Failing to Gild The Lily

[ladysprite]

So it turns out I am not particularly talented at cake decorating. Which is to say that I rather suck at it. Not that this should come as a drastic surprise, as I lack the artistic talent of the average five-year-old, but it's rather humbling to realize.

No matter how hard I try, I can't get the top and sides of my cake to come out all smooth and flat and crisp and tidy. So I'm left with a lopsided, uneven template to begin with. And then my round dots wind up all pointy, and my lines are wobbly, and before you know it I'm coming home to present my husband with a cake that looks like the kind of fridge art you find on the houses of people with toddlers.

I'm not going to lie, it's still delicious. At least I haven't magically lost my talent as a baker. But that still leaves it the pastry equivalent of "well, she's got a great personality...."

Still, this was only the second class. And I have some leftover icing, and a week to practice before I have to try again. And next week is cupcakes, so at least I don't have to worry about the perfectly-flat-sides-and-top issue, at least for the moment.

And I'm proud of myself for the progress I've made internally, at least - I didn't come home and cry, or quit in a fit of pique, or throw the cake away, or any of the other "I'm not perfect so I might as well give up" behaviors I know I'm prone to. So that's something.

But damnit, I really do hate this segment of the learning curve.....

Comments

[tpau]

i proudly emailed my grandma my photo of my cake. She said "oh what a lovely flower on top!"

sigh. it's a fish. in theory. sigh. :D

[wcg.livejournal.com]

My old friend (now gone from this life) who made cakes as a side business would frost them on a rotating platform. That allowed him to get everything even.

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

1) Someone with your extensive crafting skills does not have "the artistic talent of the average five-year-old."
2) Any new skill takes practice before you can become proficient.
3) What kind of equipment did they provide? If you didn't have a turntable, or a good spatula, it would be harder to get good results. Plus my mom taught me to always keep a glass of hot water nearby for cleaning/moistening the blade as you go, so it doesn't drag across the frosting.
4) The smoothness will also be greatly affected by the texture of the frosting. Did they provide that or are you mixing your own?
5) If you're adding e.g. a shell border, the edges don't have to be perfect b/c you're going to cover them anyway.

[ladysprite.livejournal.com]

I have a turntable and offset spatulas, and we're making our own icing. My problems stemmed, at least in part, from the fact that my cake was pretty seriously domed and muffin-topped (because the instructor made us bake it all in one pan, rather than two), so I had to cut off the edges and top. Leading to rough surface, unevenness, and crumbs galore.

I can crochet and spin, but I can't draw to save my life. I'm hoping that with practice (and with baking my cakes in two pans, darnit) I'll be able to overcome the latter....

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Did they have you do a crumb coat first? If not you were essentially doomed from the start.

I can't draw either, but I do OK with frosting...

[matildalucet.livejournal.com]

Mine got a little better (still far from professional) when somebody told me to turn the top layer upside down and use the flat bottom as the top.

[mermaidlady]

Are you taking pictures of your cakes? It's a great way to see that progress is happening as you continue through your lessons. And then you can look back on the early cakes and laugh.

[ladysprite.livejournal.com]

I am too deeply ashamed of my first cake, at least, to have any photographic evidence.

(Also, I don't know how to use our camera.....)

Once I get better, then maybe there'll be pictures. :)

[mermaidlady]

The pictures should be for you -- not for us. When you're comfortable with decorating, I'm sure I'll see (and hopefully taste) the real thing.

By the way, have you seen this cake book?

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

But that still leaves it the pastry equivalent of "well, she's got a great personality...."

This is exactly backwards. The PURPOSE of a cake is to taste good, not to look good! If your cake is delicious, you've succeeded; anything else is lagniappe.

I have more than once had the unfortunate experience of seeing an absolutely lovely professionally-decorated cake, getting a slice, and discovering that the beautiful icing was the only worthwhile thing about it -- the cake underneath was flavorless and dry. I'd much rather have a slice of one of your "failures".

[hermitgeecko.livejournal.com]

Second this.

[udalrich.livejournal.com]

I have a friend who would regularly sore up at gaming night with a dessert type dish. She would then apologize with something like "this did not come out at all like I intended. It has chocolate and strawberries in it."

Our response was always, "it has chocolate and strawberries. It is delicious." We didn't care what it looked like or what it was supposed to be.

[jducoeur]

I'm not going to lie, it's still delicious. At least I haven't magically lost my talent as a baker. But that still leaves it the pastry equivalent of "well, she's got a great personality...."

I consider it a matter of priorities. While having everything perfect is nice, I care about flavor a *lot* more than looks. Following the metaphor, too many cakes are the equivalent of the stereotype blonde bimbo -- all looks, with nothing interesting underneath.

(It does kind of remind me of one of the bakeries Aaron looked at for his wedding cake, which apparently advertised, "And our cakes look even better than they taste!" Which they found to be true, and was part of why they didn't go to that bakery.)

You'll get better at the decorating part with practice, but IMO you're already one of the best I know at the important parts of baking...

[meranthi.livejournal.com]

"And our cakes look even better than they taste!"

That's a *terrible* slogan for a bakery. I mean, I know what they're trying to say, but....

[umbran.livejournal.com]

I've seen worse. Like a restaurant that advertised, "Each bite is better than the next!"

[gmkieran.livejournal.com]

*hugs* proud of you for persevering!

[johnpalmer.livejournal.com]

You know, I do get the whole "I'm trying, and it's just not working" frustration. But I wasn't kidding when I said on Google+ that it can be very valuable to recognize that tendency in yourself and learn to deal with it.

It's okay not to be wonderful at something - it's even okay to be eternally bad at it. And there's an incredibly valuable life skill in diving in, being bad at something, and getting through the bad feelings and frustrations and residual self-criticism, and learning that you can break its power on you.

It's hard to explain this, but it's like, there's two glorious endings to this: you deciding that you don't like cake decorating that much (or, at least, not enough to keep practicing long enough to get better), or that you do, and continue to practice. And either of those decisions is perfectly wonderful and glorious if it comes from you learning what you enjoy, without pains and anxieties and frustrations driving you away from getting comfortable with it.

(Or - maybe I'm being over-preachy because I'm fatigued and feeling like crap and giving myself constant pep talks, and letting them leak out to others.)

[corwyn-ap.livejournal.com]

Us mortal humans have actually been known to take 2 attempts to master some skill....

If you want to feel better go here http://www.cakewrecks.com/ and look at the work of some *professionals*.