Friday

The day I started my internship at the bakery, the lady accountant told me that I would be getting $5 daily because I only work half a day—the normal shift is from 7:30 AM to 4:30 PM.

But this happened at the end of the day. Keep reading:

Today, I started with one of my favorite tasks—filling tarts with lemon custard. I use a spatula, and I think I’ve improved my speed.

I also painted some tart shells with chocolate to prepare them for the texture tarts. Additionally, I filled some of them with peanut and caramel filling. Jenny taught me how to decorate raspberry and strawberry tarts. Both have pastry cream, but the difference is in the decoration—the raspberry ones have four raspberries on top, while the strawberry ones are topped with diced strawberries.

Later, she gave me a mini coconut tart. I love that one, but not as much as I love the texture tarts.

Jenny also taught me how to fix glaze. I have a love-hate relationship with glaze. I like glazed cakes, but the glaze must be very hot, almost boiling. So, we warmed it in the microwave for 15 to 20 minutes in 5-minute intervals. It’s a bit tedious and time-consuming because, while glazing the cakes, we have to reheat the glaze every now and then for 30 seconds to keep it liquid. Otherwise, it starts to dry, and the cakes end up with too much glaze—which is not the goal.

Sometimes, if we microwave it too much, it can “brown.” The fix? Just add lemon or orange juice plus icing sugar. Easy peasy.

Next, I took a tray of lemon mini cakes and another of orange mini cakes out of the freezer. I counted 90 and 65, respectively, glazed, decorated, and carried the trays to the packing room all by myself.

I also did the same with loaf cakes: 3 lemon, 9 orange, and 2 carrot.

But I didn’t get to glaze 6 lemon and 2 carrot cakes because I got busy squeezing lemons and oranges.

While I was doing that, Ms. Katty, who sometimes visits the production plant, approached me and asked if I had already picked up my paycheck. I said no.

So, she asked me to stay a bit longer and, once I finished, to go to the office and collect it.

Which I did. And at 1 PM, I picked up my first paycheck! I signed under "Recibí conforme" 

And the amount, according to my sister, mom, and my own calculations, was $40 (but this is the money only for my first two weeks, only I had not picked it up).

I got home at 2 PM, proudly showed my first payment, and now I have to go to the bank to withdraw my money.

P.S. My favorite cake is the carrot one. It’s topped with dehydrated shredded carrot, which takes a long time to prepare—grating it and then baking it at 100°C for 2 hours.