Sometimes things just don't work out the way you hoped...

I'm feeling a little discouraged. Once in awhile that happens after I've made something that doesn't look the way I wanted it to. I'm a bit of a perfectionist. This can make cake and cookie decorating a little frustrating. I look at a cake I've finished and I can see all the little things that are wrong with it before I see how pretty it is or how cute it looks. I need to work on that. Chef Duff said something the other day on an episode of "Ace of cakes" that I really liked. He said that cake decorating is a lot of smoke in mirrors. If someone puts their thumb in the cake, you put a flower there to cover it up. This made me feel a lot better. If he has to hide imperfections too... then I'm not doing too bad.

Now, on to the little projects that had me feeling a little down. First, I wanted to make some cookies to send with my mom who was flying to Edmonton to help celebrate my nieces first birthday. I was gonna make her some big pink crown cookies that she could give to her guests and some big pink flower cookies that she could share at her party. Then we read about the new luggage limits that west jet has set and realized there just wasn't room for a big box of cookies, so I made some mini flowers and little number 1's. This wasn't too upsetting. I can get over a change of plans when it's caused by something that I can't control. What had me feeling discouraged was my number 1 cookie cutter. It didn't look like I had remembered it. Turns out I had remembered someone else's cookie cutter. I baked the mini flowers and 1's anyways, hoping I could make them look better with some icing. Here's the end result:

I know the cookies look cute... and I am happy with the flowers though they're not as detailed as I had planned. It turns out I need more piping practice. I know I'll improve with time and experience but I am one of those silly people who expects more from myself on the first, second or fifty sixth try.

 I'm bothered by the number 1's. They were so small I couldn't fit Brooklyn's name on them the way I had wanted to. Wow. Seems kind of silly to be so concerned about a cookie that I've already heard Brooklyn sucked the icing off of. I'll work on it. I'll learn to accept that I'm not yet the cake (or cookie) boss.  

On to the next discouraging project. I have wanted to make a mini cake for quite some time now. Yesterday was the day. I baked a cake on a cookie sheet. Then used one of my heart cookie cutters to cut a few mini heart cakes. Filled them with chocolate icing and then covered them with dark cocoa candy melts. I don't have much experience with candy melts but when I saw the pictures of other mini cakes they seem to cover mini cakes witha nice smooth finish. This wasn't the case with my mini cake. It wasn't smooth. Just that fact alone irked me. I didn't even bother decorating it. Instead, my girls and I ate it. You see, Elizabeth (my 4 year old) had a play date yesterday afternoon. When her friends mom came to pick her up, she said she could tell I had been baking because it smelled good in the house. I showed her what I had done and what I had used. She mentioned that she'd tasted some colored candy melts before and they tasted like poison. Or maybe she said they tasted toxic. I can't quite remember. Either way I figured I better taste this mini cake before I bother putting anymore time into it. I was mad at it anyway so it may as well be eaten. I conluded that while the chcolate candy melts didn't taste bad, they also didn't taste great. Who knows... there's a good chance I'll try this again and if it looks smooth, I'll think it tastes better too. 

 

I have big baking plans for the next few days so here's hoping things turn out the way I want. Or that I learn to accept that I'm not perfect so my baking doesn't have to be.

Either way, after getting all that out, I'm feeling hopeful. Each project is a fresh start.

~Rachel