"And naturally you belong to me, wouldn't you agree?"

Cake-land is a comfortable place to be. And land where time is spent luxuriating through parks of mousse cake and up staircases of layered opera cakes
I have noticed a discernible propensity in me towards minimalist decoration.
Namely, Opera cake.
Chef

Me.

The cross section is pretty though.

And in my defence, it is not truly my 'decorating style' and maybe more informed by there being supplies AND TIME available. Cake is a new world, I kid you not. I posted Chef's sponge layer cake the other day. Methinks, I let my personal opinion inform my decorating style. And my artistic ability but that's a conversation for another time.

I also made the prettiest cake I EVER have as well. And it was absolutely the easier of the three.
Voila!

The cake wall at the bottom, could be in any colour you wanted. We prepped them last Tuesday and I decided that purple would be pretty. But then Chef did his pink in stripes like a candy cane or a retro beach towel. When he pulled his mousse cake out of the fridge after it had set, I was 1) completely overcome by jealousy over the beauty of his cake and 2) had this overwhelming to be five years old wearing a crinoline with THAT CAKE as my birthday cake. It was a very complex emotional state. But mousse cakes are fantastic. And due to my general dislike of icing (especially icing with massive amounts of butter in it), I think mousse cakes are my favourite. So light, creamy, fruity. Not that there is anything wrong with excessive amounts of chocolate, butter and/or sugar.

We also made cupcakes. That had a very different texture than what I expected. Someone in my class suggested cornbread. I would probably say poundcake, simply because generally metaphors are supposed to HELP you understand. We made a French Buttercream, which is richer than the Italian buttercream we made the other day.

Don't you look so prettay! My best friend picked me up from school and we went for lunch. We had a very enthusiastic waitress who wanted to see all of my spoils from the day. She oohed and aahed very supportively over everything but the cupcakes got the most fanfare. And they are very pretty. Cupcakes are THE THING right now, aren't they? And I do understand why. They are infinitely customizable, transportable and very cute. This is the recipe for success in business and I believe the secret behind the success of purse dogs, mini tacos and bejewelled iPhones. All of this things are very popular in the city in which I live.

T-minus two days until we start learning chocolate which means truffles! Which also means my circle of friends is about to get a lot bigger. And then -AND THEN!! -two weeks from now, I write my midterm, do my midterm practical, and MOVE TO ADVANCED. I am very intimidated by this. I know I will do fine. But I am intensely fixated over the moment by moment, pre-play I am concocting in my imagination. (This is when being an imaginative person is a detraction from general quality of life. As I imagine, is bungee jumping.) The Advanced students are the BIG KIDS. I have been transported back to elementary school, sans the bicycle shorts this time (thank God).You don't talk to sixth graders when you are in third grade! (Why not?) YOU WILL DIE!
I need to talk to a professional.

Find a cupcake. Go talk to the big kids. The ones you're intimidated by. Maybe bring a cupcake for them. Bond. Repeat.

P.S -The title of this post is straight from Cee Lo GReen. I got my introduction to The Voice as an experience this past week. Cee Loo, while verging on the creepy, is so infinitely quotable.