I Can Do That!

I can't remember a time where doing something creative was not on my list. I love to create, from the simplest project to giant Pac-Man arcade machines made entirely of cardboard, I have always loved it. I am not kidding about the Pac-Man arcade machine either. My family is huge on themed birthday parties and for my Uncle's 50th birthday we decided on an 80's themed party. I had the bright idea that I could make all of the decorations out of cardboard. There was everything from converse shoes to cardboard cut outs of Megaman and Mario, but the star of the show was the Pac-Man machine that everyone in the pub kept trying to play. If I ever make one again, I am going to make sure to include a real coin slot because I could have made some good money that night.

I have also done crochet here and there. I have made blankets, toques, and a lot of fingerless gloves for a lot of people. I used to wear them all the time as well, but I have not used them as much since I quit smoking.

There are many other creative activities that I take part in, but only one that brings out the best in me. When I pull out all of my tools, including my favorite pair of orange scissors, I instantly disappear into my mind. The happiness that is created when I start to make a cake is out of this world. Making cakes allows me to be creative in a way that I have never known in anything else and it all started watching a show on a Monday night.

I was sitting on the couch and a little-known show came on. This was the first time that I had ever seen Cake Boss. I binged every episode I could get my hands on, during one such episode, I decided "I can do that"! I went to the store and picked up all the things that I would need to make a fancy cake. Luckily for me it would not be a wasted cake as my niece's birthday was coming up. At the time she was into Nightmare Before Christmas and Justin Bieber. In the end my first fancy cake was a girly Nightmare Before Christmas cake with a hand sculpted bottle of Bieber perfume on it.

After that I started making cake for all kinds of occasions and almost every family birthday. Some of the cakes were simple like the one I made for my daughter's 7th birthday.

Some of them were more complex. Even though my brother's Viking cake looks simple the boat was quite a project, not to mention the research to write words in real Viking on the cake. I started to think I could do other things as well, like make my own fondant. Fondant is expensive and I thought there must be an easier way, so off to YouTube I went.

The result was marshmallow fondant. It was not as nice of a finish but lowered the cost on the cakes I was making. After all I do not make them professionally, so I don't get paid. Plus they still look really good.

I had to share the book cake that I made for my Niece's 18th birthday because it is my sister's favorite and if she ever reads this, I don't want the phone call with the lecture about where this cake is.

One of the cakes that I am the proudest of is my dad's 50th birthday cake. He loves the Calgary Flames and Nascar, so it seemed only fitting that I did the flames rink with a track around it, but that is not why I am so proud of this cake. This cake is the first cake where I had painted a major design on it entirely out of melted chocolate. If I do say so myself it turned out great. (My dad still has the rink piece, aww).

Last, but not least I am happy to report that the apple does not fall far from the tree. The cupcakes pictured above were decorated by my daughter. The thing that brings me joy to create has rubbed off on her and instilled a love to create in her too. There is not much I could ask for because if we have a passion to create we have the ability to heal ourselves and bring joy to others. I will leave you with a few more pictures of cake because who doesn't love cake, that looks like other stuff.