Starting my confectioner (trainee) life

I mentioned it before, but I thought I should write more about this milestone in my life... 

I started my internship in one of the best confectionery / café in Budapest as a confectioner trainee.  

It's not really what I thought it would be...

Well, what everybody thinks of working in a pastry shop?

• plump ladies and podgy men with mustache are preparing beautiful cakes and muffins while they are singing yodels
• or at least there is a granny from Little Red Riding Hood who knows all of the recipes of the famous café by heart who is the head confectioner
• creating cakes is fun and needs lots of creativity
• confectioners have enough time to decorate the cakes, that's why they are so beautiful
• they eat, or at least they taste all the time, so that's a heavenly job

And what's the truth?

 Firstly, all the confectioner men are mostly young and well muscled, and they consume the least amount of bakery/confectioner products

• It is one of the most tiring job, as all the products are being prepared in a big amount, so we have to carry really heavy ingredients from table to table, or even from floors to floor, as a fridge or a store can be in totally different levels, and the elevator can't be used... (So we found why all the men are muscular... :) )
• creating cakes (and everything else) is like working in a factory, everyday it have to be the same looking, and you have to prepare them really fast so everything is done in time before the café opens. 
• creativity is the guest privilege, who might order a whole cake with his own idea, or even a formed cake , the confectioner only follows their orders
• everything is made really fast but carefully, if you are too slow, it means you are not good enough to work in a real confectionery. The result must be perfect, no exceptions.
• Everybody has their own job. A cake decorator never bake savory scones or even sponge cakes. You study all of it in the school, but as soon as you are working, you will develop in only one field, and that's what you do all the time... At least you will be an expert of it.
• As a trainee I have the opportunity to try most of the jobs, but it's not a fairytale. Now I know that baking at home is totally different from the real confectioner job.

Still, I like working there. I study sooo many great things, and I found myself developed a lot since I'm there. :) And we are working together with at least 6-10 people , which is always fun. So I can not really complain, it's only different than I thought it would be. 

OK, I might have overdone the list a bit with the yodels, but wasn't I right? 
I started in early November, and I will be there at least until April... :) 

I brought you two bon-bons from the café: walnut cubes with marzipan covered in chocolate, and Bajazzos which are also marzipan and chocolaty creation dipped into dark chocolate.

xoxo: Hajni