Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Believing in yourself

It is amazing what you can do when you tell yourself you can. Sunday someone asked me to make a cake for a friend graduating.

I thought, Easy! I'll just look at the school logo online and run with that.

Then he said, "She's kind of goth. Well, conservative goth. She likes to dye her hair different colors each week. I kind of want the cake to be more about her."

Uh, ok? I got stuck on the "conservative goth". What does that mean? Just blacks, purples and blues, no spiders and skulls?

That's the whole conversation. He was supposed to facebook me and tell me some of her hobbies, likes, dislikes, her name, and what flavor cake. He never did. The cake needed to be delivered this morning. I teach an early morning class (as in--it starts at 5:55am and ends at 6:50am so the teens can get to school) and the cake would be handed over after class. So, Tuesday at 11am, I decide I'm not getting anymore information. I need to be baking, decorating and cleaning my kitchen for my Wed. cooking class at 10am.

What to do??? This is what I decided.
It turned out better than I thought it would. I used a toothpick to freehand the drawing, then colored with my icing. Two hours later, I felt satisfied with my efforts. :)

As I finished, I thought, if only becoming an author was this easy. Then I realized, I've been doing cakes for a long time. There will always be more to learn and more time needed to practice so I can improve (the kid on top is a little scary with it's purple hair). Writing and becoming a published author is the same thing. And sometimes writing is easier than cake decorating. Although they both make your hands hurt and can give you carpal tunnel. 

You can eat cake, but a well phrased story can stay with you the rest of your life. I guess my point is this--I didn't question whether or not I could do this cake. I need to stop questioning whether or not I can become a successful writer/author.

17 comments:

  1. Wow! That's impressive! I used to do cakes when my kids were little, but that has been a LONG time ago! I love being creative. ;)

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  2. You did an awesome job - hope she appreciates it!

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  3. Thanks! I hope she likes it too.

    I just deleted a spam comment. Does that mean I'm cool? LOL.

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  4. I'm jealous of your cake decorating abilities. For me, writing is way easier than decoring a cake. My cakes look like natural disasters, which isn't a bad thing for my 10 yo who's into that kind of stuff. ;)

    I'm always deleting spam comments from my blog. But really, spam about porno is not appropriate. Period.

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  5. That cake is awesome!! It's been a long time since I got any spam. Knock on wood.

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  6. Sounds like pretty good advice to yourself! LOVE the cake. Goodness I want cake ...

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  7. Wow! I've always wished I could decorate cakes like that. Such a talent. If you've learned to do such wonderful detailed work on cakes...you can write!

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  8. I love the cake! That is one of my favorite Seuss books. It's amazing how many other things in life can be compared with writing and publishing.

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  9. Oh wow - fantastic cake - and what a brilliant writing analogy :-)

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  10. That cake looks awesome. In writing and decorating, I swear YOU can have your cake and eat it, too. ;)

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  11. Wow...nice analogy. Awesome cake.

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  12. That is a very, very nice cake. I'd have loved to have one like it at my graduation. :)

    And that is a very apt analogy. Skills come with practice. And writing is no different.

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  13. Thank you so much everyone! Cake is a nice outlet when my brain is fried from revisions. :) And it tastes better than paper.

    I think I could relate everything to writing or running. That's where my brain is, so everything turns it that direction.

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  14. Wow, I am envious of your cakey talents. :) My sister in law is a cake goddess, too. Not me, sadly. Love this one!

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  15. I love that cake! (Well any cake is good really but artisticaly, that one...takes the cake!)

    You have an award at my blog!

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  16. Hi,

    Just found your blog via fairyhedgehog's and then Free the Princess. Just wanted to say hi! I love the blog. The cake looks lovely, too. I like cake!

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  17. Awesome cake!

    (Though, as a bit of a goth, shouldn't the person atop the column have been wearing black?)

    ;)

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