Piece of Cake

I have been decorating cakes for over half my life.  I learned from my mother.  Mom always made special cakes for my birthday, personalizing them to whatever I was into that year.  My favorite cake had Kermit the Frog on top and was made during a time when the Muppet Show was a weekly “must-see”. 

When I was a teen, my mother took an adult education class to learn more cake decorating.  When she practiced at home with all the bags and tips, I watched and learned.  She showed me what she knew and I learned what I could from looking through books and manuals.  My mother was always the one to bring the birthday cake to all the family parties and after I learned how to decorate I took over making mom’s birthday cake because no one should have to make their own cake.  Since my mother’s birthday is New Years Day, we always had a family get together.  Those first cakes may not have been the most beautiful but I think she appreciated someone making the effort for her.

When I graduated college, the job market was weak and I was unsure of what I wanted to do so I ended up living at home.  During this time, mom and I took a cake decorating class together and I continued to improve.  When my mother started to feel like I was surpassing her in ability, she let that be an excuse to let me take over all of the family cake decorating.  And when I got my first full-time job, as a caseworker, I soon became the office party cake person as well.

It was through that job that I got the opportunity to do my first wedding cake.  Someone in my office gave my name to someone in another office and they gave me a call.  This is how I ended up doing my first cake for two nice ladies who were having a commitment ceremony (only very recently has NY state legalized gay marriage).  It was a spice cake and a nightmare.

Unfortunately the happy event was scheduled for July and although summer in Upstate NY is not exactly sweltering, that July was hot, Africa hot.  If you don’t know anything about cake decorating, let me just explain that butter cream icing is actually made with butter.  If you have ever left the butter on the table on a hot summer day you may be able to imagine the challenge of molding this substance into the beautiful red roses requested by the clients. 

As my mother watched on, trying to be supportive, I iced the cake layers and then tried to place my roses on the sides of the cake.  The weight of the flowers combined with the overly soft icing resulting in large sections of icing peeling back off the sides of the cake and flowers that drooped as if they desperately needed to be watered.  At first, I calmly re-iced but as the cake continued to shed its icing I got closer and closer to my own meltdown.  Since my parents were years away from ever owning an air conditioner, my only choice was to wait until the evening, hoping the house would cool enough to begin again.

Once the sun went down and some cooler air began to circulate, I re-re-iced but in the end the only working solution was to alter the design of the cake.  I moved the roses from the side of the cake to sitting on top of each layer.  It was an important lesson.  I learned that sometimes you have to be willing to alter your plan.  I don’t think the happy couple noticed the slight change and as far as I know the cake was a success for them.

While I was working as a caseworker, I did quite a few cake jobs on the side.  I never charged enough for any of them and considered each cake as practice and learning experience.  Most of the cakes I did for people were a lot simpler and easier to complete than the lesbian wedding cake but in the end it is one of my best cake decorating memories, filled with a few tears and even more laughs.