“Be careful what you wish for.”

“Be careful what you wish for.” –Dad
Things at work have been stagnant for me. For the last few months I show up for my scheduled shift and, for the most part, I decorate cakes: five-layer cakes for the Desserts’ shop, seven-layer cakes for Le Café and three-layer cakes for the buffet. I’ve made a few other things along the way and I’ve made the occasional birthday cake as well. I’ve been frustrated and honestly a little disappointed. I have been itching to cook and use the skills I acquired at Le Cordon Bleu.
This week it was all handed to me over the course of a 24-hour period. I was assigned a two-tier wedding cake and was allowed to create a menu and produce the desserts for an employee luncheon with L’auberge’s General Manager.
The wedding cake was assigned to me on Saturday afternoon. The wedding reception was Sunday evening. The cake was baked at 9 pm Saturday night. I’d love to tell you that I didn’t have a few stressful moments about the timeline but I’d be lying. As it turns out my worrying was for naught, I had the cake finished with hours to spare and no major setbacks to report. Actually, it was a piece of cake well, make that about 250 pieces of cake!
I was given a little more notice on the luncheon and had a game plan in mind for what I wanted to make. The only problem was now with the wedding cake on my list as well as having to pitch in with some of the daily production I was forced to make a few sacrifices. The individual chocolate cakes I had planned were scratched so I used some chocolate bourbon pecan tortes we already had prepared. The other two desserts, a cream cheese and lemon mousse parfait with blueberries and a poached pear and almond tart were made by multi-tasking components and assembly while waiting for other projects to come together.
Everything was made in 24 hours with a quick trip home for a 5-hour nap in between shifts. For those of you who know me well, you know of my history with fondant and my love of sleep so I’ll admit, how I covered a cake in fondant on five hours sleep is a mystery, even to me.
I've included a few photos of the wedding cake. The bride wanted the cake covered in white fondant with black swirls, since I did not speak with her myself this was my interpretation. I'm off to lunch with the GM, I hope my desserts are gobbled up!