Nerves of steal

It's been a busy weekend so far with two challenging cake requests to tackle.  I always love a challenge as turning an idea into a cake is half the fun!  This weekend has taught me that no matter how well thought through the idea is, how planned the plan is, it's not until you've got that fondant in front of you that you know how it will turn out.

And the clock's ticking.  From the moment the cake's baked you're on a countdown until the cake is collected.  Usually there's an event for which the cake is a key ingredient.  When thing's go wrong (which is usually at half past midnight, let's be honest!) you can either give up or press on.  The thought of giving up can often be the thing that spurs you on.  It did for me last night.  The thought of ringing a customer to say "I'm sorry but..." doesn't bear thinking about!  So I pressed on.

And it wasn't quite as disastrous as I'd first thought.  Half an hour later I was ready to leave things for the night and was pleasantly surprised to see that nothing had collapsed while I slept.  Some last minute tidying up first thing and a cake subsequently collected and hopefully well received.

To me my cakes are a labour of love; I enjoy making them and love the challenge of decorating them.  But their life-span is relatively brief - sometimes even a fraction of the time it took to create them.  Within hours they are reduced to crumbs and committed to memory.  They become part of a birthday, a retirement, a childhood recollection.  Which is as it should be.

Once a cake is collected I never relax until I know the occasion has taken place.  I hope the has cake lived up to expectation and I can begin to nurse my rattled nerves and start planning the next creation.