Lessons Learned from Decorating a Cake

With Dana, a fabulous cook and Mom to Gabe, I've been taking a cake decorating class at our local Michael's store. The instructor leaves much (oh so much!) to be desired, but with a little practice and a lot of Crisco my skills are getting better and my arteries continue to harden. Thankfully, Florida weather is getting cooler and we're out walking at least a bit more than we have been since June.

The tri-flowered cake at right was my first cake. It was good. That's it though. The cake itself was a butter pecan cake and was truly delicious. The frosting was the Wilton buttercream. Ugh. But, I think I've learned a few tricks to make it less shortening-tasting and more buttercream tasting.

The grape cupcake was the best looking cupcake to come out of our third week of class. I used a box mix and made a cappucino/mocha layered cupcake. Way too much for a cupcake and contrary to what our instructor said, I think adding pudding to the mix does mess with the chemistry of the cupcake and cause it to rise more than it would without it. Nonetheless, I now can make a mean teddy bear head, pig, grapes and a ridiculous clown so full of fat and sugar that I will never feed it to a child. Ever.

Tonight was class #4, the last class and time for us to prove that we had mastered the Wilton rose. Ha ha ha ha ha. Most of us had roses that looked like cabbage. Which means that I will absolutely positively make that Martha Stewart garden cake one day since I've got the toughest veggie down cold. But, quite vainly, I will say that I was pleased with the final results. My rose petals with cracked, aphid-attacked edges actually looked good when assembled together and accessorized with leaves and frosting dots. It was a lemon cake torted with strawberry jam and lemon curd. Delicious, although next time a yellow cake with the same fillings would suffice.

But the most important thing I learned truly had little to do with cakes and a lot more to do with parenthood. The last few weeks around our house have been difficult. Amiya has not been feeling well physically and that's led to an emotional change in her daily ways. She's cranky, she's prone to crying and the tantrums are almost clockwork. And yet, the big picture, the cake if you will, is still beautiful. My cracked roses are like our cranky daughter. Just like my individual roses, her tantrums are hard to abide and not particularly pretty to gaze upon. But like my roses, when I put all of Amiya together, the individual moments lose some of their rough edges and I remember that I have the privilege of being a parent to an amazing child. And while I'm proud of my cake and I think it's quite nice for a novice, I'm more in love with my child, rough edges and all.