Cooking with Athalia

I remember seeing these for the first time from my Aunt's kitchen. I was memorized! The minute I could learn how to make them, I did!

Today, my baking students learned how to pate a choux. They filled these beautiful " puffs" with a cheese paste similar to pimento cheese. I am so proud of how successful they were with these.

I've been making these for as long as I could remember. My ultimate goal is making a croquembouche...with spun sugar, one day.

Today was week 3 in my second Cake Decorating Basics class for kids.
In week 3 the kids practice cascading rosettes down their cake. The first cake is from today, the second cake was from class 2 weeks ago.
I allow students to pick their own colors by week 3.
The best part of week 3 is hearing how much my students love their finished cake! 😁
Another class starts in two weeks! Enrollments are already rolling in. Space is limited.

Free time and lots of fresh herbs from my garden has me experimenting! It's drying and I'm excited to see the end result. I think this will be perfect to season salmon or use as a finishing salt 😁

I absolutely enjoy cooking with my Teen students. In this class, I have students who have been with me from my first classes as a teacher on Outschool, almost 4 years ago!
Cooking with these students, feels like cooking with my peers in culinary school. Their skills have grown so much.
Today we did a tomato poached cod, served over couscous drizzled with chili oil, and garnished with fresh cilantro and mint.

I didn't think I would stretch this muscle, but after much success with my baking classes, I decided to start teaching cake decorating to my students.

It has been fun, getting back to the basics of buttercream. I currently have two classes with enrollments. In yesterday's class, one of the cakes of my student broke off at the side. I could see her disappointment and frustration.
It can happen and has happened to the best of us. So I taught her how to fix it in the crumb coat. She was so happy.

I reminded my students that cake decorating isn't always perfect. In fact I can think of a few times I had to tweak or change a design slightly from how I imagined it. I told them, you have to be able to troubleshoot and pivot creatively. ...and then life gave an in class example.

Because I made so many examples or rosettes before putting it on my cake, I ran out of icing to finish decorating the top 😂. Today they were practicing rosettes.

So I told my students what happened and explained how I was going to fix the issue. That's why this cake has sprinkles in the middle. It wasn't part of the original design 😂.

See, it happens, even to experienced bakers.

I'm actually enjoying the cake decorating sessions. I'm wrapping up the first 4 week course on Friday, and just started a new 4 week course yesterday.

My cooking class students can't sit while cooking. But my cake decorating students, I tell them pull up a chair, relax and just have fun. It has been a little oasis of sorts in my busy weeks of cooking classes.

The summer has me busy with classes!
One of the new camps this summer is a Fundamentals of Cooking for Beginners Camp. This is my first class geared to the young chefs in the kitchen ages 6-8.
Today was our second day. Yesterday they learned kitchen safety and practiced measurements. We made No Bake Energy Bites.
Today we went over knife safety and made a delicious fruit salad drizzled with a honey lemon dressing. Two of my students in class had their own honey from their farm!
I am really enjoying teaching this camp! The slower pace, compared to my regular classes is refreshing.

The first pizza is going into the oven for our first dinner cooking class of summer!!! The kids made their own pizza dough and BBQ sauce in class.

I spent the morning preparing and sending completion certificates to my Spring 2026 students. This continuing and cherished tradition holds particular significance for my students and families, and resonates deeply with me as a homeschooling parent.