Sweet Compositions: February 2011

Friday, February 25, 2011

Mardi Gras Gone Wrong

I don't usually post pics of cakes that I think are not up to snuff. Of course, I keep record of them so I can learn what to never do again, but going public with them makes me cringe. But, in the spirit of Cake Wrecks (and if you haven't looked at this website, it is a must!), I am letting you have a sneak peek :-)

This simple sheet cake is for a teacher who has a standing order every month for class birthday cakes. Thank goodness she has a great sense of humor and doesn't mind at all if I experiment on her cakes! If I had the time this week, this would have been one of those cakes that my family would have enjoyed while I frantically made a new one, but, alas, there are only so many hours in a week. This is a cake that suffered from when mom life gets a little hairy and hectic. From the moment the batter was mixing to the last few trims and accents, this cake was my arch nemesis and I was tempted to kick it in the butt on the way out of the door. The only other cake thus far that has given me this much trouble was the blue baby tush cake and I still have a grudge against that one!

Anyway, enjoy and don't be too harsh ;-)

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

The Beginning

I have been told that a blog is not a blog without narratives and, since I have been asked by many why cakes, I figured that's as good a place as any to start.

After some tumultuous years of "career exploration" in which I was a teacher, video store clerk, waitress, restaurant manager, and an administrative assistant, my beautiful husband and I decided to create life and so started my journey as a stay-at-home mom. It has been a rocky, self-sacrificing, revealing, and wonderful trip and, after having two intensely different little girls, it has brought me to where I am now. Since we are a one income family, and that income is my husband's teacher's salary, we budget VERY heavily and cut corners wherever possible. The very first expenses that were ripped away from me (and I do not exaggerate in my wording) were my car and my dinner's out! Now, I am a very independent and proud person (sometimes to my downfall) and I am a foodie so this was pretty traumatic for me. I decided that the loss of the car I could learn to live with but not the loss of delicious, mouth watering, carefully prepared and crafted gourmet restaurant meals so, I taught myself how to cook like a pro.

My family and I have traveled through America and Mexico, onto Europe and Asia, even Africa, and sometimes a fusion of any and all of the above through our evening meals and I have relished every minute of it. I have gotten so good in fact that my family will often be disappointed in restaurant meals when the opportunity comes around for a night out. Then, by the time my second daughter was born, it suddenly hit me that if we could save so much money with my cooking, if I could make their birthday cakes, we could have wonderfully catered birthday parties for a fraction of the cost!

With the very limited (and in limited I mean NONE) availability of culinary classes and supplies in the area and with my limited (and, again, limited = NONE) budget for this sort of thing, I decided to go ahead and take the first Wilton cake decorating class at my local Michael's. Although the techniques I learned were very corporate and streamlined, the classes did awaken a talent that I did not know I could ever possess. With the spark ignited, I got on the internet and found a whole world of tutorials, blogs, websites and such devoted to cakedom and I fell for it all hook, line, and sinker.

And that was the beginning. I will admit that I actually am not very fond of cake. I am an ice cream gal myself. But, I have become immersed in the creative process involved in the design of cakes and the reactions from the people for which these cakes are created. I love being able to tap into different personalities and attempt to immerse that individuality into a cake of all things! So, I guess you could say that I stumbled into cake design from the intense need to save money and, in doing so, found something that I could share with anyone willing to give my cakes a try.

Now, onto the next stage of this journey: becoming a professional cake shop!