September 23, 2010: Creativity
Now we come to my favorite part of the day. The product making and creation portion. This is the part where we get to make cakes, pies, and goodies of all sort for the greedy masses to consume for the unreasonable prices that we charge. This part of the day is kind of like painting time in kindergarten class: that break to the day to just express creativity.
The Breakdown:
Cakes - Cakes for the cake case are usually made on a general format: a few flowers, a few balloons, and a few strings around the edges. However, when we come into a new season or approach a holiday we get the opportunity to create new designs of cakes. Since we are getting toward fall it seems appropriate for fall colors to decorate the case. Cake case items generally come in three sizes: an 8” single layer round cake, an 8” double layer round cake, and a quarter of a sheet cake. Orange, brown, and yellow strings of frosting adorn the sides of the cake. Leaves are made with the leaf tip and rapid north to south motions with a quick pull at the end. They look great. The great thing about cakes, though, is when I make a mistake that cake becomes cake slices for $1.99 a piece. No waste. Isn’t it great?
Pies – There isn’t many variations on the pie. It is a crust and filling. Currently we offer 12 different kinds of pie.
Single Cupcakes and 6 Pack Cupcakes – An original idea by Stop & Shop were the single cupcake designs. We developed small cupcakes engulfed in frosting. We make some that look like Elmo, Cookie Monster, Oscar the Grouch, Big Bird, etc. from Sesame Street. We make rose gardens. We make…well…pretty much anything you can think of we can put on a cupcake. Then we have our generic 6 packs of colorful cupcakes for the customers to buy. Usually these come in premade, but we sometimes take the opportunity to make and decorate these ourselves. Some of these 6 packs are made in fall theme: sugar leaves are created on wax paper, fall colors are used, and small leaf shaped sprinkles are dusted over the sides just for a finishing touch.
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Cream Sandwiches – The perfect piece. Developed and priced by me in the Stop & Shop market these simple beauties have flourished. Giving us approximately $1,800 in sales per month these are so simple. Beginning in my store these cream sandwiches have flourished throughout the market. These are, pretty much, my babies. I was told by higher ups in the company that the idea was perfect, but they felt the price was not high enough. I took a stand on that and the prices remain the same..a 100% profit on each set. The design is simple. Two fresh baked chocolate chip cookies with a Bettercream™ layer in the middle. It is a light, moist flavor that creates a great combination with the two chewy chocolate chip cookies. That’s it…two cookies with cream in the middle and to add that fall flare I rolled them in multi-colored jimmies. Buon appetite!
This is what I was meant for at this job: to create, experiment, and enjoy the final products of my labor. This is truly the best part of the day.
TO BE CONTINUED…
Stay Sweet,
Lil’ Buddy
That is awesome that you get to be creative where you work, at least some of the time. A lot of the chefs at my restaurant leave because there is no opportunities for them to be original with their work. And when you have no input when it comes to the menu, you are pretty much just a cook and then what is the point of your job?
ReplyDeleteYeah. You really seem to enjoy the creative part of your job.
ReplyDeleteHave you thought about finding a smaller baker around the neighborhood? There are a lot of places around that would love to hire someone with ambition, someone willing to help their business grow.
Sometimes these corporate places are really comfortable to work at, but they kill your soul after a while...
That's pretty cool, getting a chance to stretch that aspect of the trade. The comparison to painting in kindergarten is awesome-- so easy to identify with that. Whats your plan with the baking?
ReplyDeleteHannah honestly I am supposed to have 0 time of creativity, but I just don't care anymore and do whatever I want pretty much hahaha the management and higher ups in the company have appreciated it. I am the only one they let do that kind of stuff and get away with it just because I generate so many sales with what I create. Considering I'm not a light guy when it comes to the thought process I just think "What would I eat?"
ReplyDeleteTom I plan on working there until I finish paying off school and then dropping it completely to never remember it again. Everyone says I have a talent with it and I love it, but there is no future in it with Stop & Shop. I may do what Dan suggested and look around for local bakeries to work in. I have been offered jobs with bakeries before, but the timing just doesn't work. I use to draw and do all kinds of artistic projects as a kid, but my downfall is once I get a basic sense of something I let it go thinking that I can master it by myself at some other point. It just never comes around. Come to me if you ever need a cake guys!!!