In Over My Head?

My sister, Debra, got married in September to one of the most amazing men I've ever met - Jason. Being new to decorating cakes and with visions of grandeur I said, 'Oh sure - I'll make your wedding cake - it'll be easy.' Famous last words, right? I had a beautiful picture in mind of a 3 tiered square cake with chocolate frosting and a simple, elegant strip of teal fondant around the bottom of each tier. How hard could it be? In a word: EXTREMELY. This picture is what I ended up with - it was a three layer cake with chocolate frosting. The bottom tier had been nixed because my oven isn't big enough to accomodate a 16" pan. The middle tier stayed at home on my table with a chef's knife driven right into it's heart. It was awful. Lessons learned there? 1. Flipping and stacking multiple layers is an exact science. 2. It's not as easy to mend broken layers with frosting as you might think. 3. When you have a crack the size of the Grand Canyon in your top two layers you cannot cover the cake with fondant hoping that it will hold.

In tears I scrambled to find something to make this poor pathetic cake look better than it did. I covered it with teal drop flowers in random spots and took it to the party. Disappointed that it didn't turn out the way I wanted it to I refused to take pictures of the finished product. I regret that move to this day. Why? Good question. The answer is because no one at that party knew what the cake had looked like in my head. They only saw what I ended up with. Every person that walked in the door raved about how beautiful and elegant it was. What I thought was a fiasco and a colossal failure turned out to be a big hit, and now the only thing I have to show for it is a fabulous new brother. I guess, in the end, it was a pretty good exchange. But if you take anything at all away from this post let it be this: Celebrate every failure as if it is a work of art. What might be disappointing to you could be the most beautiful creation anyone else has ever seen. If you don't appreciate it, and photograph it, months later you'll be kicking yourself wishing you hadn't been so stubborn and full of yourself.

Oh, and another lesson you might want to take away from this is to know your limitations and try not to get in over your head. Remember, it's all about the baby steps.