No Fakin'...I'm Bakin' and Decoratin'

You know me and my rhymes.

But first, let's have a good news sharing moment.  Today shall be known as The Day In Which Technology And I Play Nicely In The Sandbox.

I discovered something today, and its name is Bluetooth.  I know, I know, this wireless technology has been around awhile and is practically Stone Age, but for me, it is a momentous, pivotal thing.

I'm stuck in 2006, you see.  I carry a Verizon slide-phone with a QWERTY keypad.  I don't have access to the Internets on my cellular device, and I don't have the fancy Steve Jobs-o-Rama widgets and wadgets and gizmosthingies.  And for the most part, I've gotten along just fine.  There's a certain amount of pride that comes with being a relic, you know?

But.  Any pictures I've ever taken of food (which, for the past year, have been a lot) get sort of lost in space.  I'm the only one who sees these pictures of my creations - I have no digital portfolio, really, to speak of.  And well, in this day and age, I can't help feeling like I'd better remedy that.

With the help of TechMeat (a.k.a my husband), I learned how to transfer my cell phone pictures to my laptop with Bluetooth, where I can then upload them here for your viewing diversions.

Oh, glorious day!

This week in the bakery, we're doing Specialty Cakes, Gateaux, and Torten (all the same thing, really), and after finishing a Mocha Roll with my partner, I started in on my Mocha and Black Forest Tortes.

A quick note, though, about the Mocha Roll.  Imagine a two-foot long, four-inch wide Hostess HoHo, frosted with a coffee buttercream, rolled up with chocolate shavings, and topped with chocolate drizzle.  Imagine it.  Then, try to restart your heart.

For all practical purposes, tortes (gateaux, etc.) are layered cakes that have various frostings and fillings.  Above is my Mocha Torte in progress.  You'll notice how sloppy and unsexy it looks...much like most of us first thing in the morning.

Previous to this day in the bakery, I've attempted a layered cake about twice in my life, both of them for the consumption of my family.  They're very forgiving people, you see, and will eat just about anything I set in front of them.  But today, I made cakes I feel actual pride in...cakes that I would, you know, serve to real people.  It's an amazing feeling.

Here's the Mocha Torte, finito.  Two vanilla cake layers, one pecan sponge cake layer, and filled and frosting with the leftover coffee buttercream.  Sliced almonds mask the sides and I did chocolate shavings on top before piping on the rosettes.

I like coffee and I like chocolate.  I also like Bluetooth...whose personal area network capabilities have made these pictures possible.

After the Mocha Torte, I tackled this Black Forest.  I have extremely fond memories of Black Forest Cake from my college days, and as it's one of Brent's favorites as well it makes for a prime candidate for honing my new skills.  Unfortunately, I did not take a picture in progress, but what you're looking at is three layers of chocolate genoise cake that have been brushed with a kirsch dessert syrup before being iced with a whipped cream.  There's a layer of cherries in between the second and bottom layer.

My baking instructor had me try the icing comb on the sides, which accounts for the lines there, but as you can probably see, I still need practice with that particular tool.

A milestone day for me, to be honest.  I'm no decorator, and today was my first day (really) in assembling and frosting cakes like these.  And now I have the means to share my progress here at Be Food...until I get myself one of those SmartPhone thingies.