"If you do not whip the cream properly, your cake will be ruined. Trust me." Chef Antoine was going on and on about it.
"Not like you're gonna have any problems whipping the cream without a machine Kat. You've gained some serious muscle there." my friend Claire whispered.
She was right, I had shredded the excess weight I had on me before. Now, I was lean and toned out in all the right places. Damn, it felt good. The year was almost ending, and things had taken a turn for the good in my life.
Things in culinary school couldn't have been better, and I was at the top of my class. During the weekends, I spent my time slaving away in kitchens to gain the experience I needed. I had worked in Anthony Bourdain's kitchen, as well as chef Bobby Flay. Although, my area of expertise was baking and pastries, I wanted to gain more knowledge in the other fields. I wanted to be good everything.
That was just the way I was. Nothing could stop me from achieving what I wanted. I always reminded myself that I had something to prove to not only myself, but everyone else. Mainly being my parents. They never tried to contact me once. I knew how my brother was through Talen.
Talen... that was the only glitch in my life. Things had taken a serious turn. He still thought I was Sarah. Even though I know that he is deeply in love with her, but it's actually me, I continued this sick and twisted thing.
"I want this cake to be iced and decorated in 40 minutes! It is 10 percent. Treat it seriously!" he said in his French accent.
"We better get to work." I laughed looking at Claire's gobsmacked expression.
Not being one to brag, but this was an easy assignment. With precision, I sculpted the cake to my liking, than began whipping the icing together. When I was done, most of the other students were out of breath. I laid the icing on, making sure to cover the nooks and crannies and I set it in the blast chiller so it would be easier to lay on the fondant.
I decided to stick to plain white fondant, to show off my skill a little. Most students wouldn't want to deal with the white fondant because if mistakes were made, it would be difficult to start over. The decorations we were supposed to do were flowers of our any choice. Since I was going to hand pipe Fleur-de-lis motives onto the cake itself, I decided to make roses out of black gum paste then dust it with edible gold dust.
Removing the cake that was in the blast chiller, I quickly rolled out the fondant and laid it onto the first layer of the cake which was the base. Nothing unusual, just a round bottom. When that was done, I did the second tier, then stacked it onto each other, secured it with some wood and royal icing.
Setting it aside, I decided to get started onto my roses. Changing my mind again, I decided to do half in gum paste and half in butter cream. My vision was to have the roses that look like it was cascading down to the base. The roses at the top of the tier would sit at the edge, and would be made out of icing, and the cascading ones would be gum paste making it easier for me to attach them with toothpicks.
Glancing at the clock, I had only 20 minutes left. I zoned myself out further and stepped up the pace. Grabbing my piping bag, I scooped in the black luscious icing and pushed all of the air out. With a steady hand, I began to pipe the Fleur-de-Lis motives onto the cake.
I made sure that I didn't make a design that would be too overwhelming because there would be the roses as well. Rushing to let the icing set, I placed it into the cooler again, and finished up the 10th and final gum paste rose. Looking at the clock again, there were 10 minutes left.
"10 minutes left. I hope you understand the meaning of perfection!" he yelled.
Without breaking my concentration, I pulled the cake out of the cooler and arranged the gum paste roses meticulously. Then, I grabbed my piping bag again and changed the nozzle that was suitable for making the other kind of roses I wanted. I picked up my flower nail, which looked like those things you put a golf ball on.
Working literally in the speed of light, I made 5 and that was perfect.
"60 seconds left!" chef Antoine yelled again.
Going over what I had done, I tried to remember what I was missing out on. The gold dust!! Searching the drawers for it, chef had started counting down the last 30 seconds. When I finally found it, I grabbed the brush and dabbed it on the gum paste flowers.
"Step away from your counters." he said and I released a long sigh.
"Sweet lord Kat. Why do you even bother coming for classes if you are this good?" Claire said.
Being the person I am, I picked out every bit of dislike that I saw in my cake "I could have done a better job with the fondant. Maybe I should have used the other type of icing to hide the crumbs."
"If you hate yours this much, don't even come near my cake." she whined.
Chef Antoine went around grading everyone's cakes. He had the kind of look that screamed disappointment. I hoped that the cake I came up with would change his mood. When he finally did reach me, he had the same stoic expression.
"Perfect. Just perfect. THIS, is a cake that is perfect." he repeated.
I bit my lip trying not to smile so widely. I could feel the hate emitting from most of the students. Claire was beaming with pride.
"Thank you sir." I said quietly.
"Your piping skills are amazing Katarina. So professional. Full marks for you!" he clapped his hand and everyone followed suit.
All I could do was smile. After class was done for the day, Claire and I met up with another friend of mine, Brianna.
"Bree, where are you. Hurry up, we are freezing out here." Claire yelled on the phone.
"Jesus. I'm here already." she walked out of the building.
"Took you long enough. What were you doing? Staring at the chef in charge again?" I teased.
A pale pink blush formed across her cheeks "OMG you were so perving on that guy again. What was his name again Kat?!"
"Chef Robert. From Germany!"
"You guys!! Stop! Someone is gonna hear us!" Bree pulled us away from the building and we started walking to where my car was parked.
The city was slowly shifting into winter and I was definitely loving it.
"Oh.. guys. Our little dream space." Claire pointed.
A few months ago, we stumbled upon this building. The space was for sale and it was our dream to own it. Bree, Claire and I wanted to open a business together. A bakery cum bistro. The front section would be my artisanal bakery and the back would be a fancy bistro.
My expertise was baking nonetheless, but those two girls could put me to shame in my usual cooking class. Sure I could cook well, but it wasn't my forte. I wasn't at the level of producing fine dining food yet. Yet being the key word.
The three of us stood in front of the building looking at it in silence. "We need to make this happen." I said breaking the silence.
"Yea, how. My parent's aren't even paying for my education. They ain't gonna be paying for this." Brianna said.
"We could take on extra shifts or something?" Claire suggested.
"What we need to do, is build a fanbase. I guess we could do that by maybe setting up a booth at a farmer's market. Or multiple farmer's markets. That way, we make extra money, and build the fanbase and people will know more about us." they stared at me with an expression that resembled me looking like God.
"That's fucking genius Kat." Bree whispered.
"Major fucking genius." Claire jumped up and down.
"Let's get back to my place. I'm sure my nana will love this idea." we hurried to my car and when we made it back home, I screamed "Nana I'm home! The girls are with me!"
She came out of her room, holding a magazine. "Hello girls. Could I get you something to eat?"
"Hey Rosa. No we're good. Though, we have some really good news!" Claire said excitedly.
"Yea! Let's sit. Kat will explain." Bree motioned to the sofa.
"So nana. Remember I showed you that space a few blocks away from the school?" she shook her head meaning she understood.
"Well, I've come up with a plan on how we could save the money for it. I was thinking that Bree, Claire and I could start selling whatever we want at the local farmer's market. That way, while making money, we can start growing our fan base. That way, when it's time to open the shop, we know we will have customers." I looked at her expectantly.
"That's brilliant! Tell you what, I'll give the real estate agent a call, just to inquire what the asking price is. Then we can estimate how much you'll need to make." She said getting up and searching for her phone.
The three of us looked at each other and smiled.
Finally. Just finally, I wasn't worried about Talen or any other problem.
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