Sunday, March 27, 2011

Memory Lane

I don't think it's any mystery to people who know me that I like cake.  Most of the time, I enjoy the opportunity to make a new creation, some of the time I don't. It's been a strange process for me to slowly gain confidence in my (still lacking) skills. I'm far from the point of feeling like a professional, but I am closer and closer to the point of wanting to charge a fair price for my cakes. I actually feel a lot of frustration over that part and here is why.  

For the most part, it is just my friends asking me to make cakes for them. I can't charge them too much for two reasons.  Number 1: they are my friends.  Number 2: they would just make do without the fancy cake and then I would have lost the opportunity to let my skills grow. I have had a few strangers, or less then close friends ask for cakes, and when I tell them what I want to charge, they don't hire me. James and I talked this through last night and decided that it's because I haven't set myself up to look like a professional; you know, a blog or what not with official pricing etc. The thing is, I just don't want to do that. I don't want to make cakes on a regular basis. I like the "every now and then" cakes. Plus...THE PRESSURE to make the perfect cake for a real paying customer! I just don't think I could handle it. 

Big sigh. Oh well. For now I am stuck in cake pricing limbo. One day (when I'm done birthing and raising little children) I may set something up more official where I feel like I can charge more official prices. Until then, I'm still learning and acquiring good skills, and I'm grateful for great friends who let me experiment on them.
This was Logan's cake two birthdays ago. He is very excited for his upcoming 5th birthday. He has specifically asked for a spider man cake, and I'm glad that I can deliver what he wants. Whenever he is invited to a birthday party, he constantly nags me what their cake will look like. Think he's surrounded by cake?

My third ever wedding cake. (Believe me, you don't want to see the first. I didn't even take a picture of it, that's how bad it was.)

 4th wedding cake. As is the case with most cakes I've made, I wish I could go back and do this one over. No particular reason other than I just know I could do it better now. Interesting side note: I had my wisdom teeth removed 1 hour after I delivered this cake. It was also our anniversary.
 I LOVED making this Phantom cake, but again, I want a redo. I could make that rose look so much more realistic!
 A fun experiment for my friend's birthday. 
 Doing these "birthday present" cakes feels like old hat to me now.
 Who doesn't love elmo?
 My latest creation, and one that I'm very proud of for a very specific reason. I dreamed it up all on my own! I normally have to steal ideas from a book or the internet. But not these Mickey Mouse cakes. These were all me! (All 15 of them!)

  Isn't it funny how the things that bring you the most frustration also bring you the most joy? I know we all feel that way about our children, but who else feels that way about their hobbies? Baking and decorating cakes brings out the very best and the very worst in me. Now I just need to figure out how to focus on the best and leave out the worst. 

3 comments:

Anderson Family said...

I think your prettiest cake is the one for my birthday!!!!

Carlee said...

I think they all look great! And you shouldn't have changed my brother's cake in any way. It looked great and tasted wonderful (that's coming from a non-cake lover).

Jill and Chris said...

Alicia, this is Jill Jocelyns friend. I didn't know you did cakes but I might have a job for you and it would pay! :D Chris's sister is getting married the end of April and she needs a 5 tier wedding cake but only needs the top 2 to be real. And all she wants on it is smooth yellow fondant. Is that something you would be interested in doing? What price would you charge? My email is jillwclayton@gmail.com