Sunday, September 27, 2009

Birthday Burnout!

So this weekend was my mother’s 60th birthday. We gave her a Caribbean themed party at Bahama Breeze restaurant. My sister flew in from Reno and I thank God for her—for more reasons than this—because she helped me get this party together.

We had lots of running around, lots of supplies to buy and then it was wrapping thank you gifts, which were dessert tartlets, and baking the birthday cake.

Then it was left to me to deal with the birthday cake, mainly because I volunteered like an idiot. A few years ago, I took a class in cake decorating and while I learned some neat tricks, I am far from becoming any competition for Duff at Charm City Cakes. I was SO stressed out by this cake.

People have said to me that I should get business cards to advertise my cakes, and then they take my refusal as a lack of motivation or some kind of inability to do better for myself—yes, people have actually said stuff like that to me.

Well, I used to go into the explanation that baking cakes is stressful, time consuming, expensive and can easily become a disaster in a pan. I also used to explain how my passion is writing, how I can sit and write for hours and hours and not be bothered by that one bit. If baking/decorating a cake took that long, I would be PISSED!

Don’t get me wrong, I like baking cakes, it can be fun and creative, but I like it better when it’s few and far in between. So now, when people ask why I don’t have business cards, or why I don’t bake cakes for a living, or that I’m stupid for not cashing in on a talent I have, I simply say…I’m a writer.

Most times that answer still makes them scratch their heads. Writing isn’t something they can see in front of them like a nice fluffy cake so it’s still sounds like a pipe dream. Most will still try to convince me that with their help and all the people they know, I could live nice and comfortable selling my cakes.

It used to annoy me, but it doesn’t bother me anymore. If there is one thing I am, it’s confident in who I am and that’s a writer, not a baker. Can I be both? Yup, but I’d rather be a writer who bakes sometimes.

So now that I’ve ranted, lol, here’s a pic of the cake I made for my mother.


EDIT: It was brought to my attention that the cake looks flat. So I found a better pic below! They almost don't even look like the same cake-lol


5 comments:

Shelly Quade said...

The cake looks pretty, but I can understand why you wouldn't want to make several of those every day. Decorating cakes is an art that not everyone is cut out to do frequently (myself included).

It's nice that you feel confident in who you are and what your goals are, though. Not everyone has that confidence.

Karen Denise said...

Thanks Shelly, you're right, decorating is an art and I'm not that good--that's why it's streesses me so much.

It took a while for me to be confident enough to say I'm a writer and mean it. But as I can think of nothing else I'd rather being doing, nothing else I love as much, then it's liberating to say, I'm a Writer!

Tere Kirkland said...

Gorgeous cake! But I hear ya. There are plenty of things that I'm good at, but could never handle making a living out of. I bet Duff from Ace of Cakes couldn't handle writing a novel, not that he has the time to, since he's making cakes all day. (Love that show, btw!)

Happy Belated Birthday to your mom!

Amanda Borenstadt said...

That's beautiful. You know, you should do that for a living. Why don't you make business cards? LOL Just kidding!

It's annoying when people act like they know what you should do with your life. I wasn't going to tell a soul that I was writing a novel, then my lovely husband decided to tell anyone he ran into. But now I can say it without a paper bag over my head. But now that they ask, "Are you published yet?" I think I'll have to find that paper bag again.

Sherrie Petersen said...

I can see why people think you should make cakes for a living--it's beautiful!