Today I decided to revisit my blog. Shocked to see I'm nearing 100,000 page views! Crazy to receive so much exposure for something that started out as a hobby. I took a look at some of my early posts after getting a little nostalgic. I realized I started this blog as a way to record my journey into the cake world, not just a place to show of my cakes. So it's time I update this blog on the past half year.
I arrived in San Diego like planned February 1st. On the 3rd I had an interview for a position at Sweet Cheeks Baking Company. I waited another week for interview #2, then another week to start a two week internship to test things out. Unfortunately...I didn't get the job. I was getting desperate. I applied to every cake company in San Diego and started looking for ANY type of work. I just needed some income. As luck would have it, a full time cake position opened up at Twiggs bakery about a week after I started looking for a new job. It felt serendipitous! When I went in for my trial day and was hired I was told part of the reason I was hired was due to the glowing recommendation from Elaine, one of the owners of Sweet Cheeks, who said she would have loved to hire me but didn't have a position available.
Working at Twiggs was my first time having an official job in a commercial kitchen. People say it's hard to adjust when you come from working in a home kitchen, but I feel like I adjusted pretty quickly. The hardest part was just becoming orientated with all the supplies and getting used to sharing a small space with others. I also had to work on my more basic skills like icing a cake smoothly in buttercream and piping on details.
About six weeks after working at Twiggs I was contacted by Sweet Cheeks again. They had a position available for me. Obviously I was in quite the dilemma. I just started working at Twiggs but there were many advantages to working at SC. First of all, it's just two minutes away from my apartment. The kitchen is large and spacious, and I click better with the other bakers/decorators. Not to mention the fact that they don't work weekends and they have a slightly higher standard of quality. I thought the decision was a no brainier, how could I say no? So I started working both jobs while I waited finish up my last two weeks at Twiggs. It sure was nice to get that first weekend off!! Definitely one I won't forget.
So now I'm working at Sweet Cheeks. Getting paid to make cakes. Is it everything I dreamed of? Well I guess not, but this was never my end goal. Now my main focus is on figuring out how I'm going to make my dream a reality. I've come a long way in the three years since I started decorating cakes as a hobby, but I'm still just beginning. Watch out!
I haven't made a whole ton of cakes at work that I'm truly proud of, but here is one of my favorite Sweet Cheeks cakes. Not what I would've done if it was a Cake Lab cake but it's still fun.
Angry Birds Cake
