Army Cake

I have been struggling to find a full time baking job since I left culinary school. I worked for about a month at a place downtown in the skyway. It was a good gig, but my boss had to let me go due to the fact that he couldn't afford to keep me on. I was pretty bummed out.

I am the head baker at the Hunt Hill Audubon Sanctuary in Sarona, Wisconsin. It's a pretty sporadic job, but I really, really love it. I get to work with one of my closest friends (she's the head cook) and I can think of lots of luscious deserts to make on my own. I help her with the cooking, too, which will help me in the long run. Being a sous chef AND a pastry chef never hurts, right?

To supplement my income I've been making treats for friends. Birthdays, anniversaries, etc. It's really an honor to bake for my friends. You'd think they would be biased and love everything I do, but actually they give me great constructive feedback. And I really appreciate it.

I'm also working on a project called the Hot Handful. It's like a Hot Pocket only made with all natural ingredients. So far I have a Ruben, Ham and Cheese, Sloppy Joe, and Apple. The trick is perfecting the dough. I want it to be flavorful and not too tough (or too flakey). I'm trying to get some local bars to buy them from me (frozen) so they can offer Hot Handfuls to hungry patrons when they want something other than pizza.

Here is the Army Cake I made for our friends Rob and Lynn. Lynn's son turned 9 a few months ago and he's really into Army stuff. They were on a budget and I was dealing with a time crunch. I wanted to make the outside of the cake camouflage, but I just didn't have time. So I did the next best thing--I made the inside camo. They loved it and it was a total surprise. The outside is green buttercream and I made chocolate stars to go around the base. The US ARMY is cut out of a sugar sheet and I added plastic Army men and toys to the top of the cake. They loved it, but their son was just overjoyed. And that's what's important to me.