A cake, a milestone, and lessons learned

It's been an interesting week filled with baking and (apparently much needed) lesson learned. In addition to the Cinco de Boy's Day fish cookies there were also mojito cupcakes (which will make it here eventually,) and a last minute cake order.

Order?? Yes, order. Someone actually paid me to make a cake for them which was the milestone. Get it? A CAKE, A MILESTONE? If you don't, got back and read the title again please and if you still don't get it, get some ice cream. That fixes just about everything.

The cake request came from a woman whose daughter was having a Sweet 16 tonight with a bit of an Alice in Wonderland theme. While I had some great ideas - okay 1 idea - tumbling around my head, 2 days was not enough time for a novice like me to try it out. I ended up compromising and offered a blue fondant cake with white diamonds. I don't know why but diamonds seem to go with Alice. As you can tell, it's been quite some time since I watched the cartoon version and I sure didn't watch Johnny Depp's.

A couple of late nights resulted in a cake that I was "eh" about but I had no time to go back and start over and several lessons learned.

1. When committing to a design, make sure you have the right dang cutters - both size and shape. I suggested diamonds. Did I have a diamond cutter? Nope. Had to bend a couple of squares. Where they the right size? No, AGAIN They were too big for the cake so I had to cut everything down with a ruler and a knife. But I do like how the tips of the diamonds are higher than the cake, giving it a slight rabbit ear look.
   
2. Remember drastic temperature changes! I tried left the top tier out too long after I covered it and it developed a huge bubble that I couldn't get rid of. I had to cut the fondant off, re-frost, chill and cover again which brought me back to cutting the diamonds.
3. Allow yourself creative liberties. When asked about design, the client basically left it up to me and while searching for diamonds I found a heart shape that wasn't a typical rounded heart but instead more narrow. I tried it out and decided that I liked it. It still had an "Alice" feel to it.
4. Don't take an order 2 days before the cake needs to be done. Especially if you have a full time job and you know the next 2 weeks are going to be busy and stressful. It's not fun to go to work on about 4 hours of sleep. Even more so when your boss is having a bad day.
5. Remember that you do this because you enjoy it and your next cake will be better.
   
6. When all else fails, remember that you have a mojito cupcake hiding in the fridge!
7. The most important lesson of all - find a cleaning fairy! Then send her/him over here!