A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down

Mary Poppins had the right idea when it came to sugar. So how does this relate to what i'm going to write about? Easy.. Sugar is the basis for any cake and it's quickly become the new cocaine. This new cocaine has grown in such popularity that cake decorators like myself find that my job security is best at a grocery store where i'm forced to make 30-40 cakes per day. Job security isn't a bad thing, at least I know that I don't work in a dying industry like DVD rental stores. (pun intended)

Another question that I get asked quite often is how I can decorate cakes so quickly. I guess my speed has come with significant practice and a lot of patience. At Albertson's we have a basic cake called an "AD cake" which are icing, no filling, and basic design. At my fastest pace I can produce 24 ad cakes in an hour with 3 cake turn tables, it calculates to one cake every 2.5 minutes.



That video proves that kids are crazy for sugar... If you were like me as a kid, my mouth was watering at that part. We were brainwashed to love sugar at such a young age. Anyways, back to my topic about cakes and the speed of production. This past saturday I only had a total of 11 cakes and yet those 11 cakes took me a full 8 and a half hour shift. You would think that I would be able to move cake so much faster.

I was busy producing large detailed cakes like these. I had two signature cakes, one super-sized signature cake, and last but not least a full size sheet cake with a half sheet on top. I don't mind making them but they take forever to make and take quite a toll on your hands. All in all I used up 12 half sheet cakes on Saturday, and six 8" round cakes.

For the record: I'm still a cake decorator, but when it comes to cake orders I will spend the extra time to make sure they look worthy of their inflated price tag.