Cakes!: An Amazing Day

A few weeks back, I had the amazing opportunity to volunteer with the Partners of the Americas, a wonderful organization that allows professionals from Latin America and the Carribean to partner with their counterparts in North America (and vice versa). It creates an amazing opportunity for those involved to learn so much from each other. I've hardly been able to wait to share these photos with you (thank you, David, for these beautiful memories).

These beautiful ladies visited us from Honduras. Two of them are teachers and spent their time partnering and learning from teachers and schools here in the Atlanta area (and I had the lucky opportunity to share in a day of that too!). The other beautiful woman (seated) is a baker/cake artist from Honduras! Their ambassador tried and tried to get a bakery in Atlanta area to welcome them in for a day of learning but all of the bakeries turned them away; I know these bakeries are busy but, seriously, how rude! All I can say is they missed out! I'm so glad I got the honor of partnering with them that day.

I can't explain what it's like to meet someone from another part of the world who shares your passions and love of "caking" but who does it with so much less than what is available to us in the U.S. Making custom cakes isn't cheap but do you know how expensive it is to buy some cake supplies in Honduras? It's overwhelming to me and I learned so much from this sweet lady.

We baked a "secret" family pound cake recipe together, did our best to communicate in our different languages, ate some yummy pizza, and then finished up by decorating (and eating!) the cake we made. The best part of the day for me was showing Dulce, the baker, how to make fondant from scratch so she can make it in Honduras. Fondant is expensive to buy in the U.S. but usually so cost prohibitive in Honduras to the point where most bakeries there don't offer it. I always make my fondant from scratch because, to me, it tastes so much better than store-bought stuff and it cuts down hugely on the costs of my cakes. Since this day, I was beyond excited to learn that she has been using my recipe and creating new things at her bakery in Honduras! I couldn't find a better way than photos to express what happened that day so here's the day in photos....