Easter Cake

Flowers Kari Brought Over for Easter from her Garden

Backing up a bit… Here is the Easter cake I made.  A poppy seed cake with fluffy lemon curd filling and whipped cream frosting – delicious.  If it doesn't sound good to you, it ought to.  Liz decorated the cake with flowers I made some time ago.  She did a lovely job.  Royal icing flowers are so convenient to have on hand.

 

WARNING: Rambling, pointless reflections begin now.

When I was learning to decorate cakes and for some time afterward I struggled with my “cake identity and preferences.”  You can spend hours making fondant decorations or frosting flowers and it is striking.  Fondant is particularly popular for its great looks.  People are always very impressed with intricately decorated cakes (I, of course, like to impress people), but fondant and decorator's frosting can taste downright bad.  When so much time and mess is put towards the appearance of the cake, the cake itself often ends up being a plain boxed mix due to time constraints.   It's a huge letdown to put so much effort into something (even if it is beautiful) and have it taste mediocre.

  

After experimentation and deep contemplation of my personal values I decided that taste always come first.  That means I often won't be using my sweet decorating skills.  After spending exorbitant amounts of time learning how to make gum paste lattices, lilies, etc… I had to come to terms with the fact that I won't be using that skill very often.

  

I suppose I can compare it to vests—the type that middle aged ladies make after learning how to do some adorable new kitty cat appliqué.  After learning a cool new skill that is so adorable they're just dying for a place to use it.  I know the feeling.  The enthusiasm makes us forget the purpose of what we're making.  Clothes are there to show off the person, not the person to show off the clothes (according to the book of Lindsay).  Don't get me wrong.  There is nothing necessarily wrong with kitty cat vests.  But be warned that you might look closer to 75 than 55 when wearing it.  Chances are it's not doing much for your figure either.  Parallel to that, the number one purpose of my cakes is to make mouths happy, not hold pretty, only technically edible, flowers.  Once I learned decorating with fondant, gum paste, royal icing, and butter cream, I had to decide that was really what I valued.  I needed to choose and remember the purpose of my cakes.

The Easter cake was a nice blend.  I made a wonderful cake and used the efficiency of pre-made flowers to decorate.  Best of both worlds and royal icing flowers have become my favorite decoration.

You can tell that I let my mind wander to very serious things when life is a little slow.  It's a nice contrast to Martin.  He writes papers that are published by academic journals based on what he contemplates during down time.  I think over cakes and flowers.  If one of us has to ponder things worth writing papers about, please let it be Martin.