Graduation and Beyond

With aspirations of opening a vegan bakery, and a background in theater performance and library science, I decided to go back to school to study business. Rather than getting wrapped up in another graduate degree, I enrolled in a six-course program at a local college, taking 2 classes a semester for the past year. On April 29th I graduated with a business certificate in Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management.

The online program consisted of classes in Accounting, Intro to Business, Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management, Marketing, Finance and Human Resources. I now have some basic understanding of the business side of things, though I know that I have much work ahead of me. For instance, I learned about writing a business plan, but have not yet sat down to draft my own. I understand the basic accounting techniques I'll probably use to keep my books, but I still have to research specifics in getting finance and capital to actually open a store.

In my grand two-year-til-decision scheme, these courses fell such that at the end I have nine months left in which to learn more, and get ideas. While I focused on learning some of the business aspects of running a bakery, my actual time in the kitchen decreased. I realized this, and in December, I signed up for the Daring Baker challenge over at the Daring Kitchen website. Each month they provide a different baking challenge, and then everyone posts about their experience on the same day. I signed up as an "alternative baker" - a group of bakers who play by different rules, ranging from those with food allergies to those who make conscious decisions about their baking. The forums for alternative daring bakers is a great resource, especially when the original recipe that is posted for the challenge has to be adapted to become vegan. It's nice to have a place to get ideas from others who are working on the same baking challenge. So far, we have completed 4 challenges: January - Biscuit Joconde Imprime ; February- Panna Cotta and Florentine Cookies ; March- Yeasted Coffee Cake ; April - Maple Mousse in an Edible Container (Pretzel Bowls!).

Also in December, I bought the student kit for the first of three Wilton Cake Decorating classes offered at our local Michael's "Decorating Basics". Even though I had not signed up for the class yet, I knew I wanted to, and I thought that by buying the student kit, it would ensure that I did eventually sign up for the class. My self-logic worked, and I am currently enrolled in the class. The day class started (May 1st, since I'm in a Sunday course), I went ahead and bought the student kit for class two - "Flowers and Cake Design" for June.

I'm enjoying the class so far, and anticipate signing up for the third course, "Gum Paste and Fondant", for July.

In the first class we watched the instructor ice a cake, and discussed different consistencies of icing (I never realized there was such a thing - though in retrospect it makes sense). We got our hands dirty learning to fill our decorating bags, and using a particular tip to make stars. Everyone brought in cookies, and we spent the last part of class decorating them with what we'd learned.

Practicing stars.

The second class was a little more exciting. Building on what we saw in the first class, everyone brought in their own cake, and learned how to ice it. With the decorating bags we learned dots, elongated dots, zig-zags and wavy lines. Once the icing on the cake was set, we were given time to decorate it using what we'd learned.

Dots and Zig-Zags

My first decorated cake.

I'm looking forward to the remaining two classes in this course, and in the two following classes, even though at the end of each class there is a reminder of which new Wilton product you'll need to purchase before the next course - I did some shopping around after the first week, and it ended up that the long off-set spatula that I needed (okay - wanted, it made things easier, but to be honest I could have gotten by with the smaller one) - anyway, the Wilton brand one they sold at Michael's was actually the cheapest one I found in town - and then I got my Wilton-student discount on top of it.

All in all, I feel like I am still moving in the right direction, and look forward to where this year takes me.