Blog 14 : Independent Component 1

Content: 

LITERAL

(a) Statement saying: “I, Luz E. Cervantes, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.”

(b) Cite your source regarding who or what article or book helped you complete the independent component

"Cake Boss" by Buddy Valastro really helped me with my independent component because it helped me evaluate what factor pertain to his success in making a mass amount of profit as a cake decorator in today's economy. It also helped give me ideas of experiments that I could try out in my mentorship to identify what is most important in a small business. 

(c) Provide a digital spreadsheet (aka log of the 30 hours).   Post it next to your mentorship log.

( its under "Links")

(d) Explanation of what you completed.   
Throughout my independent I helped out with decorating a lot of cakes and designing quite a few on paper. I also helped with attending customers and trying to memorize all the prices of the products to see how much profit the business earned. I also started looking into what materials where  put into making the cake and how much it cost, then i estimated how much it could be priced according to the articles I had read. I also helped rearrange the cakes and bread products so the customers could see the products better and it helped with the overall presentation. 

INTERPRETIVE

Defend your work and explain how the significant parts of your component and how it demonstrates 30 hours of work.   Provide evidence (photos, transcript, art work, videos, etc) of the 30 hours of work.

In the beginning of my Independent Component I just started doing basic stuff like Practicing shells and all the basic cake decorating techniques. After I got my solid Essential Question I started focusing more on how  the bakery that I go to makes profit. I did some experiments by comparing plain cupcakes and the "creative" cupcakes and what I found , was that the cupcakes that had a theme or some type of design were priced more than the plain ones. In the end I noticed that the cupcakes that looked like there was more effort put into them sold more than those that had no design. I also noticed that when a small child would walk by and see them they would ask their parents and what I found was that these cupcakes were mainly aimed to a younger customer base.  I also helped design some cakes, that are displayed below and I helped decorate them a bit. At times I had to be by the register and speak with customers and focus on prices of products.

 

APPLIED

How did the component help you understand the foundation of your topic better?  Please include specific examples to illustrate how it helped.

The component helped me understand the foundation of my topic because at first I had thought about the skills, but it never came to mind that there was so much more into it. For example, I had never paid attention that the presentation is key to making a customer happy with your cake or product.  Also the more original you are, the more people are willing to pay a little extra for that item. For example the Christmas cupcakes as shown above compared to the plain cupcakes which were cheaper.