Cake Talk

More Sugar Fun

The soft ball stage of sugar is the only stage where you can blow bubbles. Real,honest-to-goodness bubbles.  I learned this in culinary school and it was a bright highlight of my fun two-year return to kitchen academics.

Just about any metal object with a hole will work.  My first choice is a truffle dipper, but as you can see from these photos, a tea strainer will also work.

Just dip the circle into the sugar to coat the opening and blow.

The bubbles don't last long, but there is no mistaking you have reached the proper stage.  These are NOT the bubbles you see on cakes and sugar centerpieces, which are an entirely different animal. These bubbles deflate and break, making a sticky mess wherever they drop.

And of course you need something to do with the sugar once it has reached a soft ball stage.  My top options are to immediately beat it into egg whites and make meringue, or to continue cooking and make caramels or divinity. In any case, I rarely miss this opportunity to play, even if soft ball is not my ultimate goal.

By the way the sugar is really hot, so don't try to catch the bubbles before they deflate and cool off.

And cleaning up the sticky sugar mess when you are done is definitely worth it.

So if you cannot tell from this blog, we have caramels and divinity in the shop right now...

Dickens Downtown

It's only five days away. 

The 20th Annual Dickens Downtown. Tuesday, December 1, 2009 from 5-8 pm in the streets and shops of Historic Downtown Northport.

Carolers, craftspeople, and music of all kinds, from a regimental band to the blues.  Snow, Father Christmas and Queen Victoria.  Free samples of eats, from peanuts to cider to warm bread pudding and candy canes.

There is not a better way to begin the holiday season.

We hope to see you there.  We'll be giving away the warm bread pudding outside the shop.  Debbie Bond, Rick Asherson, and the Creme Brulees will be playing the blues.  And inside we'll have soup, hot sandwiches, coffee cider and hot cocoa for sale, pus our usual selection of holiday treats.

Double Ouch -- The BSoD

 Hello from my new Mac.

Two days ago, every computer I own crashed.  First the PC that runs our point-of-sale system.  Then, a few hours later, my Mac.

The Mac iBook, I knew, was on its final leg for at least the last few months.  It was the generation BEFORE built-in wireless. It was slow and tired, but still had life, as long as I didn't ask too much of it. But it went to sleep and never woke up.  When I tried to reboot, I got a flashing question mark instead of the friendly Apple logo.

The PC was a complete surprise.  One minute it was working.  The next minute it displayed the blue screen of death, with a message saying windows has been shut down to prevent further damage to my computer.

I tried the reboot but still got the blue screen.

I panicked. Three days before Thanksgiving...Dickens Downtown approaching...I had no choice.  I called "the computer guy" and begged. The first thing he asked me?  "What are the chances you have backed up your data?"  I almost cried.  Sales tax.  Brides.  Customer accounts.  Invoices.  OMG.

Short story?  He saved my data and repaired the hard drive.  We had to use calculators and run credit cards manually for a day. And it took patience, but we got the POS back up and running yesterday.  And now I have an automatic back-up program -- the entire system once a week, and changed files every two hours.

And since I have a new Mac as well, the two computers will be able to network (the OS on my old Mac was too old to relate to a PC) -- just as soon as the computer guy gets back from his Thanksgiving vacation.  And I will be able to run reports.  And print on regular sized paper on the printer in the back office from the PC in the bakery (instead of printing on the receipt printer).

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dry Clean Only

Back in my pre-bakery life, when I had a real job, I wore a suit to work every day. A suit that had to be dry-cleaned after every couple of uses.

Between my husband and me,the dry cleaning bill ran several hundred dollars each month, and we had a house account at the local dry cleaners. I have little to show for that period now, except for the remnants of a previously endless supply of wire coat hangers.

I have never (yes, NEVER) been inside a dry cleaners in Tuscaloosa and I have lived here almost seven years. Many of those business suits I wore daily in the 90's are collecting dust in a corner of my large closet, not the corner I use.

Bakery clothes can be machine washed, and even my chef jackets are permanent press. I do have one indulgence, a nice and warm green corduroy Brooks Brothers vest I like to wear in the bakery on cold mornings. I bought it on sale a couple of years ago in California, and my sister has one just like it. I didn't use to wear it often (not that many cold days in Alabama) so I never paid much attention to the back of the label.

Dry Clean Only.

I've gotten some chocolate and cake batter on it so I have been stressing on how to deal with cleaning. Spend three days and ten bucks at the dry cleaners (I don't even know where one is)? Or take a chance on ruining my favorite non-chefware piece of clothing.

The stains are out and the vest is hanging on one of those remnant wire hangers to dry. It looks fine. Damp but fine.

Maybe it is time to liberate some of those other wire hangers...

Ouch!

Our role as a concessions vendor at the Kentuck festival this past weekend was an absolute disaster for us.

But it was not the thousands of dollars of unsold baked goods (we can freeze some of them).

And it was not the wet grounds (the Tuscaloosa News called it a "mudfest"). The mud was not really that bad, especially if you wore boots. OUR car did not even get stuck.

Nor was it the cold (technically great bakery weather). The weather was crisp and cool, but not freeezing.

It was not even the cost of the tent and permit and sneeze guard and tarps. Or the banner or the cash box or the long extension cords and various other supplies we had to buy for the event and are unlikely to ever use again. Or the packaging that we'll have for the next ten years.

And it was not the hundreds of dollars of pastries we donated to the patron's pavilion. After all, that was technically a "trade-out" for the value of the concession space. I am overlooking the little snafu with the "borrowed" butane and the "Gate Nazi" (which are two whole other stories).

No, what really hurts is my back. And my legs. And my poor tired feet from carting all that "stuff" from the parking lot into the park and out to our tent. And carting all the food we had expected to sell. And then carting it all back to the car on Sunday evening when the festival closed. My choices were to pay my employees to sit in the car for hours waiting "our turn" to enter the grounds and unload, or sherpa the items from the parking lot into the festival.

Then there are the huge black and blue marks I got from dropping one of the tables on my leg.

I don't blame anybody for the financial catastrophe. I gambled on the festival and lost. And I won't be doing that again.

And I certainly can't blame anyone for the physical aches and pains. If you do festivals and catering for a living, you find less painful ways of setting up and breaking down.

Next year we will stick to our knitting and sell from the shop. Leave the festival to the seasoned and professional festival food providers of corn dogs and funnel cakes and curly fries.

So, in the future, if you want fresh croissants, muffins, cookies, and hot chocolate made from ganache (instead of "Swiss Miss"), or banana bread or pumpkin bread, or chicken salad or pimiento cheese, or real spiced hot cider, or Alabama Blues Blend coffee, you'll have to stop by the bakery on your way in or out of the festival. Because you won't find us on-site.

Food Safety and the Bakery

Three of us took the eight-hour ServSafe class and exam a couple of weeks ago (we all scored 95% or higher). It wasn't that I had a burning desire to spend $450 on training.  But beginning in January 2010, we risk a critical health code violation if the person left in charge of the bakery does not have a food safety certificate.

While a bakery serving cakes and pastries does not pose the level of food safety dangers as a regular restaurant serving hot food, we did learn a few things, including these acronyms...

1. HACCP = Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points
2. ROP = Reduced Oxygen Packaging
3. NSF = National Sanitation Foundation
4. UL = Underwriter's Laboratory
5. TCS = Temperature Controlled for Safety
6. FAT TOM = Food, Acidity, Time, Temperature, Oxygen, Moisture (the conditions that promote bacteria growth)
7. RTE = Ready To Eat
8. LPCO = Licensed Pest Control Operator
9. FDA = Food and Drug Administration
10. MSDS = Material Safety Data Sheets

Thankfully, almost none of the foods we sell at the bakery are considered potentially hazardous. But that didn't exempt us from learning all about Hepatitis A, Norovirus, Escherichia coli (E. coli), botulism and salmonella.  We also learned that cooking does not destroy Ciguatera toxins in predatory fish.  And we learned we should not use raw unpasteurized eggs for royal icing due to the risk of salmonella (no worries, we use pasteurized dry egg whites).

We learned the proper safe internal temperatures for various foods, most of which we would never cook, as well as the proper cooling and reheating methods.  Food reheated in the microwave must reach an internal temperature of 165^oF, and there are at least four different kinds of thermometers.  For utter "coolness," I liked the infrared type which you can just point at something to measure the surface temperature, but it costs $50-$60 and would break if dropped.

Hot foods should be held at 140^oF or higher, cold foods at or below 40^oF.  BTW, since our display cases are not refrigerated, this is why we do not sell cream-filled pastries and pies.

At least one of us learned that a small pile of paper and debris in the corner suggests a potential rodent problem, and not (necessarily) a poor sweeping or mopping job. And we all guessed (correctly) at the question about mechanical ware washing machine water temperatures (we can only dream about having a mechanical dish washer).

Our certificates will be displayed on the wall at the bakery as soon as we get them in the mail.  Be sure to congratulate Pat and Emily for a job well done.

Rant: YMBK

You must be kidding...

We have a garden room attached to our bakery that we rent out for events.  A wedding (ceremony, not just reception) for this Sunday has been on the books for a couple of months.

Two weeks ago I heard rumors that the city had granted a license for a culture festival for the same day. When I called our city administrator to get more information I was assured that the festival had been moved and would not be taking place on Main Avenue. He went on to lecture me about what a great event this would be for downtown Northport. Yes, they would be giving away free food and drinks, but surely many would also buy something from the bakery. (Yeah, right...) He completely ignored my concern about the planned wedding.

Two days ago I found out the Culture Fest was definitely ON, the streets would be closed, and 1,500-2,500 people were expected.

Surely someone has written a book for our government officials that explains how to schedule events.  And somewhere in that book is a reference (probably more than one) to the importance of planning and communication.

So when you (Northport, Alabama City Administrator Scott Collins) schedule an event (such as the Culture Fest) for 1,500-2,500 people in a business district and plan to close streets, you should give those businesses more than ten day's notice.

Just a suggestion.  BTW, you can buy a used copy of this book on ebay for $.78.

One more thing...When one of the stakeholders (like me) calls you and asks for information about this event, don't lecture and DON'T LIE!

Bobby Horton

I had a chance to see Bobby Horton yesterday at the Folk Festival in Leeds, Alabama.  He's either a musician/historian, or an historian/musician, mostly civil war era, but not exclusively.  He did the soundtrack for Ken Burns' new PBS documentary on National Parks that airs beginning Sunday.

For about an hour and a half, he played music and told stories about the civil war.  It was totally enjoyable, kind of like reading an historical novel, so I learned some things too.  Like over 4,000 songs were written and published between 1861-1865, from both sides.  Many songs, such as Dixie, had several versions.  BTW, Dixie was written by a northerner from Ohio, but it was not that original version that was sung by confederate soldiers.

According to his website, Horton  is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, and music historian. He has performed with the musical- comedy trio, Three On A String, throughout the United States and Canada for 35 plus years.  He has also produced and performed music scores for ten PBS films by Ken Burns including “The Civil War, and “Baseball,” two films for The A&E network, and sixteen films for The National Park Service.  His series of recordings of authentic period music has been acclaimed by historical organization and publications through America and Europe.

As a damn yankee living in the south, I truly appreciate the unbiased historical references.

As an artist, I love his attention to detail; much of his music is played on authentic period instruments, and he takes great care to research the presentation of each piece, playing it as it would have been sung at the time.

Find him on YouTube or iTunes or blip.tv and listen for yourself. And if you get a chance to see him perform live, jump at it.

Tomorrow it is back to cakes.

Better Week

After last week's cake disasters, I needed a more positive experience.  We got that this week.  Adding to today's 53-7 win over North Texas, we had a good cake week.

I got my car back.

None of the cakes imploded.

The delivery to Birmingham not only went smoothly, but the folks at Gabriella Manor (where the wedding was being held) were utterly sweet, professional, and helpful.  The property is beautiful, and the staff thinks of every little detail.  They even offered that they were cutting the cake and asked if there was anything they should know about the way it was constructed.  Nobody EVER asks us that.  They had already set out boxes (out of sight) for any extra cake that might need to be packed and asked us what to do with the cake stands (give them to the bride's mother).  I could not have asked for a nicer or better prepared team to work with.

Melina's, the new restaurant on the corner of 5th and Main Avenue opened yesterday, with a soft opening (friends and family) on Thursday.  The food is fabulous.  I had to chuckle when the server told me about the wonderful red velvet cake and cappuccinn gelato they had for dessert. (I chose the creme brulee, which we did NOT make, but was perfection -- just the right combination of cold custard and warm just-torched sugar.  Yum. We wish them well.

All the cakes got picked-up, on time.

A man who had bounced a check a few weeks ago even came by to apologize and make it good.

We got two large orders for mid-week next week -- one for a sorority and one for a University of Alabama event.  Roll Tide!!

Oh yeah, and we got a call, out of the blue, from Cakes Across America.  They are a service much like Teleflora where you can order a cake to be delivered anywhere in the country (probably not ANYWHERE...).  They had an order for Tuscaloosa that they wanted us to fill.  And paid us our full price (wow! no discount necessary).

So, there you are.  A week sans-disaster.

Tomorrow I'm going to Leeds (just east of Birmingham) to hear Bobby Horton.

Monday I'll be a student again, taking the ServSafe course and exam.

And here is a photo of today's wedding cake as a finishing touch.  Have a nice weekend!

But what I really meant was...

People see our bakery and have all sorts of interesting expectations.  And, when you work in retail, you are taught that the customer is always right. So I try to be as agreeable as possible when dealing with customers. And I almost always mean what I say. Except when what I really meant was something entirely different.  Here are a few examples...

Customer:  Can you do this three tier cake to serve 50 people by this afternoon?
Me: No, I am so sorry but we are already totally booked for the next couple of days.
BWIRMW: You must be kidding...did you think we could just whip up and bake three cakes, let them cool, then ice, decorate and stack them in just two hours?

Customer: Will you bake my wedding cake the morning of the wedding?
Me: Your cake will be as fresh as possible.
BWIRMW: And your wedding is at 11am?  Do you have any idea how long it takes to bake, cool, ice, decorate and stack a wedding cake?

Customer: Where is your fresh bread? I really love your fresh bread.
Me: We're baking fresh bread on Thursdays now.
BWIRMW: We stopped baking bread daily almost two years ago, so I guess it's been a while since you bought any of that bread you really love.

Customer:  I am having an employee meeting tomorrow, could you donate some cookies?
Me: If you are having a fund raiser for charity, we would be happy to donate a gift card, but we do not donate our food products.
BWIRMW: Wow, I never even thought of asking a business to DONATE something to give to my employees.

Customer:  I have a recipe for my grandmother's pound cake, can you make me one for tomorrow?
Me: No, but could I recommend a personal chef or caterer?
BWIRMW: Hmmm, let me see... tie up our mixers, ovens and employees for one pound cake? Yeah, right.

Just smile and wave, boys, smile and wave.