work, work, work

This afternoon, my dear Amanda sent this quote to me:

From Ira Glass . . .

“What nobody tells people who are beginners — and I really wish someone had told this to me . . . is that all of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, and it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase. They quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through”

Very poignant considering my post last week on wanting to take more professional looking photos.  Whether it is a cake or a photo of the cake I make, I always have a clear picture in my mind, however something seems to get lost in translation.  I always want everything to be perfect, which sometimes leads to frustration.  I do acknowledge the fact that it will take awhile for my skills to catch up with the right side of my brain.  I do have faith that as long as I  have a clear vision and the willingness to continue learning and the dedication to keep honing my skills,  my hands and my eyes will catch up to my brain. 


Case in point: a picture of the Chai Latte Cupcakes with White Chocolate Buttercream I made this weekend (which were a tad on the sweet side but yummy nonetheless - it was my first time making these so now I know what adjustments I need to make).  I must have taken at least 50 shots but only 1 came out close to my vision:

It's not perfect, there's room for improvement but definitely much better than the previous photos I've taken.

So, my lesson for the day is keep working! Practice does make perfect and as long as you allow yourself to learn from your mistakes and continue to work on whatever it is you are striving to achieve, you will get there!

Picture Perfect

One of the things I need to work on is taking nice photos of my cakes so that I can have an online gallery worthy of being seen.  All the pictures I've taken thus far are very amateurish and unfortunately aren't any I'd like to include in my portfolio.  The cakes are nice but the photographs aren't.   My cousin Leo who is an amazing photographer has offered to be my official photographer but I can't expect him to come over every time I make a cake - plus the fact that he wants a piece of the cake in exchange for every photo he takes.  Imagine me delivering a pretty cake with a slice in the back?  I guess I can always say, it was for quality control...LOL!


Over the next few days I'll be making cupcakes and mini cakes and I'll experiment with using backgrounds so that they look more professional and I can slowly start building my portfolio.  The problem is, what to do with the cupcakes??? Anyone who wants free cakes, come over! (but call first LOL!!)

Drumroll please....

Shut Up and Drive.  That was the phrase that got the ball rolling (see my post called Shutting Up and Driving).  Well,  today I confirmed my first cake order.  Yes, an official order.  I'm gonna get paid to make a cake!  Granted it's an order from a relative BUT it is going to be her gift to a friend's son.  So technically it's a cake for someone NOT related to me. Yaay!!

Amanda (To Live Lovely) and I have been working together to come up with a name for the cake studio.  For those of you who don't know (yes, that's you, my one non-relative follower), Amanda also happens to be a very talented and creative graphic designer.  She has graciously offered to help me with my logo and print materials.  It was through one of our SMS brainstorming sessions that we came up with the name.  She suggested Cake. and I had Caked! on my list.  We tweaked it a bit (actually she did) and came up with... drumroll please...

Cake'd!  

have you Cake'd! someone you love lately?

Jungle Fever

Last Sunday, a very special little boy named Angelo celebrated his 6th birthday.  Angelo is a special needs child.  He is my nephew, Louie's son.  I guess that makes him my grandson??   To some, having a special needs child is a burden but to our family, he is a joy and a blessing.  He has a smile that can literally brighten up your day.  Say his name and he'll turn to you with that goofy grin on his face.  Chat him up and he'll speak in his own special way.  He's actually quite talkative when he wants to be and is always cheery.


Normally his mom, Kay makes his birthday cake so I didn't even offer to make his cake as I knew it was tradition for Kay to make his cake.  The Sunday before his party, we got to talking and Kay asked me to make his cake.  The problem was we were leaving for New York on Thursday and his birthday party wasn't  until the following Sunday, which meant I had to have the cake done in 2 days so she could pick it up on Wednesday.  No problem I said, for Angelo I would make it happen!  I made sure to make everything non perishable since it would need to keep for a few days.  The cake was chocolate and the filling was buttercream.  I covered the cake in fondant to seal in the freshness and make sure it would still be moist and yummy for Sunday.

I had so much fun making this cake.  The only guideline I had was that the theme was animals.  A jungle cake, how FUN! I had never made monkeys, lions or trees before so it was fun learning something new.   The monkeys all had their own fun little personalities which I hope all the little kiddies saw.

                                

Burgers and Fries Please

Last month (ok maybe it's been a couple of months - and I forgot to post pictures!) someone turned me onto Bakerella's site (bakerella.com) and I saw the cupcake and cookie burger/fries she made which inspired me to make my own.  It just so happened that it was my cousin, Ray's big 40.  I thought it would be really cute to give these to him as a birthday present since he loooves junk food.  Surprisingly, they were very easy to make, much easier than cakes, actually.  I took Bakerella's idea and kind of made it my own by adding a few more veggies and condiments on the burger.

 










Our friend Virgil kinda came a little later and was hungry. When he saw the "burger and fries" he said "Man, this party is hooked up!" and took a big bite, not knowing they were cupcakes and cookies.  Needless to say we all had a big laugh.  For me it was really satisfying to hear that he thought they were burgers and fries.  It means I achieved my goal of making the cupcakes and cookies look like burgers and fries.

Sometimes when I'm really tired or if something about a cake frustrates me,  I ask myself why I put myself through the stress and hassle of making beautiful cakes or cupcakes.  At some point during a project I say to myself, this is the last time I'm doing this...(probably because I am such a perfectionist and I always try and challenge myself to learn a new technique or make something I've never done before.)  At the end of the day though, when I see the finished product and I see the smiles on the faces of the people I give my cakes to,  I feel a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction that I only feel when designing cakes.   

Inevitably I hear the excited little voice inside my head asking "When's the next cake?"

Shutting Up & Driving

A few days ago, my dear friend/cousin/niece/blogbuddy Amanda (whose blog you should follow - see link at the bottom of this post) wrote a post called "Shut Up & Drive".  While I was reading her post, I really understood her message and it hit home to me.  Basically she says we waste so much energy talking or complaining about certain things that if we just focus that energy into doing something about it, we would accomplish a lot more.

Over the last few weeks since I've started decorating again, I've been contemplating opening my own little cake studio.  I've joked about it and I've hinted to my family that it is something I'd like to pursue someday.  Nothing big or fancy, just a small home bakery for friends or friends of friends who have seen and tasted my cakes and ask if I take orders.  Well, why not?  Imagine baking and decorating every week and making a little money on the side?  It'll give me a chance to hone my skills on a regular basis...and hopefully prevent my husband from developing diabetes as he does end up eating most of what I make ;)

So I did a little research and all I need is a health inspection at my home and a few forms to fill out for me to get licensed.  The only major equipment I need is a separate refrigerator/freezer dedicated solely for the cakes I make.  The best part is that I can start right away as long as my application is turned in within 30 days of my first sale.  Sounds easy enough.  First things first though, I need a name.  If anyone has any suggestions (yes that's you 3 people currently following my blog), I'm all ears!

At the end of Amanda's post, she had a note there that said "This post is dedicated to one of my "girls" who needs to be reminded to just shut up and drive"  Whether or not this post was aimed at me (I'll continue to believe it was) -  THANK YOU, Amanda!

This is me driving!

** Check out To Live Lovely @ http://tolivelovely.blogspot.com/ **

Fruity Pops

If your family is like mine, you have boxes and boxes of cereal that never seem to get finished.  My daughter, Sophie loves cereal but she can never seem to finish the whole box before wanting something else.  We had half a box of fruit loops in the pantry so I thought I'd experiment and make some Fruity Pops.  I just took a recipe for rice krispy treats and replaced the rice krispies with fruit loops.  It turned out to be deeelicious!

Recipe:

3tbsp butter
1bag (10oz) marshmallows
6 cups fruit loops (or any other cereal you have on hand); loosely chopped

In a large saucepan, melt the butter.  Once melted, add the marshmallows and stir until completely melted. Add fruit loops and mix until fruit loops are well coated with the marshmallows.

Spray a 9x15 ceramic dish (or any size dish will do as long as it is about 2'' thick) with Pam or lightly coat with butter so the mix won't stick.  Place marshmallow cereal onto the dish and take a piece of wax paper and smush (very technical term) the mix into place, making sure the top is as level as possible.

Optional:
Once cool, turn the mixture onto a cutting board and cut into rectangles.  Insert lollipop sticks into one end and place in clear plastic candy bags. Secure with ribbon and you've got the perfect anytime treat.  I had 4 within an hour of making these...shhhhh!