A Baker and an Artist

I spent a few hours in the catering kitchen working on my assigned jobs at my prep table. Across from me, I watched Lucy, a pastry chef, assemble a chocolate Eiffel Tower that would eventually go on the top of a bridal shower cake. Watching Lucy work was amazing. Every once in a while I had to put down my knife on the cutting board and walk over to her prep table to get a closer look of her work.

 

I have said this before, but I think Lucy is an amazing person. She is married with three children, and the owner of Bee Delicious Pastries. Her pastries, from her cookies to her wedding cakes, are divinely delicious and very creative. Yet, I think she is an architect as well. To make the chocolate Eiffel Tower, Lucy first made a sketch of the Tower which looked like what a professional architect would have down. The drawing was sketched on parchment paper.

 

Then Lucy assembled her chocolate levels by making each piece, and each side, one piece at a time. Chocolate was melted and squeezed from a pastry bag along the outline of each side. Eventually after the chocolate hardened, Lucy would put the sides together with miniature chocolate dipped dowel rods and, press the sides together. She would and add more chocolate to the rods and sides to hold them together until they were able to stand upright by themselves. This procedure would be done for each side and level. When it would get manageable, Lucy would transfer this to another rack to set, and she would continue to work on more of the Tower.

Watching all the different steps that were involved in making the Tower was really interesting but time consuming. At one point, I even got to help hold the chocolate together as Lucy added more soft chocolate to the sides to keep the pieces together. I was really up and close and got some chocolate on my fingers, which I licked afterwards…mmhm, it was so good! 

 

As time wore on, Lucy pulled out a small paint sprayer (that had never been used). She melted chocolate in a pan and then filled the sprayer. The chocolate would spray out and add a shine to the chocolate Tower. Again, everything would be moved to the drying rack, which was a safe place to dry the Tower sides and stories, and to keep them safe and out of harm’s way. I can’t wait to come in tomorrow and watch her complete the Tower.

 

Yes, Lucy is an amazing baker. But, somehow, I think Lucy is also an architect as well.  Kudos to you, Lucy!