Frosting and Fashion

This summer was a busy one for cakes. I found myself evaluating along the way. Am I sick of this? Do I really want to do this? But each time, I came back to the pleasure I feel in my core... I love what I do. I was born to create.

I love the chemistry of flour and leaveners. I love hearing eggs beat in a rhythm to a tune in my head. I never tire of it. I do tire, however. But I wake up the next morning with a recipe idea or a thought of how I could decorate or display a cake differently. What flavor combination might I try?

As much as I love the baking process, if I had to choose one element that is my favorite it would be the frosting or decorating of a cake. I love working with different cake mediums. I enjoy buttercream and piping with royal frosting. Fondant work is daunting but ridiculously clean and beautiful. Lately, I have tried my hand at sugar art. Rolled fondant and gum paste can seem overwhelming at first. It takes so much more time than I first imagined.

Each petal must be created by hand. Every vein is thoughtfully placed, each overlap or curl of a petal or leaf. ...Where it dries, it stays.

I had the pleasure of making a cake for a 90th birthday party. This beautiful lady had mentioned to her daughter that she had memories of her mother placing white flowers called 'mock orange' on her birthday cakes when she was a girl.

I had never heard of that flower, but I researched it and decided I wanted to bring back a piece of her past on this, a celebration of her 90th year of life.

Cakes are temporary. They are a momentary commemorative display of edible art. Not something you can keep forever, and hang on a wall or put in a cabinet. They are just placed on a plate or cake stand and cut and served to be eaten. Some might argue "why bother?" Why would I put in hours and hours to painstakingly create petals for flowers that will be eaten in 10 minutes?

I believe that anything worth doing is worth doing with excellence. And no matter how brief its existence, a beautiful cake is remembered not only for the sweet ending of an event, but for the feeling it gives.

Cakes have the opportunity to thrill the senses and touch the heart. They can be a description of a person and as individual as we all are. I hope each cake ordered from Frosted is a memorable one and that memory not only tastes good on your tongue, but reaches the heart.

Thank you for hiring me and allowing me to be a part of your story in this way.

- Julie, Frosted