Lessons in Cake Decorating

Today was the day... my first Wedding Cake. Of course, I started working on it Tuesday, but today was the wedding. 6 o'clock was the deadline. Boy did I learn A LOT today, and not just about cake decorating. First thing I learned is that I was IN OVER MY HEAD! You see, not only did I need to do the 4 tier wedding cake, but I signed on for 2 sheet cakes. Since I don't have the capabilities of doing sheet cakes, I made 4 half sheet cakes... 2 in Chocolate with raspberry filling and 2 in Vanilla with lemon filling. The cake was also supposed to be covered in buttercream and not fondant, which I am WAY more comfortable with. For some reason I thought I could finish the wedding cake (final frosting, stacking, and decorating) plus bake and crumb coat and frost all four sheet cakes TODAY! Oh, and I spent about 40 minutes this morning finishing the boys teacher cakes for Christmas.

Last night I was practicing making the designs for the wedding cake out of chocolate, and I discovered that I'm terrible at that. I started stressing. I thought of a special friend of mine. I'm going to keep her nameless on here because I don't want to embarrass her, but most of you who are local will know who I'm talking about. This friend does great Chocolate swirls and is a FABULOUS baker, so I asked her to help me and she was so willing, despite having thrown out her back. If I wasn't desperate, I wouldn't have asked. She came over around noon to make some swirls and ended up staying to help me do anything I needed. I thought I was in a good place when she left, but when she called around 4 to find out how it was going, I was near tears and feeling really guilty that my sweet baby boy was getting zero attention. She came to my rescue again. She came back and pretty much did all the finish work on the cake while I worked on the BLASTED sheet cakes. She had prior dinner plans that she missed so she could help me. And to top it all off she was SO reassuring! She talked me down from so many panic moments. I can't begin to tell you how much my special friend taught me today. I learned the true meaning of Charity. Here she is with a hurting back (which she didn't complain about a single time) and her own baking to get done, along with her family who needs her, and her dinner plans... and she drops everything to be here for me. She even helped me deliver the cakes and do the final fixes after it was placed. I feel so blessed to have a friend like her.

It doesn't stop there. I have another friend who saved my life today. I'll keep this one nameless too. She picked up my busy girl at 8 am this morning and kept her until 6. That's 10 hours people. Ten precious hours that I was able to focus on these dumb cakes without Tabs as a distraction. My friend was happy to keep her as long as I needed. An amazing friend indeed.

Finally, there is my sweet husband. He is so supportive of my hobbies and always willing to keep the kids busy, pick things up at the store, shape things in fondant, and pretty much do anything I ask.

Today was a day that I realized my blessings. I have WONDERFUL friends who are here for me when I need them. I also learned that accomplishing a wedding cake wasn't worth the ache that I felt in my heart when my baby wanted some attention and I couldn't give it to him. I missed my babies SO MUCH today. I realized that I don't want miss out on my babies babyhood to make cakes. NOT WORTH IT!

I'm so glad it's over. I have a cake to do for Sunday, but after that the next cake I will be making will be in January for Tabitha's second birthday.