Having My Cake And Not Eating It Too!

I haven’t done a wedding cake in over 5 years. I have done other cakes; however, cakes for weddings well…um, take the cake! They are larger, have more decorations, must meet the couple’s expectations, and survive both travel and sitting out of a fridge for awhile.

The reason I got out of them was the stress I was under during the process. No matter what preparations I did ahead of time, I became totally overwhelmed during the final decorating stages. I would get upset, cry, even have a full-out panic attack.

I finally decided to give it up because it was too hard on me and even harder on my marriage. There was also the matter of not charging enough or even giving them away.

Well, one day I was making some fondant and buttercream for a project I was doing for our church’s kid’s program when it hit me…literally and figuratively. Sugar has always had a bad reaction and here I was inhaling the stuff as it whirled around in my mixer with me standing right over it. I was having the same reactions as I would have eaten to much of it.

You don’t know how good it felt to know that my mental illness was not causing my mood swings. Not that it is great that my key ingredient is to blame, but believe me, when you have a mental health problem, you get tired of it causing you to give up everything you love.

So, I have learned to beat the sugar in on a slower speed and turn the pour spout in the bowl collar away from me. It works very well and I only have to worry about the small tastes to make sure it is all good.

So, why did I take on another order? Well, I feel so much better emotionally and I absolutely adore the bride… the groom is pretty great too. We actually met him at another wedding. It was their first date! Yes, she brought him to a friend’s wedding for their first date. I loved that. And I could see even then that they liked each other.

Also, I have been wanting to do some cake stuff for awhile now but without an actual project, it is hard to get into it. I have lots of time to get it all together and the design isn’t a difficult one; however, it is a bit outside the box and I love those kinds of challenges.

I am not saying here that my mood swings and anxiety didn’t have anything to do with problems in the past. What I do know is that I have learned from those times and have ways of troubleshooting. I have a young woman who is an absolute natural at decorating who has agreed to help me, I am going to do a trial run on the parts I am not familiar with and I am going to have lots of healthy snacks around me to take temptation away from too much sampling.

Oh, the picture is of the first wedding cake I ever did – with Kay’s help. She and I made 100 sugar daisies and over 60 leaves.

Lydia!