just need to know what would work for her, and then I realized she must not have understood when I had written that I come in to work at 2 or 3 AM, not PM. So I threw that her way and she immediately got it and told me she'd come in at 12 PM. I'll admit, I was a little hesitant to point the misunderstanding out to her, as I might come off as not caring about meeting her (I know, why?) but she got it, so great. Anyway, both mom and daughter loved the cake, and they picked the easiest finish for the sides of the cake so great. The wedding is now in two weeks, and they're going to have me go over there to assemble it too! Very exciting! Now I just have to figure out how much cake to make for 250 and how much of that needs to go into the actual presentation cake. Don't forget, it's a hex-shaped, (meaning 6 sided) cake! I also have to figure out how to make sugared flowers in a jiffy. Sugared flowers are real, edible flowers, that you somehow coat with sugar, and then stick all over the cake. No one actually eats them, but they could if they wanted to. They're also great because you don't have actually construct them like gum paste flowers. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, let me know and I'll explain next week. In the meantime, you can see a little of what I'm talking about (in the gum paste arena) by going to: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=68445

And if you didn't know about egullet, it's amazing for anyone interested in food, from amateurs to pros. The people there are super friendly and very helpful for anything they might know anything about. For instance, I had to ask somebody out there about the steam injector situation on my deck oven for getting that really cool crust on breads. People were very helpful.

Also, last week was Mother's Day. I should have written about my experience on that day last week, but I think I completely forgot! Anyway, Mother's Day is the BIGGEST day of the year for all restaurants. Some might say Valentine's Day, but I insist, Mother's Day is bigger! First of all, Valentine's Day is for couples only, so you only get dueces as reservations. Mother's Day usually involves the majority of the nuclear family, so you usually get at least a three top, but often four tops or more as reservations. For those of you who don't know restaurant lingo, just think about it for a second, you'll get it. Anyway, the higher volume of people automatically means bigger tickets and more food, plus more work. The other point I wanted to make about it being bigger is that people usually take their moms out because the moms usually do the majority of cooking at home. Most of my friends cooked for their moms this year, but they're unique and awesome! So at the place where I work, we also do a Sunday Brunch. This meant that in addition to the usual large amount of work that brunch entails for me, I had to do everything multiplied by 3. Now as timing worked out, I had a huge amount to do the day before. Lots of cakes to make, and filling up the restaurant dessert box. I just didn't have time to prep the brunch stuff (of which almost all can be prepped the day before so all I have to do is bake or slice) on Saturday, and I had to leave that day by 4.30 because I was going to a friend's surprise party in NYC. So I decided to prep everything on Sunday morning, and that I would come in around 3 am to have everything done by 11 am. I also had two cakes due on Sunday at 10 am, and the person who had ordered them had also ordered a week earlier and her cakes were late that day and she was super pissed about it. I went to the party, had a great time, drank a single beer, and was in bed by 11 pm. I have no idea what happened, either my sleepy self, which cannot be trusted with anything of importance, or my alarm was set to weekday alarm status, but I didn't wake up until 7.30! I freaked out and got to work by 8. The chef came in at 9 and was all friendly as usual, and I told him immediately what had happened and he did the complete opposite of what I had expected. He said, "Just get it done" and walked into the next room. I did indeed get it done, instead of losing my job, and I was super proud of myself, though exhausted. Of course this week I worked all day Friday, left around 7 pm, went home and showered, watched a lil tv and then went to another birthday party. Had to go because he had gotten a mousse recipe from me that he had called about during the day of in crisis mode. I love taking on the food 911 role. Anyway, I had to know how the mousse had turned out. So I went to the party, armed with the caffeine of two lattes, and had a fantastic time, and passed out on their big purple couch for about 2 hours. Then I went to work around 3.30 am. By the time I left work that day, as you can imagine, I was dead. I was definitely bolstered by more caffeine, which has become one of my best buddies as of late, and I passed out around 5 pm. My father called around 7.30, and the sun was setting and the light that filtered into my apartment looked to me just like the morning light. He scared the crap out of me, as I opened my eyes and got to the phone and thought it was morning already and I had fucked up the timing for brunch prep yet again! Then I realized it was still Saturday and all was good. I got up at the right time, after sleeping for about 10 hours total, and got everything done in time. Yea me!

Last thing is that we got these awesome transfer sheets in this week. These are pieces of acetate (flexible plastic) that have patterns on them. The cool thing about chocolate, is that if you temper it, and pour it onto almost anything, it will take on the pattern that you pour it onto. So we got some cool patterns, like stars and waves, and I tried out the waves this weekend. So cool. The chocolate will also take on almost any color, and also the texture of the pattern, like shiny or matte. So fucking awesome! One of these days, I'll bring my camera to work, I promise. Also, for anyone who would like to spend a couple hours in the bakery, watching me work with giant mixing bowls and hot pans and buttercream, you are totally welcome.

Alright, that's all for this week. Smell you later folks. I have to go design some signature cakes of my own, so no one is expecting the bullshit that the previous baker was producing.

Any suggestions of your favorites are always appreciated!