Growing Pains

I occasionally make cakes.  "Occasionally" tends to coincide with the birthdays of my children.  This is a talent and a tendency I inherited from my mother, who was far more talented than I am myself, in this area and many others.  Pinterest, however, has been a fabulous source of inspiration, and most of them have turned out rather cute, despite the stress I place on myself, the dismal working conditions (our kitchen at the old house was TINY, and I have yet to make one since the move), and the repeated threats to just buy the darn thing this time, which I always talk myself out of doing because it costs so. much. more.  I never really expected to move beyond the (almost) monthly rush to find a suitable (and achievable) design and bring it to life in time for a horde of small people to devour it with ice cream.

The other day, my ex-husband's fiancé asked me to make their wedding cake.  In February. And I found myself saying, "Well, I'd have plenty of time to practice the requisite skills."  And that, dear friends, is how I found myself obsessing over cake designs and how-to's on Pinterest, and planning to make the next birthday cake, which is, as it happens, a 2-kid party, in two stacked tiers just for the practice.  What in the world was I thinking?

I just recently made my first fondant cake.  Admittedly, I was rather pleased with the results, and I definitely plan on using fondant again.

Oh, there you are, Perry.

But never mind all that.  I'm pretty sure I just agreed to a wedding cake.  You know, the basic epitome of cake decorating skill.  I'm also fairly certain I agreed to gum paste roses.  Which, oddly enough, scare me less than buttercream roses.  Because I can do this. . .
 

. . . when I'm just fooling around with some play doh.  I imagine, given the proper tools and a little time to practice, I'll be able to pull off passable gum paste roses.

But now I'm starting to think of other things.  Like if I can pull this off, what's to stop me from making cakes to sell?  I'm always searching for a realistic way I can pull in some supplemental income around here, and rejecting every idea as, well, not being realistic.  And truthfully, I might reject this one, too.  But maybe not.  But it's hard to even find time to consider it thoroughly.  The house and kids require quite a bit of my attention, and a business venture would as well.  And I start to doubt my own abilities.  A lot.  I've invested before in ideas that didn't pan out.  Time.  Money.  Heart.  It's discouraging when you fail.

But eh.  It's not like I have to decide tonight, after all.  Tonight is for planning, and list making.  Tomorrow is for shopping and icing and fondant prep.  Maybe some baking.  Wish me luck, friends.  I'm going to need it.