Wild Flour Bakery: my internship

As part of our Associates program at the CIA, we must complete an 18-month externship at a CIA approved site. I chose Wild Flour Bakery in Cleveland, Ohio. They were a small, local wedding cake shop. It was a wonderful experience and I learned so much from working with them. It really helped me see that this is what I want to do the rest of my life.

And now some photos…..

the two cakes I got to create from start to finish: baking, filling, decorating, delivering, and assembling

 

some of our “mini cakes:” 4″ cakes that a person could just pick up if they didn’t pre-order

aaaand cupcakes!

a “name cake” I got to help decorate

my daily job was to cut and fill the cakes that went through the shop, and then pass it on to Emily, our head decorator. These are just a few that we made that I loved and was glad to have helped create!

 

cakes cakes cakes

our Confectionary Arts and Specialty Cakes class was by far my favorite. my passion in baking and pastry is wedding cakes. i love the uniqueness of each finished product; how it’s tailored for the individual customer. here are some examples of what we worked on in that class:

my chocolate showpiece: all either white, dark, or modeling chocolate components

my sugar centerpiece: all blown and pulled sugar components. i did a little tribute to my home state Colorado! (columbine flowers)

my spray of gumpaste flowers

….and the entire spray….

our final project: team up with someone and create a dummy cake. our theme had to include dogwood flowers

 

Contemporary Cakes Class

In this class we learned about contemporary cakes: namely entremets. Here are some photos of the cakes i made:

Lemon Lavender Poppyseed Entremet: lemon poppyseed cake, blackberry lavender compote, lavender bavarian mousse insert, more cake, lemon mascarpone mousse!

“Take 5” entremet: peanut butter mousse, chocolate flourless cake, pretzel crunch, caramel cremeux, chopped toasted peanuts

“Fig Newton” petit gateaux: mascarpone mousse, almond dacquoise, fig spread, oatmeal cookie base

lemon blueberry basil petit gateaux: lemon mousse, basil cremeux, blueberry compote, vanilla shortbread

coconut passionfruit entremet: coconut mousse, passionfruit mousse insert, poached pineapples, coconut dacoise

chocolate praline entremet: hazelnut mousse, chocolate mousse, praline crunch spread, chocolate flourless cake

Happy Birthday Chef Bocuse!

during my schooling, i had the amazing opportunity of helping decorate Chef Paul Bocuse’s 87th birthday cake. He would be celebrating it at the Culinary Institute of America at the dedication of The Bocuse Restaurant (where i would later have my final class). It was a 5-tier styrofoam monster, but it was such a great experience for me!

covering the cake in Tiffany blue fondant

gumpaste cheese!!

gumpaste grapes before…

gumpaste grapes and apples (pre-final coloring)

the “Bocuse” rose

the finished cake as presented to Chef Bocuse

me with the cake on display at the Student Rec Center

Plated Desserts Class

while at the CIA i took a class on plated desserts. here are some pictures of the products my teammate and i made:

kir royale: sable cookie with ricotta filling, cassis and red wine poached pears, champagne sabayone, all in a honey tuile container. pistachio anglaise sauce and a quenelle of red wine cassis sorbet

Maker’s Mark soaked Date Nut Cake with creme fraiche ice cream, blackberry butterscotch sauce and flambeed apples

coffee chocolate mousse, cocoa nib nougatine, vanilla parfait, kahlua coffee foam, caramel sauce, churro

carrot cake: cheesecake with graham cracker crust, caramel sauce, pineapple orange compote, carrot cake piece, carrot chip, and a quenelle of carrot cake ice cream

“tart tatin:” tart filled with pastry cream, apples confit, cinnamon apple cider parfait, green apple sorbet, caramel sauce, apple chip

purple haze: lavender sable cookie base, topped with a vanilla white chocolate parfait, honey tuile, and quenelle of blackberry lavender sorbet. lavender infused honey sauce and a homemade blackberry brown sugar soda.

The Bocuse Restaurant

for my final class at the CIA i worked at their new restaurant, Bocuse, on the pastry line plating desserts. here are a few pictures of the desserts i worked on:

canales

chocolate sensation

gateaux exotic

strawberry vacherin

goat cheesecake with baumkuchen center

mulled wine “soup”

les macarons

in my current job, i’ve had the opportunity of introducing my community to Parisian macarons. My goal has been to make a different flavor every day that i work. I’ve done everything from orange creamsicle to “Dirty Hippie” (chai and espresso) to mint chocolate chip, salted caramel, and red velvet. here are a few photos of the many macarons

red velvet

raspberry lemonade

Almond Joy

boston cream pie

raspberry white chocolate for Independence Day!

chocolate covered strawberry

cinnamon cappucino

Samoa

orange creamsicle

 

Hello There!

Hi! my name is Catie Rizzo. I am a recent graduate of The Culinary Institute of America where i majored in Baking and Pastry Arts. My passion is cakes and decorating, but i love creating other confections as well. I’ve created this blog as a digital portfolio compiling all of my work from before i was trained, through culinary school, and to my current job as a baker at a coffee shop. I hope you enjoy the photos!

-catie