Christmas Time Is Here: Academy Exclusives

Holiday Baking Training

"What are you doing?" Luke asked as he walked into the kitchen of the diner.

I glanced up. "Oh, hey. I wanted to do some training exercises."

He eyed the supplies that were arranged on the counter. "Training exercises?"

I nodded. "Oh yeah..."

"Is this some strange practice you picked up in Paris?" He leaned against the counter.

I laughed. "I mean, sort of? At the patisserie we used to each go grab random items and set them on a baking rack and have chef think of a challenge for us and give us a time. So then, like on Holiday Baking Championship, we'd go grab ingredients and go bake whatever he told us to bake and he'd try them and declare someone the winner."

"But what did you win."

I smirked at him. "Earned the right to write down your recipe and have it baked in a large quantity the next day for the special. So it was really popular and we held a contest once a week to find the next special."

"How many times did you win?"

I shrugged. "Oh..." I shook my head. "I don't like to brag."

He laughed. "Sure you don't. C'mon, sis... it's your favorite brother, you can be honest with me."

I felt my cheeks flush with a bit of color. "I won about once a month."

He beamed before hugging me. "That's awesome. I had no idea you were doing it but I knew you could do it."

I laughed and hugged him back. "The best part though was whichever special sold the most became part of the regular seasonal rotation so if your cake sold the best when it was the special that month, it was made daily for usually the next couple months depending on the ingredients being available."

"Oh..." His eyes rounded. "And how many times was that yours?"

I grinned. "About half the time."

"Oh, right, you don't like to brag." He pulled my ponytail. "That's awesome. Is there a no compete or anything that prevents you from making those recipes here?" He asked, watching as I continued to arrange the ingredients into piles.

"I would have to ask." I said. "Chef didn't really say one way or the other so I could certainly at least make them for the family but I'd have to talk to him before I started featuring them in my dessert catering menu or at my shop."

"Might be worth it, right? Have a few things straight out of Paris?"

I smiled. "Yes, I'm still working out some details on my eventual menu and preparing an updated dessert menu for the catering events but a few of those pastries were rather brilliant if I do say so..."

"All right so what's the plan for this again? Why are you training?"

"I missed the deadline for this year but I'm considering sending in an application for one of the baking championships on food network." I admitted. "I just haven't decided if I want to take time away from my bakery after it opens next year to do Halloween or Holiday or if I should just apply for the Spring Baking Championship since I'll probably not be fully open yet... maybe still working out of the diner." I shrugged.

His eyes gleamed like he knew a secret but wasn't going to tell me. "I bet you're not working out of the diner for too long but to be honest, I think you like to decorate for Spring more than Holiday or Halloween." He said. "And it would be an excellent way to kill some time while you wait for your brick and mortar place ... or a food truck... or still here in my diner."