Cupcakes!!! Yay!!

Hey, all. I just thought that after that really uplifting previous blog, I should probably give you something a little more entertaining. So, here it is! Some really yummy cupcakes I decorated at work the other day. The furthest ones were pumpkin with cream cheese frosting and topped with pecans. The others were yellow cupcakes topped with vanilla or chocolate buttercream and then decorated with various items. It was way fun. One of the most fun things I get to do at work, even though it doesn't happen very often. This time, I used chocolate sprinkles, colored sprinkles, coconut, raspberry sauce, kiwi-lime sauce, caramel sauce, and the aforementioned pecans. In the past, I've done rocky road (choc frosting with marshmallows and almonds), Almond Joy (almonds and coconut), choc and caramel sauce swirled on top, and lots of others. I love it.

I enjoy the other aspects of my job, but some can get a little monotonous. Like now, for instance. Now is the time for Oktoberfest (and yes, I know it's not yet October. The whole snow thing causes us to move it up.). So, here in the bakery, it means hundreds of both German Chocolate Cakes and Apple Streudels. Oh, yes, indeed. Three layers of cake, two of german filling and ganache, buttercreamed (yes, I just made that a verb. yay!), and then frozen for later use. To finish, they get ganached (yes, another non-existent verb. yay!), covered with more german filling on the top and then cut. We do at least 35 of these each weekend. Now, the streudels are not really my department, for which I'm grateful for. The Sherpas handle most of that. The process starts with tons of sheets of puff pastry (which is used for making danishes and other desserts and even savory stuff) and these sheets are cut into 4 inch strips on each long side. The apple filling is made and added to the middle and then the side strips are folded over the filling, made to look sort of like a braid. They are brushed with an egg wash and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar and then baked for about 1 1/2 hours. Yup. That's how the magic happens. The drunks down at Octoberfest just love it. Apparently.

Speaking of drunks, every time we have to take either of these items down the hill to the huge tent, we pass dozens of these sort of people. And they all think it is hilarious to stumble up to us and slur something like, "Oh, gimme some!" or "Cool, you brought me some dessert!" or "Wow, for me? Thanks." Yeah. Almost funny the first few times, but the last few hundred start to wear a little thin.

But hey, only 2 more weeks of Octoberfest left! Yay!

But, besides that, I really do enjoy my job. The occasional cupcake decorating, experimenting with new desserts, working with fun people, listening to music, learning new things, it's all good.

*sigh* Well, I'm getting a bit sleepy, so goodnight.