Let Them Eat Cake!

As part of an ongoing effort to organize some of our storage room, I found myself sorting through my 4 tubs of shaped cake pans and admitting that some of them were never going to be used again, at least by me.

I distinctly remember getting involved in cake decorating in the first place. My mother-in-law was a cake decorator. In fact, she decorated our wedding cake. Wanting to make a good impression with my new family, I commented to her that some day I’d really like to learn how to decorate cakes.

You can probably guess the gift I received from them one Christmas – 3 shaped cake pans and a set of decorating tips. I was shocked! My comments had come back to haunt me. With the gift were instructions to Ken that he take a picture of my first cake. Although I racked my brain, I could come up with no plausible excuse for exchanging the cake things and resigned myself to decorating a cake for Marian’s first birthday! My first attempt was pretty miserable and I desperately tried to think of a way to gracefully get out of making any more. A couple of months later when my birthday came, more pans arrived from Ken’s mother and with a sigh, I knew that I was going to have to try again. Something happened that second time, though, and believe it or not, I was hooked! I took a couple of decorating classes and found myself buying more tips and pans every chance I could find.

As the years went by, a variety of cakes came and went: spaceships, dolls, Superman, Big Bird, and a host of others found their way into my kitchen. I even found myself making cakes for other people, including a few wedding cakes. One personal highlight was the caterer at John & Dana’s wedding who offered me a job decorating for him after he saw their wedding cake. Since his business was in Washington and I lived in Utah, it was not to be, but it certainly made my day!

These last couple of weeks, though, I finally admitted to myself that decorating was something I was no longer able to do without difficulty. The problems I’ve had with my shoulder make it difficult to sustain the effort needed to decorate for very long. It’s now a labor of love and definitely something I don't do very often. After sorting through my pans, I had a small pile ready to go and this last Sunday they were offered up to my kids. Some of them are great decorators and I knew the pans would have a good home. I hope they’ll bring as much joy to those who use them as they did to me. I felt a little sad, though, watching them leave the house. It felt like a small part of me was leaving the house, too. I guess I'll just have to make do with the 3 tubs of pans that are left! :-) (Hey I did manage to get rid of 1 whole tub!)

Just for Fun: Inside some of us is a thin person struggling to get out, but they can usually be sedated with a few pieces of chocolate cake. ~Author Unknown