A Lesson In Co-Worker Valuation
How I Became The Birthday Cake Specialist
Cakes. They have been a part of my life from the beginning. I remember many a car ride down the mountain we lived on as my mom sweated buttercream stressing over multiple layers of beautifully crafted wedding cakes pieces traveling to some destination for later assembly. My mother was an artist with frosting, and I still have her write on any cake that I produce if she is around. Her perfect script looks fantastic sprawled across a bed of frosting.
Here's her writing on my daughter's birthday cake this weekend:
My journey with cake construction began at a young age, but I really didn't get into refining my style until after I had kids. Dry cake was my inspiration, as I think one of the grossest things on the planet is dry, sawdust textured cake. Overly sweet frosting is a close second. Time availability is another factor that I have to consider, so I have got my cake making method down to a science. I can take a boxed cake mix and turn it into something apparently amazing. What I don't do is follow the instructions, I have made my own. Things like replacing some of the water with buttermilk, adding an extra egg, beating it for longer than the instructions suggest. It's gotten to the point where I can eyeball the batter and know if I need more liquid in the mix.
However, I made a tactical error. I took a cake one year as a gift to one of my co-workers. It was my German Chocolate Cake, and it is pretty good. I toast the coconut and pecans for the frosting that I do make from scratch. This particular cake is a delicious blend of moist cake, textured filling, and a light, fluffy, slightly-sweet chocolate frosting. Somehow this cake was so good that I have been selected as the official birthday cake provider for each employee's special days. As there are five of us, that's not really a big deal, for I love the people that I work with, but two of my co-workers birthdays happen the same week as my daughter's birthday. So guess who got to make and decorate five cakes in 3 days!
I have a serious admiration for people that construct pastry and cake majesty for a living. They are the true artisans of the confection world. My goal is to make people smile with things that taste good, and today I did just that. My co-workers sat around me in silence, uttering occasional moans and grunts of contentment. Sure, I usually have a million things to do, but there is something incredibly fulfilling about being able to give a gift of something that you are rather decent at as an offering of goodwill and friendship to those you spend time in the trenches with.
Our color printer was acting rather fussy today, and we thought maybe the magical cake could turn its bad attitude around. We emailed this picture to our IT guy. I'm sure he appreciated our efforts.
And as always, all of the images in this post were taken by the author on her frosting smeared iPhone.
Te felicito @generikat. Es una manera magistral de presentar tu trabajo
Muchas gracias @giovis! ¡Su comentario es muy apreciado!
Seems you are a true cakeologist extraordinaire. Very impressive. I always loved when folks brought cakes to work. Made the day go so much better. A bit wiggidy afterwards, but what fun. The German Chocolate looks pretty much divine. Well, short comment tonight, gotta head to bed. I've been waaayyyy under the weather lately, to the point of missing in action on here. But ow time to get back to it. Have a good night.
There is some real sadness emanating from my direction over your lack of feeling fine and fancy. Your absence was noted, and I do so hope you are feeling better today! You are missed!
My blog is a touch neglected as well right now, due to an escape to Oregon for a cousin's wedding. I'll make it up to the Steemit machine by having all sorts of new stories to post. Already I have an adventure about Hood River's lack of crosswalks and my son and I breaking land-speed records crossing the street!
Thank you dearly for the cake comments, it would be my pleasure to bestow one upon you, as they tend to appear around my friends😊
Ooh, my very own cake. I have a bad habit of eating most of the whole thing, so I try to not make them very often. Then again, they are not half as good as that one up there looks. So even MORE trouble. I am feeling much better, thank you verymuch. And it IS nice to be missed. Hope you are enjoying the Oregon stay. I wrote on the newest post, so won't bombard you here. Then again, you are probably in the car jetting home, so maybe a Looooonnnggggg story would be appreciated here...