My Monthly Challenge

Even though, it’s January 26th. It’s not too late in the month to make a New Years Resolution, is it? Let’s rewind for a second. Hello everyone! You may have wondered where I drifted off too and why I’ve not posted any cakes lately. Or you may not have noticed. But either way! I’ve been taking a breather from cake decorating the past little while. The last cake I had done was the haunted house cake, which topped over as I was pulling into my boyfriends driveway to take it to his family. I don’t know if that was the last straw or what. But I was just getting so frustrated with my cakes. I felt like I needed a break, so I took one. And then my sister, Keisha’s birthday rolled around on January 8th and she wanted a zebra printed cake with a purple bow. And I started getting nervous, like really, really nervous. I was afraid and scared I wasn’t going to be able to do a good job on the cake. I was afraid the black icing was going to bleed into the white icing. I was afraid it was going to look all stripy (not sure if this is even a word?) but I didn’t want it to look like stripes. I wanted it to look z-e-b-r-a printed. So I started out with her cake, and I almost had a minor fit when I got started baking the cake and realized we didn’t have any sugar. But thanks to my lovely Mom who was just 5 mins. from the grocery store we got the sugar and in no time the cake was in the oven. And while it was baking I started getting excited and I started getting organized, I got my fondant tinted, I made my bow lops, I tinted my fondant black. I got back in the game of things, and I realized how much I had missed decorating cakes. And it made me so happy and not once did I stress out or worry over the cake, I just stayed focused and everything turned out so well. And I had a ton of fun doing it. I can’t explain it! But the feeling I get when I’ve created something out of nothing. It’s just a great feeling, and it makes me so happy! Keisha loved the cake and so did her friends, and that’s all I wanted and all I needed to be satisfied. My goal this year for 2010, is to challenge myself to decorate one cake each month that is fun to make, and something that I am proud of. I hope to do more than one cake each month, but no matter if I do ten or only one. It makes no difference. I just am striving to have one cake, like Keisha’s cake that I decorate, and while I’m decorating it I have a smile on my face and I enjoyed every second of it. So keep an eye out and wish me luck! Now all this talk about cake decorating is making me so excited to see what next month will bring, I know we have Valentines Day coming up and there are two birthdays in my family. My brain is already spinning with clever ideas. Stay tuned to see what next month will bring. As far as January goes, I’ve already voted Keisha’s cake as my cake of the month. Course it didn’t help it was the only contestant did it? haha! But really, I think I would have chosen it anyways. It was such a fun cake to make and I'm a huge lover of love zebra print.

~ Happy Caking!
Ashton