Happy Birthday to Me!

I got a nice little surprise for my birthday this year: a birthday cake!

As a cake decorator, I certainly don't mind making my own birthday cake. After all, it's what got me into cake decorating in the first place: I wanted to make awesome cakes for my birthday! But it's also a nice treat when someone else gets me a cake, whether they buy it or make me one. Even if they don't really know how to decorate! ;)

This year, my boyfriend make me a cake. Although it wasn't a total surprise, since he came over to grab some cake pans and a spatula and to ask me if gel icing or decorating icing was better for the cake (protip: go for the decorating icing. And don't forget to get that little plastic wheel with all the tips on it!) But I didn't get to see the cake until my birthday, so that part was a surprise!

And I was pretty impressed with his "cake wreck!" You should see this guy's handwriting; it's basically chicken scratch, but he did a pretty legible job with that icing bag! (I would've loved to watch him trying to fit all the words on there!) I've definitely had my name spelled wrong all my life (everybody wants to call me Kelsey) so it was a very fitting 'wreck. And I appreciate the homage to all the other literal wrecks out there.  I think the best part, though, was that he really did leave out a letter in my name and had to go back and re-write it!

Also, the cake was delicious. Sure it was a box mix, but you know what? Boxed cake mix is still delicious, and it was baked with love after all! Plus, it's funfetti cake, and you really can't go wrong with sprinkles. And the icing? Cream cheese. It was super tasty AND I didn't have to do any of the work: happy birthday to me!

Rain, Rain, Go Away

If you haven't noticed from browsing my Instagram page, I've been on a sugar flower kick lately. I'm not sure what exactly inspired it, except that I really wanted to decorate something, and I had all these cutters that I never use. So, sugar flowers it is! (Plus I'm kind of procrastinating on that competition cake I need to do for September. I'm terrible about that sort of thing!)

Here we have pictured is the cymbidium orchid, which I still have trouble spelling. It's probably my favorite flower that I've done so far.

I always like to take photos of my flowers outside on my balcony/porch/lanai/patio, because natural sunlight makes for the best photos (and I am shooting on a two-year-old cell phone camera, so I need all the help I can get!!) but the problem is, IT WON'T STOP RAINING.

Do you know how hard it is to snap an Instagram-worthy pic when you're dodging raindrops the whole time?? The roof of my balcony leaks, so I was seriously standing out there trying to find the one spot on my table that wasn't in the path of raindrops.

Luckily, my delicate little sugar flower avoided any catastrophe, and I was able to get him back inside to safety. In case you didn't know, sugar flowers basically start dissolving in water (You've seen that episode of the Magic School Bus, right?), and I didn't want all my hard work to go to waste like that! (I've wasted enough petals accidentally snapping them in half; I don't need mother natures' help!)

But I think if my biggest struggle with these sugar flowers is the rain, then I'm doing a pretty good job with them. Plus, I've got a nice little indoor garden going on right now, which is pretty cheery even when it's so gloomy outside!

So I was making Peonies, and...

... do you see what I see?

Maybe?

No?

...I feel like I'm taking crazy pills

Happy Birthday, Ryan!

It looks like a pretty boring and unassuming cake, right?

Well... You'd be wrong.

First of all, because it is delicious. So never assume my cakes are boring. Delicious things can't be boring, they just can't.

This cake happens to be red velvet with an Irish cream cream cheese frosting. A little awkward to say, but certainly not awkward to eat.

And also, I may be taking some liberties with the term "red" velvet. Because honestly, with a little food coloring, your "red" velvet cake can pretty much be any color ever.

Except maybe blue. Blue is apparently a really hard color to make, because the batter is yellow-ish already, and blue dye just kind of turns... green. Which is only a problem if you're trying to make a blue-and-orange Florida Gators cake, and end up with a green-and-orange Miami Hurricanes cake.

Right. It looks more blue in person, I promise! And while Ryan is definitely a ginormous Gators fan, and not so much a Hurricanes fan, he's kind of colorblind anyway, so I was able to convince him the cake was blue and orange! ;-)

Bittersweet Nostalgia

Let's take a moment to reflect on Where Kelsie Was two and half years ago...

So I wrote this in December 2012:

It's amazing how frustrating life can get, and even when you think you're doing the right thing with your life, you can get all turned around and confused about where you're actually headed.
I graduated college back in April (whoo hoo!) and while that was certainly an exciting time for me, and definitely the biggest accomplishment of my life, it all seems so far away now. I moved back home right after graduation and started a part-time job at a bakery I had worked at for the past two summers. The part-time job I had hoped would turn into a full-time job never materialized, so I got a second part-time job at a local grocery store.
I didn't think I would like working in a grocery store bakery, and sometimes I don't. Sometimes when I have to stand there and make 16 identical carrot cakes all in a row, it gets a little boring. After figuring out how to make the cake the first time, the challenge just disappears. Now, when I get to make the birthday cakes, those character sheet cakes with the crazy airbrushing all over it? There's a challenge. Sometimes the designs are a little bizarre, and I'm always conscious of Cake Wrecks when I'm working on them. My manager is an amazing person, she's very personable and sweet, but she will also be the first to let you know not to cross her. I really admire her and her leadership abilities. And when she says to me that I've got talent, I know that she means it and she's not just saying that to be nice, and that means a lot to me.
Even though I've got great managers and co-workers (seriously, they make me love going to work), and even though I was surprised at how much I enjoyed making grocery store cakes (and have I mentioned that I've practiced my buttercream roses so much that they actually look like buttercream roses?!), I know I'm not going to work there forever. Maybe I'm just scared of being in one place for too long, but I honestly cannot see myself working there forever. Which is probably a good thing, that I have my sights set on something higher.
The problem is, I just don't know what that is yet.
I do know that I need to keep on continuing my education. Like the Lambeth class I took back in August (how I wish I could've taken the second part of the class this month! Too bad I was working two jobs and couldn't take the time...

I never finished the post, and it's been sitting in my draft folder... But I think 2012 Kelsie was on to something that 2015 Kelsie needed to be reminded of. Sometimes your journey has some weird-o twists and turns, but I remain optimistic that it will all work out in the end. As long as I can keep taking Lambeth classes.

But in the meantime, here's a picture of some homemade cinnamon rolls!