Bakery field trip

We were fortunate that a friend set up a field trip to a local bakery and asked us to join them. There is a bakery in a small town in our area that has a huge reputation and have for the last 60+ years. I can remember my aunt and uncle stopping there on the way to our house and picking up chocolate eclairs for us many years ago. Those eclairs were one of the highlights of their twice a year visits.

I was expecting a ho-hum tour and that so was not the case. To get us in the right mood, we were each handed a huge glazed donut when got there. They had us in the palm of their hands after that.

They demonstrated cake decorating, cake decorators are very talented people. The decorator that demonstrated to us could draw way better with bags of frosting that I can with pencil and paper. She was so very fast too. She did say though that she does over 100 cakes a day. One of her tips was to always put on an uneven number of flowers on the cake because it looks better. She said if someone insists on an even number she will do it, but she doesn't agree with them! They have two decorators and one person who just frosts the cakes. That is a lot of cakes people are enjoying.

Next we saw them making buns, again, amazing how they crank those out and make them into different buns (hamburger, dinner, hot dog, etc.) I would like to have some of their fancy equipment in our kitchen. The baking too in impressive. They have two walk in ovens and another oven that hold 42 large jelly roll pans. The smell was wonderful. I can just imagine how good it smells in the morning when they have all the products baking.

Next was the wrapping area. The woman who slices and wraps the bread is a fast mover as well. She was proud that she still had all her finger and has made it her goal to retire with all of them. I think she was probably about 75 years old so I wondered how long until she retired. She said she had worked there 30 years and still liked it so she kept on working.

We bought Dad a birthday cake for tomorrow and will show a picture of it on his post. It got a little smashed in the car so it won't be as beautiful as when we bought it.