I gave myself a week to put this together because I was heading into new territory. In fact, I usually tend to tread into new territory when making tasty deliciousness unless I’m making an old favorite. Baking is still new territory and it continues to instill some terror and trepidation because I know it’s not forgiving. It demands precision and if you screw up, there’s usually very little you can do to redress it. For a functioning perfectionist, the idea of failing creates enough of a pause to stop before you start. Happily this functioning perfectionist also likes to challenge herself. This is what my forays into baking are for me. It’s a challenge; I always learn something, and I have yet to not be proud of what I accomplish when it’s all said and done.
This time, the challenge had higher stakes. A coworker had asked me if I would make a cake for familial event. It’s one thing to bring something in for a work function, where there would be other dessert choices and your foodp0rn doesn’t have a reputation to live up or down to. It’s something else entirely different when what you’re bringing to the literal table is going to be a main feature. Quoth Wiley Coyote, ‘Yipe.’
The title for this entry is well named because I was taking on quite a few firsts. My only cake decorating skills prior to this were creative uses of toasted coconut/chopped nuts, some sugared pearls and shimmer dust, and powdered sugar sifted through a stencil. I also hadn’t made any tiered cakes. The baby shower cake, which prompted this request, was a mix of what I knew and using pre-made sugar flowers. When I put together my concept sketch, I was asking of myself a number of things I haven’t done before, the main component being fondant decor. I did say I like to challenge myself, but a silver of me makes the observation I may want to add ‘is slight glutton for punishment’ to my bio. If I didn’t meet my own expectations, I’d send myself hate mail telling me to go die in a fire; I’d feel pretty crappy if I couldn’t make my concept sketch match the 3D version. I learned a lot making this cake. I also learned a lot due to people sharing their own experiences, so I’m paying it forward because if what I learned last week helps someone make with the Delicious, I only ask you taunt me with pictures. Deal? Deal.
Since this would make for an extremely long post, I’m going to break it up into parts.
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