Sugar Rush ✔️

27

Violet

"Please don't mess this up...please don't mess the up." I whisper to myself as I'm whisking the sugar mixture. It took a long time to think about how I wanted to do the topper for this cake. I'm going to make an edible sugar bowl to hold the macarons I made.

I made the macaron shells white and the flavor vanilla so I wouldn't have a hard time painting them. I painted them gold with edible luster dust and vodka. Those turned out really good, But I'm more worried about this bowl, I don't want to mess it up.

I had my balloon prepped. It was filled with water so it wouldn't pop when I poured the hot candy over it. I filled it up to be pretty large so I could get the desired shape I wanted. I wanted to test myself with this cake and I did. This is my first time making hard candy and shaping it, but Mr. Jones taught me how.

Once my candy thermometer read the desired temperature, I turned off the heat and began pouring the mixture over the balloon that I had propped up. Once that was done, I sighed in relief. Part of the hard part was over, now I just wait for that to harden.

I unwrapped the cake layers that I prepped earlier and began to stack them while smoothing buttercream between each layer. Honey cake and chocolate cake are tied for his favorite and since he already had a honey cake for his party, I'm doing chocolate. He requested raspberry buttercream filling ever since he had the combo a few weeks ago. Raspberry buttercream is a process to make, but it's not nearly as annoying as making that glass bowl.

Once the cake was all covered, I started decorating it. On the outside of the cake is vanilla buttercream that I colored black. I added gold leaves and marbled fondant and it was pretty much done.

Now I have to pop that balloon...

I check on the candy and see it's hardened. I pick it up and cut the tip of the balloon and let the water drain. Now it's time to peel off the balloon.

I slowly pull on the balloon and watch as it peels off leaving the the edible glass bowl. I resist the urge to scream.

It's perfect!

I place it on top of the cake and grab the rest of the gold "paint" and painted the edges. The last thing I had to do was place the macarons inside.

I took a step back to admire my work. This cake is special not only because it's for Kostas's birthday, but because I did it all by myself. Sure I've done bigger cakes than this, but I literally made an edible glass bowl.

"This looks amazing Violet!" Claire said. Other workers began to come around and compliment the cake. I thanked them all and carefully boxed the cake up before placing it with the other cake orders. I'll pick it up tomorrow morning.

My original plan was to take advantage of Kostas's nice kitchen, but I realized, around the time of the auction, that the bakery had more resources I could utilize. I can't thank my boss enough for letting me bake a personal cake here.

I took tomorrow off to spend with Kostas on his birthday. I have a lot of PTO that rolled over to this year that I have to use anyway.

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I texted Kostas to tell him to open the door. I don't want to drop this cake. I got out of my car and grabbed the cake from the passenger seat. I put it in a seatbelt to stop it from moving too much.

Kostas was opening the door as I walked up with the cake. "Hey." I greeted as I walked in. I placed the cake on the kitchen island and gave him a kiss. "Is this the cake?" He asked.

"It sure is, Aria and Hector should be here soon." I told him. I figured it would be more fun to celebrate here with all of us. Kostas's friends couldn't make it to his birthday party, but they can make this one. They couldn't fly out until Sunday night, so they definitely couldn't come to that party. It was mostly his family there anyway.

"I talked to the rest and they're 30 minutes away." He said.
"I can't wait to meet them." I remember him telling me they were at the club the day we met and while I do remember seeing them, we never spoke. That was the day I agreed to letting Kostas take me on a date. I'm glad I agreed because look at us now.

While he did ask me twice, I didn't get the creeps from him either time. I just couldn't accept a date from a customer while I was at work. It would be unprofessional.

We heard banging on the door. That's definitely Aria and Hector. There's a doorbell right there, but they would rather knock like the police. Kostas went to open the door and I followed.

"Happy birthday again!" Aria yelled and walked in, waving a gift bag in the air. She hugged me and walked to the living room, taking a seat on the couch. "I'm here to make drinks and eat cake." Hector said and slapped Kostas's back. He rolled his eyes and closed the door. I saw him walk towards to kitchen with bags in his hand.

"So, what flavor is the cake?" Aria asked.
"Chocolate." I respond and then Kostas butted in. "With raspberry filling." He smiled.
Hector came back from the kitchen and shook his head. "Should've known."
"Shouldn't you be making drinks?" Kostas asked with a brow raised.
"Not with that attitude." He said with his hands on his hips. Aria and I laughed while Kostas scoffed. These two are always bickering, it's hilarious. Hector went back to the kitchen anyway. "Make enough for 8 people!" Kostas yelled after him. "Damn, can I get a please?!"

I heard the doorbell ring, that's either the food I ordered or Kostas's friends. I followed him to the door and when he opened it, 4 people stood on the other side.

Kostas greeted them and let them in. "Violet, this is Orion, Sasha, Francesca, and Apollo." He said. They all waved. "Nice to finally meet you." I said and they each gave me a hug.

Kostas gave me the run down on his friend group earlier today. Orion and Apollo are brothers and Francesca is Apollo's new Italian girlfriend, while Sasha and Orion are married with a child. I guess Kostas and Hector were the only single friends at the time.

Once we were all settled in, Hector came back with a tray holding 8 glasses filled with what looked like mimosas.

While we were all sipping on our drinks and getting to know each other, I heard the doorbell ring again. That must be the food this time. I ordered us a large Greek salad and 8 gyros. Kostas, once again, opened the door and tipped the delivery person.

We all decided to eat in the arcade room where Kostas challenge me to a game of air hockey, knowing how competitive I could be. He recently got an air hockey table added in here. I ended up winning the last round. We spent forever tied.
Everyone else were playing the arcade games he had in here.

"Ready to see your cake?" I asked Kostas. He nodded and we all went to the kitchen. I unboxed the cake and everyone's eyes widened. I'm confident in my skills, but I can't help getting nervous for their reactions.
"Woah." They all said.
"This looks amazing baby. You have a true talent." Kostas said. "Thank you."
Aria takes a couple pictures of the cake and I cut it.

Everyone loved the flavors and they all wanted a piece of the bowl. They didn't believe it was candy. I'd say this was a success and I learned something new in the process.