We always see a smile on peoples face when they are eating a delicious dessert. Eating the dessert is only half of the equation, the other half is the bakers who create it. Bakers are artists, and their sweets are their canvases.
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| The campfire on a beautiful clear night. |
The sky was extremely clear after a day filled to the brim with rain storms. Welcoming Diana, we sat down and started to talk about life, how beautiful the stars were, and how good the dwindling fire smelled. “Makes me think of the smell of a delicious dessert in the oven,” Diana jokingly says.
Diana enjoys spending her days working on cakes and pastries of all different types, but she says she primarily works on cakes. ”Birthday cakes are my favorite to make” she exclaims.
“I made a Lego birthday cake once for a kid named Bradley” she says whiled crossing her legs. First she made some chocolate cake, which is her favorite cake she happily proclaims. "The aroma of the chocolate cake while it is in the oven is torturous, all you want to do is eat it" Diana declares. Once the cakes were cooled she stacked them into an 11”x13”x5” size shape, one on top of the other. Next rice-krispies are made for the circular appendages that stick out of the top of the Legos. Then she shaped fondant, to go on top of the delicious dessert, which helps in creating a smooth surface. Next she painted on edible paint to create a green Lego, because green was Bradley’s favorite color. The final touches included: a Happy Birthday Bradley Banner, the placing of assorted Legos on the cake, and arranging orange balls of sugar around the border of the cake. “This was definitely in the top 5 of my all-time favorite cakes that I have made!” she says excitedly.
She works in downstate New York,at a Weis Store, in the Bakery Department, as the Head Bakery Director. As the Bakery Director, she loves her job. "I have been a professional baker for 20 plus years" she. Diana states that when you walk in the bakery your nose just goes crazy. She says she likes to have things in order, and to keep them that way. Making lists helps she mentions. At the top of her list is washing your hands. Next on the list is taking care of the ordered cakes, and seeing that every worker is correctly executing the job at hand. She says her employees get a little mad at how critical she is sometimes, but she wants it done correctly.Being a very motivated person sometimes causes others to take that as being rude. Diana flips her hair and says she doesn’t mean for that to happen, but if it does, oh well, unless it is the customer then she genuinely cares about them.
Whenever Diana answers a question she answers it with a smile. My motto is to always put a smile on the customer’s face, if the cake is wrong we will fix it free of charge. To us, customers are priority. Without them, we wouldn’t have our business. This is a very good motto because the more happy customers you have the more business you will have. There is nothing more rewarding than someone coming back and ordering from you again. She is a very dedicated woman when it comes to making people happy.
Diana once had her own bakery called “Fabuuulous Cakes,” it was small but she did not care because it was her business and that was all that mattered. She tells me the bakery was decked out in bright colors, all the colors of the rainbow for sure. “I wish I still had my own bakery but I’m glad I was able to have a chance to get away from my past and dealing with a divorce; you can’t change your past but you can just look forward to the future” she says. Eventually she will have her own bakery again and be able to have freedom but for now, this will do she proclaims. Having your own bakery is much different than working for a chain store. For example, when she made cakes at her bakery she was able to put whatever amount of anything in a cake that she wanted, without getting in trouble. Now she has to follow the set of rules, given by corporate. This doesn’t matter but it does take more time to change her mind set from what she used to be doing, to what she has to do now.
Diana’s passion for baking came from her childhood. When she was little her Aunt babysat her every week in the summer, since her parents had full-time jobs. Her Aunt was a professional baker, who worked from home. Diana says she always asked how she could help. ”I just loved when she let me eat the cake scraps, it’s the part of the cake which is cut off when shaping” she explains. She tells me that she would also eat the raw batter as soon as the mixing was done. She says the batter was so delicious and she sometimes would rather have the batter than the cake itself. Although when the cake is put in the oven the smell is excruciatingly good, so good it would make your nose dance with happiness she said. They would always “ice” the cakes after the cakes had had a few hours to cool. Diana wasn’t allowed to help with the final product because she was so young and her Aunt didn’t want her to ruin it. When her Aunt would make a cake she would teach Diana to always give the customer the best product possible. This meaning always do your best.
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| Diana smiling for a picture. |
Another reason Diana likes to bake at home is for friends. She loves to bake and invite friends over to try new treats. “My friends are always my critics,” she says. “Without the critique from them, I do not know how I would be a baker today. I can always trust what they say because they know when to tell the truth.” She also love to help her friends out when needed. She always keeps her baking supply stock full and when she is asked for a cake, she gladly bakes them. She loves to bake her friends and family free cakes for birthdays. “The children of my friends and family mean so much to me, and see the smiles on their face when they see a cake I made, that is my payment.”
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