A Week in the Life of a Mad Caker (Client complaints, Croup, and all that fun stuff)

This week was one of those week’s that I had to mentally prep for on Sunday night. I checked my diary….then checked my emails…then checked my diary again. Just in case! Because this week was a busy one. One of those busy ones that the panic doesn’t set in just yet, only because the excitement of actually being organised overcomes all that. Yeah I’m weird like that..and I LOVE lists. They excite me. I love writing down every little thing that’s needing done, and then checking them off one by one. There’s something so satisfying about it. And if I’ve done something that wasn’t on the list, you bet your butt I’m gonna write it down only to cross it off…that’s not just me right?!

So the week started off with my Monday shop….20lbs of butter, 15kgs of sugar and about 8 dozen eggs..at least. I made my list of what to bake. 12 cakes…and about 70 shortbread. So I’ve totally got this right?! ermm…not so much. I should have started baking but I was tired…so I left it. I’m the best at procrastinated, and work very well under pressure. So I baked on Tuesday….and no, baking on Tuesday doesn’t mean you’re going to have a stale cake on Saturday. I tend to back, slice and freeze. Freezing my friends, is THE best thing you can do for your cake, especially if you do it as soon as you’ve let the cake cool a bit, tightly wrap in cling film/Saran wrap and bam, Bob’s your uncle. Freezing your cake when it’s still warm will keep all that moisture in your cake and once thawed will be even better and much less dry (do you notice how I’m trying not to use the word ‘moist’ here) than a cake that’s not been frozen at all….True story. This whole frozen cake stigma has GOT to go. Just don’t leave them in the freezer for months on end. No one likes freezer flavoured cake..and yes, that’s a thing.

Anyway, once the cakes were baked it’s really a matter of getting all fillings made up, decorations done and children enterained, And cleaning as you go is a HUGE must…looking at my kitchen mid week you’d probably think I don’t actually heed my own advice.

Anyway, first cake to go out the door…this sweet little washing machine cake. I LOVED making it, even though I despise square cakes and I avoid them where I can. And getting them perfectly square, I’m having heart palpitations just thinking about it. Anyway its a double tall 6 inch vanilla cake filled with Swiss Meringue Buttercream.  To make the folded towels I rolled out a bit of gumpaste, cut it into squares and used a clean an fluffy dishtowel and made an impression on to the paste to give it some texture. I scored the edges with my knife folded each square.

Next was this adorable Wall-E cake. The design was sent to me by my customer. I changed it up just a teeny bit and made all my figures with modelling chocolate. The figures take some time, so I usually make them a week or 2 before on my ‘days off’, thus trying to avoid the monster that emerges within when I’m panicking about time. Its extremely unfair on my family , especially my unsuspecting children.  Kyle just lurks in the shadows and stays out of my way except to thrust hot cups of coffee into my hands every so often to tame the beast.

After Wall-e there were bout 5 dozen cupcakes to go out, which at this point I didn’t even bother about taking photo’s. After awhile priorites are just making sure to get the kids fed and the cakes done. Did I mention that the element in my oven blew? Yep, so now I’m using the top oven…tiny, and no fan. So I can only use the one rack at a time and constantly rotate my cakes to ensure even heat distribution! So 70 shortbread took 3 times longer to bake. But I made it work….

Next up was Saturday’s wedding cake for the beautiful Heather and her groom John. They opted for a 3 tier rustic cake adorned with fresh flowers arranged by Isabel Ross of B’Izzy L’izzy’s. Isabel kinda sorta took over the cake decorating and I just watched. I’m not gonna lie, it was kinda nice after a hectic week…..and I totally trust her so I had nothing to worry about.

 

So now the weeks coming to a close….did I mention my son has croup?! I didn’t initially realise what it was until I heard it had been going around, and despite me being known to be a total symptom checker on Google….this time it really was for real! So he’s being awfully clingy and what can you do but just drop everything for kisses and cuddles and 2am wakeups. I was just really thankful that Kyle’ s days off coincided with my hectic enough week already…I digress.  My last 2 cakes of the week are probably my 2 favourites. They were made for twin girls celebrating their 8th birthday’s. When I finished these (after a 6am wakeup to decorate a smash cake and put finishing touches on these babies) Jaxon decided that he wanted these for his birthday. And if my children love it, and I get a ‘wow mom!! You’re the best cake maker EVER’, I feel pretty confident that the child receiving the cake will be pretty pleased too 😀

 

 

Oh and did I mention the complaint during all this?! 🙈🙊…Yeah I usually don’t disclose this information to those who could be potential clients…but guys. I’m human. I have my off days, don’t we all? Complaints don’t happen often, thankfully, but now if and when they do happen, I handle them without letting it negatively affect my day. Or week….or month. I was really proud of myself when handling this particular complaint. Because the old me would’ve cried for days, thrown a fit and threatened to throw in the towel because im just not good enough. I would’ve allowed somebody to bring be down with the sharp end of their words to the point of breaking me.  But I’m at a hugely spiritual point in my life that when people are just mean and disrespectful I just shower them with more love and empathy. Because they need it. We all need it.  And kindness gets you everywhere. And it takes no huge effort on my part, and I get taught a lesson in humility as well. We all screw up. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been doing a specific job. It happens to us all. And we can all use a lesson in humility once in a while 😉 And before you ask, I’m not going to show you pictures. Not because I’m embarrassed. I fixed my mistake… And I know we can’t please everyone…But I’m not here to bring anyone down. I’m just here to love ❤ 

Y’all must be wondering how my house gets cleaned through all this…..it doesn’t. that’s what mondays were invented for. Yesterday I cleaned the house from top to bottom. 5 loads of laundry, 2 loads in the dishwasher, toilets cleaned, house hoovered, floors mopped, dusting done, clothes put away, beds made, counters bleached, dinner and gin and tonics to relax. And wow! A clean and organised home is the answer to a clear mind. Early bed and meditation and I’m ready for the next week!

On that note, I’m off to work on this week’s wedding cake…and with that will come a new product I’m working on for my Donut Eat Bakery business. Watch this space…..

I would love to hear from you guys so please feel free to leave a comment! I always try to respond in a timely fashion 🙂 xx