Lesson Learned

I snagged this template free from Jessica Sprague for her "7 Days in May" challenge, and thought it perfect for this layout I needed to do.

The journaling in the center box reads: "Nate’s 4k class theme was “Busy Bees” so I decided (last minute as always) to make bumblebee cup-cakes for the last day of school. I googled for inspiration and became obsessed with learning to make cake-pops. Ever the over-achiever, the project soon evolved to a beehive cake surrounded by bee & flower cupcakes & flying cake-pop bees. I picked up the cake & realized I should in future photograph them before moving - as it plummeted to the floor."

The journaling at the bottom of the page reads, "I’m just grateful that the cake was purely a surprise for fun. No one expected it or was counting on it - it was not the focal point of the party or anything. Nate and I were disappointed, but I managed to salvage enough of the cupcakes to appease him - they were not as pretty, but they were still yummy. I guess the worst part was being late for the program."

The good news is, I DID learn to make cake pops, and boy are they yummy! There's a bit of a learning curve to dipping them just right and getting them to stay on the stick, so I had LOTS of "imperfects". I took a batch to Alex's troop meeting, and the scouts had no complaints!

One Year Ago

Exactly one year ago today I was on the verge of discovering a new passion.  We were planning a 16th birthday party for our oldest, and had arranged for his band to perform at a local private club.  I was obsessing over small details and wishing our small budget would allow for a guitar-shaped cake, but the quote from the local bakery happened to exceed our entire party budget.  The week of the party I decided that cake-baking was not rocket science, and I made up my mind to make the cake I wanted.  Prior to this, I had only ever made box-mix cakes in standard pans and slapped container frosting on them. 

On Wednesday of that week, a friend of ours came to the house to tutor me in cake decorating-  she had taught classes in the past, so I was hoping she would get me started.  She is a master at the art of delicate roses, flowers, basketweave, etc....but she had never tried the type of cake I was doing.  She gave me good advice on tools and techniques, but mostly I was on my own for the guitar.  Another friend had made a few wedding cakes, and offered more advice plus the use of his professional pans and tips.

I spent about 15 hours (not including google&  youtube time) on the cake.  It was far from professional quality...but it blew everyone away at the party.  I used my son's guitar to trace a template, and decorated the life-sized guitar with candy-  licorice for strings, gumdrops for tuners, etc.  I learned new terms and techniques and made plenty of mistakes, but in the end, the guitar rocked.

In the year since Kyle's party, I have done several more cakes, including a race-track, a pull-apart penguin, and a 3D R2D2 cake.  My arsenal of tools is growing, and I imagine I could do most any cake.  I am no Cake Boss, but I have certainly become a cake wench...