As some of you know, I am a baker (pastry chef not by trade). Everything I know I have learned through experience, research and talking with others.

I make an assortment of desserts from cookies, bars, bites etc to cakes and pies. But to be honest my favorite thing to do it cakes. Pies come in 2nd. I would actually prefer to do just those two things and forget about the little things. But living in a small town does have its downfalls when it comes to having your own business.

This week I was busy making a wedding cake. It was nothing difficult. The order I was given was to make the cake like the one she took off Pinterest; to have a rustic style cake with burlap and real roses. Chocolate and vanilla, 3 ties, for 100 people. Even though, in my opinion, it's a plain Jane cake, it still turned out nice.

I have found that finding the right sized cake for the number of people can be quite hard to choose. From the style of cake the person may want, to the number of layers, to the weight of the cake etc. For this one I decided to go for 12 inch bottom, 10 in the middle and 8 for the top. Each tier had 4 layers.

What worried me was that because I am not the one that made the original, it wouldn't turn out to be exactly like it. I understand that it would be normal that it doesn't look exactly like it, and that it comes close is just fine, but I am too much of a perfectionist and if something doesn't end up being right, I worry about it for days. So these days were stressful and not just about making it look right but also because time was not on my side.

Everything was happening at once. The first layer of glass to my oven shattered into a million pieces. What was interesting was the glass was popping after it broke like popcorn. Perhaps because it was tempered glass, I don'know. But it does play with the heat. I stressed a bit over that since it was now hard to bake the cake just right. I won't elaborate on everything going on with the kids, the husband, the family, etc. I'm sure saying that I had to run to town to grab groceries isn't so interesting.
Along with life happening, I had to work as well. So I baked and then went to work. Bonus part is that none of the kids decided to eat the cake! YES!

Good thing the cake as a simple one though. Just that alleviate some of the stress.

Fast forwarding to the time of delivery. I had my cake in boxes and ready to go. I opened the van door and all I saw was broken goldfish crackers everywhere. Oh God! I had forgotten that the kids ate in the van and I had no time to clean up the mess. That just looks mighty fine on my part when delivering a wedding cake, doesn't it?
The best thing I could do was to grab towels and lay it out on the carpet floor. Loaded up the cakes and away I went.

Arriving at the hall, I had build up the cake. There was no way I was driving 30 minutes travel by myself with a stacked cake and with that nothing to protect the cake. This part was stressful.
The people there had to wait till I was done so they could lock the place up and leave. Never have I had anyone watch me do up a cake, especially a wedding cake.
Carefully placing each tier, wishing that once it's place that it is perfectly centered, then adding the flowers. The flowers were not in the best shape. The florist did not have the best, healthiest flowers for me to use. Sticking them in the cake was hard. Some did not have the strength for me to pressure the rose in far enough. I wanted to cry. The pressure of the people, the possibility of screwing up on a wedding cake was huge! I started to feel lost, not sure how to arrange the flowers, I had to stop and breath. I took a step back and searched myself, assuring myself that I have good skills and that it is going to work out. Trust in myself. I took a deep breath, exhaled and continued with the flowers.

I did my best and I think it turned out alright!

I notice there is a gap between the flowers but I did what I could with what I had. Being nervous also didn't let me see everything clearly. Lesson learned I assure you.

I haven't heard anything back from anyone. Hoping that is a good thing. No news is good news?

So now I get to relax and I feel pretty beaten at this moment. Those days seemed to have lasted forever and it didn't help that I ate once a day during those 3 days. Today, is a me day and I am munching all day :p

Enjoy the day and may every experience be a great chance to learn and grow xxx