Xanga is Out...

Does anyone even read xanga anymore?... I had a xanga account for almost ten years and it seemed like only 5 people read my blogs, since my site was private, which kind of defeated the whole purpose of blogging, no?..

Anyways, I've switched over to a public blog.

A little about myself: I am a cake decorator. I am not a pastry chef or cook, nor did I ever enjoy any part of that. I am capable... so if push came to shove, I would be 'able' to do it but... I just don't want to. I've worked in just about all areas of the business trying to figure out which part of it I would enjoy - restaurants, bakeries, cafe's - you name it, I've done it. I hated the restaurant business. I never understood why you needed a culinary degree to plate desserts all night. I didn't enjoy working in bakeries either - unless of course it was decorating a cake. Cake decorating isn't something I planned on. Hell, I was supposed to start chiropractic school in January 2009.


I graduated from the French Culinary Institute back in 2008 and I was probably one of the most disobedient clowns in the class but I must say, I did enjoy myself somewhat - A culinary boot camp if you will.





In the interim, I had a full time corporate job...


...as well as another full time job (at a restaurant working as a pastry cook getting paid next to nothing)



while attending French Culinary full time...


(that's not me by the way. Those are 2 of my chef instructors Chef Toni and Chef Claudia - awesome awesome people)

WHILE planning a huge wedding...



... and trying to help my husband at his full-line bakery





...AND trying to look for and furnishing a new apt. WHEW! It was rough. I left my house every morning @ 5am and didn't get back home until midnight, maybe 1AM. And it would start all over again the next day.

I eventually graduated FCI, kept my 9-5 job, quit Burton & Doyle, worked at a couple of other places (including The London @ Gordon Ramsey's Restaurant) in the city until I was finally so sick of working 20 hours+ day, I quit working at restaurants altogether and concentrated on cake decorating.

What I REALLY wanted to do was intern at a specialty cake shop to learn more so I concentrated on making a cake portfolio. I worked on that portfolio for months and months. When I finally thought my portfolio was good enough, I applied to a couple of specialty cake shops - but they all turned me down! They all seemed so skeptical and suspicious... First they asked: Why I wanted to intern - and then went on to say that there was nothing for me to learn and that I wouldn't get anything out of it... what the hell? There's always something to learn. I tried a couple of other places - and got turned down from there too so I decided to go off on my own and started my own business. *Shrug*

Oddly enough, that's my story and here I am. If someone told me 10 years ago that I'd be where I am today, I probably would've laughed at them. Not just giggle but hold my stomach while pointing at them LAUGHING HARD.

And so... ~ Cakes By Christine NY ~ was founded...


And here the adventure begins... (at least for this blog site)

I don't think I have room to upload all my cake pictures so you can check out my website for now.. until my next blog!

http://www.cakesbychristineny.com/