When bad things happen to good cakes....

I have seemed to make a theme here out of the little miracles that God performs each time I make a cake.  He always shows up when I decorate a cake, and up until this point, there has always been a happy ending.  That's the way it's supposed to work.  I take on the challenge, I get nervous, I pray, I get empowered, I freak out a little, I pray some more and then I experience victory! 

You can only imagine my surprise when I was thrown a bit of curve ball recently with a cake I was asked to make for a baby girl's Christening celebration. This was my first order for a cake for somebody that I didn't know, and let me tell you, that's a lot of pressure. I wanted it to not only be scrumptious, but memorable, beautiful and perfect.   I prepared, I researched and I anticipated the week before the event date as I knew the details of the cake would start to unfold. 

Cake day was here. I was SO excited to get started on putting this cake together!  I have found out the hard way that my days require God to be present in every nook and cranny of my life and I knew this day was no different.  So I started out my day the way I always try to...by talking to God (The coffee is icing on the cake...pun intended).

 

This was a pretty big cake.  For me.  Big cakes take a lot of frosting.  It's hard to tell but these are huge bowls!  Buttercream on the right and cream cheese frosting on the left.  YUM.

 

This was a strawberry cake with cream cheese and strawberry filling and then covered in buttercream. I had a specific request for no fondant, so one of my many challenges was to make a cake covered in buttercream that looked as smooth as fondant but of course without the unique texture of fondant! That proved to be my biggest challenge but not for the reasons I thought....keep reading!

My favorite part of this cake was the topper I made out of gum paste.  As I prepared my workstation for fun with "edible playdoh" the anticipation of the final product was building!

Who would have known that layers and layers of sugar wrapped around each other could form one of the most beautiful of God's creations....the rose!

 

I loved the way this turned out....and I actually added another 3 or 4 layers after I took this picture!  I needed it to make a statement!

 

I continued working on the cake but most of it couldn't be completed until Saturday morning.  Things went pretty smoothly and as usual I had worship music encouraging and pushing me along.  I started to get nervous when at least 2 times my husband circled the kitchen, slowly eyed the cake and said, "You're going to like, put more decorations on it, right?" I kept telling him that it was a simple, but elegant cake, but inside I was praying that is how it would appear once I was finished!  There are always unexpected details along the way and as things started figuring themselves out the cake started to take shape which gave me an opportunity to give the glory to God.  I may have even done a cheer or two.  Maybe.  "Yay God!"

 

Because of the weight of the cake topper and the cake and filling itself, I wanted to add some support the the bottom layer.  Who knew straws could be so versatile?

 

Do you see them hiding in there?  They are my support beams for the top layer.  I had no idea how important those would be later that afternoon!  As I neared completion of the cake, time was running out.  Note to self:  Anytime I tell myself I have plenty of time, there's no need to rush, remind self that is a false statement and continue rushing!  The worship music had been turned up, the kids and hubby were now avoiding asking me any direct questions as they new I needed complete focus and attention on the cake.  I was on a mission to finish and I still had to deliver it! 

The cake was done!  I had finished in time and I sang praises to the heavens (literally) that God had yet again met me in what I would consider my weakness to create beauty!

Out the door I went and I was on the road.  Mind you it was 110 degrees that day with about 40% humidity.  Frosting and humidity are not friends.  In fact, their arch rivals.  Enemies you might say.  About 20 minutes into my drive and I realized this first hand.

Here began yet another conversation with God.  "Wait a minute, the cake is finished, I'm done, remember?  You got me through it, You gave me the skill to pull it together just as I pictured it in my head.  That was the hard part, this is the no-brainer part.  Just drive there and drop it off."  What I wasn't prepared for in any way was for my smooth, fondant looking frosting to decide to slide right off of the cake and attempt to take the top layer of my bottom tier with it. 

Definitely NOT in the plan.  When I arrived at the venue and panic officially set in, I called the client and informed her that we had a bit of a "frosting issue" and that I would do my best to fix it once I got the cake out of the sauna otherwise known as Gilbert.  So much for that dry heat everyone keeps talking about.  Mind you I hadn't brought any tools to repair the damage.  Tears are welling up and I am literally having to talk myself out of crawling into the fetal position in the back of my car and staying there until the sun went down.  Can you actually die from pubic humiliation??

I stopped myself and realized there are just some things that are out of my control and at this moment in my life, this was one of them. I had a much more reasonable conversation with God and simply asked Him to be with me, to not leave me, to comfort me and to give me the courage to just get out of the car.  It's no big surprise that He was ready to answer me as soon as I asked Him.  I finally got out of the car and entered the venue, got the cake in it's spot and proceded to "borrow" a cake server to patch the frosting in the spots where it had started to slide.  Remember the straws from earlier?  I truly believe if they hadn't have been in that bottom layer I would have completely lost the cake as it would have slid into the Bermuda Triangle never to be seen again.  The cake ended up being presentable-from a distance-and I found out later that it was delicious so that was comforting.  As I made the drive home there was silence, except for the sound of the biggest sigh of relief that I think I have ever made.  I was officially going into retirement.  Ok, so I may have overreacted a tiny bit, but as always I learned not only something more about myself, but even bigger than that was my newfound revelation about God's love for me.

When I gave my life to God, He didn't promise my life was going to be perfect.  He didn't assure me that I would never experience obstacles or that things would always go exactly as I expected.  What He did promise me was constant companionship, unconditional love, eternal hope and unending peace.  Things that can't be created but things that just are, because God deposited them in me when I said "yes" to Him!  Those gifts are there, but I have to choose to accept them.  John 16:33 says, "I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace.  In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart!  I have overcome the world."  In the grand scheme of things, my little cake disaster was a tiny dot on the map of troubles in my life.  The amazing thing is God doesn't care if it's a little problem or a big problem.  He cares simply because He loves me that much.  He cares simply because He loves all of us that much.  As we live our lives, we have opportunites to choose to trust and rely on God regardless of our circumstances.  And especially during the trials.  It's easy to praise God when things are going great...when frosting doesn't melt and everything works out just as you planned.  But when disaster strikes it's how we react that shows our true character.  Something I  am working on on a minute to minute basis.  As long as we are honest with God and reliant on Him for everything there is nothing we can't get through.

So I drove home exhausted, but no longer defeated.  At peace and full of hope, I thanked Jesus repeatedly for His steadfast love for me.  I ignored the mountain of dishes in my kitchen sink, put my feet up and ate a big bowl of popcorn.  Much better. 

Thanks for reading....

Andrea