He Makes Beautiful Things

I have always said I love a challenge.  I welcome challenges.  And then when I am in the midst of that challenge, I find myself questioning everything!  So here I was, the challenge set before me to create a beautiful baby shower cake for a friend.  I had been beyond excited to create something for her and her only requirements were the colors so I had complete freedom! 

Scary.  Seriously.

I found a design I loved and felt confident it would be beautiful!  I went into full swing, planning, creating, imagining and waiting for the week before the shower.  I baked the cakes ahead of time and froze them for a few days, which allowed me to trim them up, fill them and crumb coat them much easier.  Here is the base of the cake..crumb coated...I was feeling more confident and prepared than ever!

Friday night rolls around and I prepare for a long night, as I know the design I have found is intricate and like nothing I've done before, but I am still feeling great!  One of the most time consuming parts of this project was coloring the fondant, which is all made stark white.  To get deep, rich colors you must knead and knead and knead, and when you think your done kneading, you knead some more.  All the while, the fondant is naturally sticky, so you much keep your work area coated with Crisco and/or powdered sugar. Oh, and of course I forgot to get disposable gloves to protect my hands from the dye, thus, this result:

 A crazy mess, I tell you!  I really wish I would've taken a picture of the extraordinary pile of dishes I created.  That was quite an accomplishment!

On to the good part.  As I began to cover the cake, I began to panic.  Literally.  My poor husband and daughter weren't sure what to do with me, but I stood there (when I really wanted to collapse on the floor in a big puddle), staring at my mess and trying to figure out how late Costco was open so I could order a last minute cake.  I feared complete disaster and utter failure.  I know I sound dramatic, but in that moment I had built something up in my head so great that I had nowhere to go but down from there.  Had pride gotten a hold of me?  My husband being the amazing man that he is comforted me, hugged me, encouraged me and then because he knows me so well, swept up my sweet 6 year old and took her out for the night.  I suddenly had the whole house to myself and I knew I needed to clear my head.

I needed inspiration.

I threw on some worship music and just started working.  Then something happened.  A song came on that I have heard hundreds of times.  But in that moment, I heard it all different, and I knew God knew that I needed to hear the words. 

"You make beautiful things, You make beautiful things out of the dust.  You make beautiful things, You make beautiful things out of us."  Have you heard that song?  If you haven't, you need to listen to it.  I mean really listen to it.  Ok, just so you don't have to go around looking for it, here it is for you:

He was going to make something beautiful out of this, but He needed me to trust him, and to believe in my abilities through Him.  It's amazing how a fresh perspective can change everything.  It happens every time I bake so I'm not sure why I am always suprised by it!  I replayed and replayed and replayed that song again over the course of a few hours, singing at the top of my lungs, out of key and in full form, but I didn't care and things were starting to come together!

I found inspiration.
I continue to find inspiration.
I am continually reminded of the beauty that God sees in His creation.  In me.  In you. 
I am reminded of the potential that God sees in us.  In Judges 6:11 Gideon felt completely incapable and illequipped to answer the call that God had for his life.  He questioned his abilities and ultimately questioned God.  The angel of the Lord came down and spoke this to Gideon, "The Lord is with you, mighty warrior."

Aren't we all mighty warriors?  That night I was a mighty cake warrior.  You may laugh but I'm kidding when I tell you that I put on my armor and I was ready for battle.  I would not let myself be defeated by my enemy.  In this case, my enemy was self-doubt, insecurity and fear.  And before I knew it those lies were squashed beneath my tired feet as I danced around my kitchen at midnight!  Not because the cake was perfect, because it was far from that.  But because I was victorious and the job I had set out to do was completed.  God is so faithful to meet us where we are in every moment of weakness.  And actually, The Lord waits for us to surrender those moments of weakness to Him, so that He can show up and ultimately bring the glory to Him!

The result, in my opinion, is perfectly imperfect, and although this was so much fun (and a huge relief!) to deliver to the baby shower, the moment I shared with God that night far surpasses any confection creation, even if it is strawberry filled, buttercream goodness!

Thanks for listening to my ramblings...until the next cake!

~Andrea

How do you make a friendship cake?

Ok, so this video is a little old school, but it makes me smile.  AND, look at the words, they are so true:

"How do you make a friendship cake,
What's it going to take?
An ounce of kindness,
A drop of generosity,
A touch of heart and a hint of a smile
A cup of trust and a pound of respect
Friends helping friends with a little bit of love"

I am a work in progress in every area of my life, especially being a true friend.  I have not had the best examples in my life, but over the last 15 years, there has been one friend that has always been an example to me.  There were times over that 15 years that I did not appreciate her example, not because she wasn't being a good friend, but because I wasn't.  Years upon years of avoiding, hurting and ignoring because I was too selfish to care.   It is only the love of Jesus that would cause a person to keep coming back and reaching out to a person that never reached back. 

When God knew that I was ready to start letting Him into my heart and in turn letting other people in, He led me back to this friend.  The one who was always there, even when I wasn't.  When we were separated by miles and even states, she prayed for me.  I know she did.  Not because she told me (although lots of times she did tell me) but because I felt her prayers and looking back now my life is a miracle.  God can work miracles through anyone, but He heard her prayers all those years, and so did I. 

I am blessed.

I am honored to call her friend, and to call her my sister in Christ. 

I was overjoyed when I had the chance to make her baby shower cake for her 3rd child, Skyler.

I love a challenge, and I wanted this to be perfect for her.  Any opportunity I have to give back to her I snatch up!  Stacks and stacks of square layers of cake made up this baby block that was frosted and decorated in buttercream.  I never realized how hard it was to get cake perfectly square!  Then recently she celebrated a birthday and there was nobody else I would have had more fun baking for.  She is all girl, all glitz and all bling and I knew exactly what to do!  I had learned a new piping technique that I had been dying to try and mixed with the perfect shade of teal came the most whimsical cake I have made to date!

Candi, my gratefulness to you and my thankfulness for you goes far beyond cake, but if I can say "thank-you" over and over again with cake, I will!

I love you dear friend!