Culminating Blog Reflection

After many months of hard work and stress I have finally completed all aspects of my Capstone. There were many different aspects that went into completed this project and the different parts of it. I used critical thinking when it came to writing my paper and how I was going to successfully write a strong paper that related to my physical project. My communication skills came in handy when it came to working with my mentor since she lived so far away. Also, I had to communicate my struggles or problems with my mentor in order for her to help me. I believed I collaborated with my mentor very well when we worked together on different baking projects. Lastly, I used my creativity when it came to substituting different tools I needed to bake since buying the actual tools is very expensive.

My biggest challenges throughout this entire process were money, working on new cakes/decorations and time. Money was a huge problem because each time I wanted to work on something new it called for new ingredients which were all so expensive. I worked around this problem by substituting what I had around the house for tools I needed, and although they didn't work as well as the real thing, they got the job done. Another struggle was the stress and patience of learning how to create new cakes and working with fondant. In the end I overcame this problem by realizing that great creations came with great patience and practice and just because I didn't get something right the first time didn't mean I wasn't going to get it right the second time. My last struggle was finding the time around school and work to work on my physical project since baking takes a lot of time. I eventually learned how to manage my time and gave up most of my free time to fit this project into my already busy life.

From the Capstone I gained multiple new skills that are not only going to help me right now, but also in the future. Personally I learned how to manage my time and prioritize what's more important and get it done first. Also, I gained a new confidence in doing what I love and I actually believe I am more capable than I ever expected. Socially I became more open when it came to talking to someone, in this case my mentor, about what I needed help on instead of trying to figure it out on my own and just give up. Lastly, mainly through my paper, I gained a greater understanding of obesity and how rapidly it is spreading all around America. I have grown so much in many different ways because of this project and I plan on pursuing a career as a pastry chef and use all the skills I picked up during this process.

The Last Job April 26,2014

On Saturday I finally met up with my mentor at her workplace, which in her case is at her house in Manteca. Once I got there I sat with her and showed her everything I have been working on these past few months. I showed her pictures of all the cakes and other things I baked, even the not so good ones. I also spoke to her about the problems I came across while baking. She gave me some great advice on using fondant, what brand to buy and where I can get the best bargains. She also gave me a tour of all her baking cabinets where she keeps her tools, fondant, and other materials she uses. After the tour we began to make animals out of fondant. We started with something simple, a monkey. She talked me through all the ways to make the different body parts and gave me different tools to use. The tools were so much more helpful then just using what I have around the house so I plan on buying a kit of my own. She showed me how to mix different color fondants to create the color I want, which wasn't easy. The monkey took me longer than I thought but in the end I was so proud of myself! I also made a little banana to go with the monkey which was a cute touch. Once I was finally done with that she asked me to make a bear on my own without her giving me a step-by-step instruction. I was a little nervous but if she thought I could do it then I guess it didn't hurt to try. Getting the right color of brown took me a while and I still wish I would have gone lighter. I made all the body parts similar to the way she showed me how to make the monkey so it wasn't as hard as I thought. I still needed some help here and there but for the most part I did it all on my own! As much as I wanted to keep making more animals, they each took up a lot of our time so we decided to move onto roses. She had me roll out the fondant as thin as possible and didn't let me stop until it was see through. Rolling out all that fondant was so tiring and took up so much time just for about 8 rose pedals, I can only imagine how long a dozen roses would take. We used a cookie cutter to cut out all the rose pedals to make sure they were all the same size. Making each rose pedal took some work and multiple tools but it was worth it. The rose came out looking so real I couldn't believe we made it. Working with my mentor was so much fun and I learned so much from her and all about what I was doing wrong. She gave me a few things so that I could keep practicing at home or create something new, which I will.

Time Logged for this session: 5 hours

Total Time Logged: 25 hours

The 6th Job April 14,2014

For my sister in laws birthday I wanted to make a pink heel out of fondant to put on top of the cake to go with the theme. What a success it was! This was a three day process and it took a lot of time and patience but in the end it was worth it. This really challenged my skills and also made me believe in myself more. I began by buying everything I needed as usual: white and pink fondant, cake mix, strawberries. Since the heel was my biggest challenge I began to work on it a few days before to give it time to dry and form. The first day I made the back part of the heels and it took me a few tries and was getting to be stressful because I couldn't get it right. My goal was to make it nice and smooth with no cracks and most importantly, to make it as stable as I could since it was like the backbone to the entire heel. Once I got it to be as stable as I could I let it dry over night. The next day I began on the sole part of the heel which was a little easier. The only problem I had was cutting it into the right shape and size since I was just free handing it. After a few tries and looking at a real heel for reference, I finally got the right sole and placed it very carefully onto the back part of the heel that I made the night before. I discovered that "glue" for fondant is water since fondant is all sugar and so I used water to stick the two pieces together. I made a few adjustments and then it was time for the waiting game again the let it dry. On the last day, the day the entire cake as to be made, I put the finishing touches on the heel while the cake was in the oven. The last part was just the sides and front part of the heel and once those parts were securly attached, I was done! But I was not satisfied with how the back part looked so I quickly made a bow to attach to the back and cover all of the cracks and mistakes. It looked 10x better, Perfect! After adding a few edible beads onto the front of the heel it was finally complete. I was so proud of myself because I really didnt think I could make it, but I did! Once the cake was ready and frosted it was time to place the heel on top, which was scary because I didn't want to ruin it. But when I placed it on the cake the heel didn't want to stay up right so I quickly got fondant roses that I made and placed them around the heel to keep it from falling. All these adjustments caused the heel to crack in some places and slump over. Although it didn't stay perfect on the cake, I was still proud of what I made. I decorated the rest of the cake with pink and white fondant balls and roses all around. This has to be one of my best cakes and everyone loved it, especially the birthday girl. My next goal is to create something new and original that no one has seen or tried before.

Time Logged for This Session: 4 hours and a half

Total Time Logged: 20 hours

The 5th Job April 9, 2014

As promised, I switched gears and made something other than cake and didn't work with fondant. This time I made what I call fruit cups. These are little cups of pie crust with melted chocolate that hardens, vanilla pudding, and fruit to top it off. First I began with the pie crust that I just purchased from the refrigerator section. I rolled it out until I thought it was thin enough. Then I used a cup to cut the crust into little circles. I used a cupcake pan to put the crust and cook it in the oven and shape them into cups. I had to watch them in the oven very carefully because they can burn easily which I didn't want. I repeated this about 3 times until all the crust was used. Now that the crust was done it was time for the chocolate. I melted the chocolate in the pan then poured some into the crust cups and waited until the chocolated hardened. Once that was done I made the instant vanilla pudding, which went next into the cup. Lastly, I toped it off with fruit such as strawberries, blue berries, and kiwi. This dessert is great for parties and is very delicious, especially for fruit lovers! It was nice baking something other than a cake because sometimes people want something other than a cake to eat at parties. I will continue to make other desserts but I do want to work on my fondant skills some more. My next goal is to not use frosting on the cake, but cover it with fondant instead and not rip or tear it.

Time Logged for This Session: 2 hrs

Total Time logged: 15 hrs and a half

The 4th Job April 7, 2014

My last goal was a success! I wanted to create something out of fondant that looked realistic and I did. This cake was for someone who is a chef so I made a spatula and a knife out of fondant. At first I was worried about not being able to make it look real but I had to try. I had to buy more fondant and cake mix. I made my new specialty again, a two layered cake with fruit filling since I wanted to mainly focus on working with fondant. Before I began shaping the fondant I had to dye it with food coloring which is always a tiresome task. I used black to make the handles and grey to make the rest. The grey fondant was tricky because they don't actually sell grey food coloring so I had to mix very little black food coloring to make the perfect grey. Since I don't have the correct tools to cut and shape fondant I just used whatever I had around the kitchen which made it a little harder. I got a real knife and spatula so I can look at while I was working with the fondant. Although it took me multiple tries, I was really happy with the results! They really did look real, more real than I expected and I truly felt proud. I very carefully transfered the fondant spatula and knife onto the cake and decorated around it with frosting. This gave me so much more confidence and made me realize I have more talent than I give myself credit for. I will for sure continue to create more objects with fondant and hopefully be successful again. My next goal is to take a break from cakes and fondant and make different kinds of desserts.

Time logged for this session: 3 hrs and a half

Total time logged: 13 hrs and a half

The 3rd Job April 2,2014

This time I decided to work on my fondant skills making other things, in this case I made fondant roses. Like usual I had to shop for the ingrediants first, such as the fondant, cake mix, food coloring and fruit for the filling. I wanted to make white and red roses so I cut the fondant in half , kept one half white and folded red food coloring into the other one. Folding food coloring into fondant can get tiring just because I really wanted to get the color nice and even all around. I watched a few YouTube videos to see how other people went about making fondant roses without any tools, but in all honesty I learned how to make roses in ceramics class. To me fondant is much like clay, just a slight difference in texture. I began by making 8 little balls with the fondant. Then I flattened them into oval shapes with my fingers making them as thin as I could to make the pedals. It took me a while until I could get the hang of making nice even sized roses with the same amount of thickness. Since this was my first time I only made about 5 good roses but it still took long because it took me a while to get them perfect. I made 3 white roses and two red because I didnt make enough red fondant. My plan was to make more but it was taking longer than I thought just to make one. I placed these roses nicely on top on a two layered cake frosted in white homemade frosting. I decorated the edges of the top cake with my piping tools but nothing too fancy as my focus was on the roses. I hope to get some tips from my mentor on using fondant to make different things. My next goal is to continue to create more things with fondant to make them look realistic.

Time Logged for this session: 3 hrs

Total Time Logged: 10 hrs

The 2nd Job March 25,2014

After my last fail with fondant I decided to make a similar cake but focus on using frosting to decorate the cake instead. This time I did not have to spend time shopping for ingredients since I already had them in my baking area in the kitchen. This cake was another layered cake with the same strawberry banana and creme filling from the last cake. I baked yellow cake in two 9 inch pans to get nice even portions of the layers. The part I still have trouble on is cutting the top part of the cakes to make them flat since they puff up in the oven and become round. It might be easier to use a tool that is made to cut cakes nice and straight but for now a knife would have to do. Once I put the bottom layer, filling and top layer it was time to design the cake. I went with a simple decoration. I frosted the top of the cake with regular buttercream frosting then used food coloring to turn the rest of the frosting blue. I got my decorating tools to write a name on the cake in blue. Then I got some of the left over stawberries and cut them into even sizes and put them around the top edges of the cake and finished it off with blue frosting in between strawberries. I didnt frost the sides of the cake to show the layers and filling of the cake. Overall I was very satisfied with this simple but elegant cake. My next goal is to work with fondant again and hopefully succeed with getting it on the cake without ripping or tearing it.


Time logged for this session: 2 hrs

Total time logged: 7 hrs