I used to dream that I would make beautiful cakes. This was a very difficult dream to have in a very large family. My mother did not believe in cake mixes, or in powdered sugar, or even in beautiful cakes.
She believed in the power of homemade bread, of a pot of grits that would feed all ten children. She knew that by spending hours canning available fruits and vegetables, she would be able to feed her family through lean times (and there were many of those).
I am not sure she even believed in birthday cakes for most of us. Don’t get me wrong, she was wonderful. In some ways, she was even saintly. The fact that she did not kill all of us can attest to that fact!
But birthday cakes? Nope. Oftentimes, when my birthday would roll around, I would ask if I could make a cake, and, acting as if the thought had not even crossed her mind, she would let me.
I learned to make some kind of frosting using regular old sugar and egg whites. It was not bad, just not the powdered sugar frosting I always dreamed of. I learned to bake from scratch, as there was no other alternative.
Once, I even baked my father a birthday cake. Sadly, what I thought was the bucket of flour….. was actually the bucket of gluten. For those of you who are unschooled in the art of whole wheat bread, gluten = glue. Dad’s cake was more like a sponge. Don’t mistake that for “spongy”. Try taking a fork to your kitchen sponge. Now you’ve got the picture!
About 12 years ago, a good friend dragged me out of my house and made me take some painting classes with her. She loved them. I did not. We took three or four different classes before I, in turn, convinced her to take some cake classes with me! I loved them, she did not.
That was how I started making cakes. And ohhhhh, did I love it! It was like a dream come true. Who knew that all you had to do was cut the top off a rounded cake and slap some frosting on it! I truly had never noticed that all the bakery cakes were FLAT!!!
I made birthday cakes, bridal shower cakes, baby shower cakes, a new year’s eve cake…… I was making cakes – any excuse would do. I even had a brave cousin let me make my first wedding cake for her.
It was slightly crooked, and a little uneven, but she was either a really good liar, or she was so love struck that she did not notice. I still cringe a little when I look at pictures of that cake.
As I am known to do, I burned out. I bet I lasted a good 9 or 10 years of baking and selling cakes before the smell of cake began to make me gag. Before the stress of getting a wedding cake “just right” made me loose sleep. Before there was no more happiness to decorating.
Last week, I made a wedding cake for a friend of over 20 years. Her daughter had almost no demands, just three colors to worry about. It was not a cake for money. It was a cake for a friend.
Somehow the normal week of awful that comes with decorating a cake never materialized. Somehow, that cake was baked and decorated in three days. Somehow, the happiness I had in making it overcame all the drudgery that decorating had become.
I may never understand how that happened. I am still not sure what I will do with that knowledge, but I thought I had better document it, so I don’t forget……
Sometimes, with the right attitude, it really CAN be…..
as easy as CAKE!!!!
