any pastry chefs?

I am 19 and basically spending most of my time practicing baking cause I want to make a career out of being a pastry chef.

How do you control yourself from not eating all your cakes/cupcakes/pastries? I always want to eat everything I make especially since I feel like I should try it to see if its good.  

Honestly? This is kind of bad, but when I bake I use all high-calorie, fattening ingredients (butter, oil, icing, etc) which grosses me out SO MUCH I don't wanna touch it

I do pastry (mostly cake decoration), and it can be really hard to keep myself from sampling too much.  I do taste everything I make, but just enough to make sure there aren't any weird problems.  It's easier with cakes, because the only part you can sample is the trimmings.  With cookies and cupcakes, I always pack them up and get them out of the house as soon as possible.  My apartment is above an office, so I drop off extras down there so I don't have them sitting around.  Probably my best trick is just making things that I don't really like. 

In some ways, knowing too much about pastry and baking in general makes it hard to eat well, but there are advantages.  I use my knowledge of how things like eggs and starches and dairy products behave in different conditions  to modify recipes (in baking and cooking).  I also use my decoration skills to make healthy food that's really beautiful.  I've recently become obsessed with the art of arranging food in bento boxes, creating gorgeous spreads with tons of colors and textures.  When I'm using my pastry skills to make healthy stuff, my friends say that I'm "using my powers for good".  Anyway, pastry chefs certainly have more temptations around, but it's by no means impossible to eat healthy and sample small amounts of what you've made.  

Thank you guys so much.

So it is okay to try little pieces of cakes or one cupcake to see if they are okay? I do that and try to portion out all my other meals so I dont go over my calorie limit.

Also, if any of you guys own bakeries do you make your cakes from scratch?
I am just starting with baking. its been about 3 years now and I still have a lot of learning to do. I have worked at 2 bakeries where they use cake mix which makes me feel uneasy. 

 

why uneasy about cake mixes? surely if the quality is bad they would switch products. after all a bakery can make use of substandard ingredients anytime they wish.  calling it "Homemade" when bulk mixes are used would possibly be unethical if the mix was not of a superior quality. Some people do make their own dry bulk cakemixes for convenience and quality.

I just feel like it takes away to the aspect of baking. You are sort of just putting in wet ingredients into a mix that has already been made, and it will always turn out good if you put in the right ingredients. I think its just taking the easy way out and cake mixes dont use the best ingredients which is why they can sell them for like 2 dollars a box.
I could def be wrong though, I have only been doing this for a few years not and dont have as much experience as I should.

I'm not a professional baker, but I'm hoping to open a bakery one day. I bake almost daily, but I don't worry about having a muffin or slice of cake or sweet bread every once and a while. I try to give up some calories and make "lighter" recipies without giving up flavor, so I'm always "experimenting" in the kitchen.

And when I don't feel like trying out a certain fattening recipie; I always have my chocoholic, sugar-crazy, little brother. x)

I don't use mixes, but I'm kind of a control freak with baking.  I have really specific brand preferences for different ingredients, so I like to choose the components individually.  I don't own a bakery, but I've worked for bakeries, and I still to special order cakes.  My speciality is kids' cakes, but I do wedding cakes too, especially when friends and family members are getting married.  If a bakery had a source for a high quality mix, I don't think there's any problem with that.  However, it seems like a lot of bakeries make those choices based on cost and other factors, rather than taste.  I've come across a lot of bakeries that make overly firm cakes because they're easier to decorate. Then they cover them with inedible fondant.  I think the real challenge with baking is to make things beautiful and delicious with a great texture.  I try to make really moist, flavorful cakes, and then I do decoration in buttercream, with a little gum paste and spun sugar work for more complex forms.  

I'm nowhere near a pastry chef, but I love to make a cake from scratch. The texture and flavor is so much different. I only like chocolate cake made from scratch. I do not like chocolate cake from a bakery because it looks and tastes like it came from a mix.

I know some bakeries do use commercial mixes that are of better quality than what you get at the grocery store. They do this for cost and time savings. I know of some that make their own mixes. 

If you bake a lot of cakes, take a recipe you like, multiply it by 3 or 4, and mix the dry ingredients together ahead of time. Then store in an airtight container. You can then just measure out the right amount and add your wet ingredients when it comes time to bake. 

Do you guys just do trial and error when creating your own recipes? I know a lot of recipes I see in books/online are copyrighted so would how you suggest making recipes your own? I find a hard time knowing what ingredients to use instead of other ones and how much is the correct amount.

I do a lot of trial and error.  When I'm looking into changing a recipe or finding new variations, I start with a standard recipe, like genoise or chiffon cake.  I decide what part of the recipe I want to vary, whether it's flavor, or texture or whatever.  I use muffin tins to make a bunch of little versions of the cake, having each compartment in the muffin tin hold a different variation.  I make a chart for keeping tabs of what variant is in what compartment.  A few weeks ago, I was working on a bittersweet chocolate cake recipe.  I made the base recipe that I wanted to use, and each muffin tin held a bit of batter with different amounts and different kinds of chocolate.  Then I labeled the little cupcakes and gathered my tasting panel (my neighbors) and we did some sampling and settled on a winner.  It can be a little time consuming, especially when you're playing with ingredients added at the beginning, but it's worth it to be able to compare things side by side, rather than trying to remember what something tasted like.  

that is a really good idea! thanks for the tip. so you start out with the core recipe and add something to it to make it different? do you just add different things to each of them?
 

It can very hard not eating everything you make.  I know some of my weight came from eating all my meals in the bake shop.  And we made everything from scratch!!!  You should try to taste things while you are formulating recipes because only you know what you want it to taste like.  However that means try, not EAT!!!  Once you formulate the recipe and get it to a science, dont try it anymore or at least not for awhile.  And its always good to have another person around who is willing to eat the things you make like a sous chef or a couple pastry cooks!!!

Yes, cake mixes aren't satisfying and leave chemical taste in your mouth.

I have my mom to taste all my stuff so long as it contains no aspertame.

Etc. :D