More of the my favorite place...

Today was a very busy day at Dessert Tray. Finishing up and sending out all of the whole sale orders, special orders, in house items, prep. Tomorrow is going to be pretty busy as well!

Can I just say how much I love my job? How often do people get paid to do what they love? How often do these people get paid way more than they should be getting paid? Seriously? I love not having a typical desk job (boring!) and I love being able to pursue my artistic nature!

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So this was one of the many cakes I did today for the in house case. It is a pretty simple white cake with vanilla simple syrup, coconut butter cream, vanilla butter cream, and toasted coconut to mask.





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This is one of the many beautiful cakes we always have around the store.In the background you can see a tiny peak of the HUGE kitchen!




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And for the final picture of the day...

Our front counter with some of my cakes in the display case. More of the beautiful cakes just hanging around.



Love my job, but am sure ready to recoup this weekend! Tomorrow is my last day of work before my beautiful weekend!

Brownies to my shoulder

I havent blogged about my work much, been pretty busy. But I figured I might as well start taking pictures and showing it off! Here is just a few (poorly taken CELL pictures)...


One of the many reasons I love my new job is demonstarted below:

THE 60 QUART MIXER!

(which can I mention goes up to my shoulder?!)



What you dont see next to my love is the 30 quart mixer ( we have 2) and a 20 qt. Its like heaven when you have to make over 70 lbs of cake.

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We make a "mini-tier" cake that is adorable. It is about the size of your fist and delicious. It is chocolate cake and glazed in chocolate glacage. Butter Cream piping and a fondant flower on each!






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That is all you get for today!

Death Bed

I am on my Death Bed...

No seriously.

Hyrum has given me the worst... *worst* cold ever.

Maybe I am being a little dramatic, maybe not.

I finally gave up and left work at lunch.

Freaking miserable

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I love my job. It is beyond challenging and satisfying.

And it is also full time.

So I have been very busy.

No blog time.

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I have been delving into new projects lately. A painting here, an art project there.

Mostly these,



Soon to be followed by these.



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One of my favorite photographers *ever* has died. Irving Penn has some fantastic photos.










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Cant breath. Need nasal spray.

Kellys Korner and CAKE

Kelly's Korner did another "Show us your life" on Friday, and I haven't been participating in a long while because of the aforementioned busyness. This last Friday was one of my favorites however because it involved DESSERT!

I have always loved cake. Oh yes. So much in fact I decided to become a pastry chef and spend the rest of my life creating and decorating them. So I thought that I would share one of my most favorite recipes.


The Italian Cream Cake


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-5 eggs
-1/2 cup butter
-2 cups AP flour
-1 tsp baking soda
-1/2 cup shortening
-2 cups sugar
-1 tsp vanilla
-1 cup buttermilk or sour milk if not on hand
-1 cup flaked coconut
-1/2 cup chopped pecans #1
-3/4 cup chopped pecans #2
-1 good recipe of cream cheese frosting



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1. Seperate the eggs and let them rest.
2. Cream shortening and butter with the sugar.
3. Add the yolks and vanilla. Continue to beat.
4. Alternately add the flour and baking soda with the Buttermilk.
5. Fold in the coconut and pecan #1.

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1. In another bowl beat the whites to stiff peaks.
2. Fold in 1/3 of whites into the butter mixture to lighten.
3. Fold in the remaining 2/3 of whites.
4. Fold just until comes together and not overmixed.
5. Grease 8" or 9" pans (usually makes 3 of either size)
6. Bake at 350 F for 25-35 minutes.

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1. Make the cream cheese frosting.
2. Set half aside for the filling and half aside for frosting.
3. With the Filling portion add the 1/2 of the #2 pecans.
4. Fill the cakes and stack.
5. Frost the cake with the rest of the cream cheese frosting.

*Optional* Mask the sides with the remaining pecans (or sprinkle all over)

(I love eating it when it is still slightly warm.)

Portland and the wreckage of cake...

Life has been VERY busy for us lately. I have been working my tush off over at Dessert Tray and have been having a total blast! It is such a trip to make a batch of cookies so large that it takes two people just to heave it up a few inches and nearly 2 hours of speed scooping just to finish it up. But man do I love it.


At least now I sleep well at night!

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So Cake Wrecks did indeed come to town! I was so entirely thrilled to go, and then Hy started to feel really sick. So we ended up staying home instead. Insert sad face.

I was able to grab some pictures from a friend though and I heard so much fun stuff about it from work. I will put up more when the website releases the rest of the Portland get together... so for now...