"The cake will talk to me and tell me what it needs!" This has always been my response when my very, well organized, perfectionist boyfriend would say to me, "You need to have a Plan"! Most of the cakes I have created have all come together somehow in the end. The story I'm about to tell is regarding the last two cakes I made and how I have come to the realization that a well thought out plan can save you a lot of time, money and stress:
I hate plans. Plans confine you, usually don't come together like you wanted, and require too much time and thought. I thought if I had a general idea of what I wanted my cake to look like, that was a good enough plan. That was before "The Tale of Two Watches"!
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| Without a plan! |
My boyfriend, David is an avid watch collector and I had big "PLANS" to surprise him with a 3d wrist watch cake. I had the idea to do the watch cake for a while. He is my biggest fan and has been very supportive in my cake decorating adventure. I was a little intimidated by doing him a cake because he can be quite the critic, and although it is constructive, I don't receive it very well. Ifound a couple of different pics of wrist watch cakes on the Internet. One was fairly simple and the other was borderline genius. So my "PLAN" was to come somewhere in between.
So off to the store I go to buy the ingredients needed to make the cake. I didn't even know what kind of cake I was going to make when I left the house. Let alone, how much cake to make, what pans to use, how much fondant would be required, icing, food coloring, etc...etc...etc. All I knew was I wanted it to look like a wrist watch and I had less than a week to do it. That night I baked a couple of 9" round cakes from a recipe for yellow cake I found on the Internet. They tasted horrible and I ended up throwing them in the trash. So, back to the store I went, bought a couple of boxes of cake mix and some pre-made icing.
My work schedule that week left me very little time, so on Tuesday of that week I asked my mom to bake two 8" round cakes and a sheet cake for me. I figured the round cakes would be perfect for the face and the straps would be carved from the sheet cake. My mother lives back and forth between my two older sister's. This particular week she happened to be at my sister Deborah's. I thought that was perfect because I could work on it over there and David would not see it. For the next couple of days I would go over there when my shift was over. And although my cake was too light and crumbly for cutting, I had carved out the shape and covered it in fondant by the second day. Waisted a lot of cake and my fondant was not very smooth because the store bought icing was too soft. I hoped once I added all the elements of whatever design I decided to do, it would hide all the lumps, bumps and wrinkles.
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| Drake's Masterpiece |
At this point I really wished I had never started it and wanted to go buy one already made. But he was already expecting something and I didn't want to let him down. Or even admit he was right. My lack of planning was definitely noticeable. It was a sad excuse for a cake and I should be ashamed for not putting more thought into his cake. I waited until the day of his birthday to go back and finish the cake. I thought the pressure would help my creative juices and I could pull it off somehow. Deep down, I knew he would be disappointed. I told him I would call him when I was done.
But before I left the house, I placed a call to my sister. There has been a recent baby boom in her family and she has more grandchildren than I think is fair (since I have none and not happy about that). So, her first and only grandson, Drake happened to be visiting that weekend. He is two and is quite the handful.
Before I had a chance to say I was on my way over to finish the cake, she asked me how important the cake was? She didn't know it, but she was about to help me save face. Drake had snuck into the room where it was, and poked wholes in it. And although I tried to sound concerned, I felt relief. This cake was never going to be what I had hoped and I didn't want David to know I had failed in making it. I didn't have a plan. Now it did not matter! It was filled with wholes placed by a two year old. How do you expect it to look?
So I rushed to the store, purchased more fondant, went to my sisters and slapped together a haphazard birthday cake, that had been "destroyed" by a two year old. I am sure he knew it would not have been even close to as good as other cakes I had made, he never said anything.
A week later a friend of a friend wanted a wrist watch cake for a birthday party she was planning. I accepted the order and knew exactly what I had to do. I asked David to help me with a plan. We discussed what the customer wanted and he drew out a sketch of what the completed cake would look like. I was so excited and could not wait to get started!
But a well thought out plan requires a lot more than a sketch. I am reading whatever I can get my hands on, on the subject and hope to come up with a plan that will work for most every situation. If you have any comments thoughts or suggestions, please post.
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| Wrist Watch Fondant Cake Created by Pam and David |
