Meeting with Masters

I’m relatively new to cake decorating. One year to be exact. I never imagined that signing up for an introductory cake decorating class at Hobby Lobby would in less than a year’s time lead to a new career. I initially signed up because I was blue and needed to occupy my mind with something aesthetic and constructive, rather than wallow in negative thoughts. I was having depression over my job and a growing unrest that I felt there. The workplace and mission had changed and I was not on board with the changes. I also began to look at my colleagues differently. I no longer wanted what they wanted, nor could I find myself able to be what they required me to be. I fought this because I had invested much in my career. 23 years as a museum educator and 15 years at one place. Retirement was within site. But one thing was more in my forefront view than retirement. I was unhappy and needed to change. There was no way I could stay there another 12 years. If I did I would die of insanity or a broken heart.

As I developed skills in cake decorating I began to fantasize about making cakes for a living and I determined to do it as a side-line, to raise extra cash, and channel my creative energies. I thought having my own enterprise away from my full time employment would help me to compartmentalize my troubles, but the toxic environment of the workplace I’d been battling became more so. I became so tormented spiritually that ultimately, I had to leave. After a month of doing virutally nothing but crying and cleaning house, my husband and I took a trip around Lake Michigan. It was a much needed and healing experience. During the trip I decided that when we returned home I would work on identifying my skill sets and focus on rebuilding me. Upon my return the calls – from friends, began to come in, and suddenly I was making cakes for people and getting paid. God had opened a window for me.

It has now been 8 months since I formed Whisk Away Bakery. There have been orders every month and some most unexpected turns. Just this last month I was able to obtain employment at the local County Market Bakery and now I make oodles of cakes every time I work. I’m learning volumes and almost feel like I’m being paid to go to school. Even though the grocery store sells "kit cakes" and is perhaps a bit limited in it’s flexibility in designs, I have been fortunate to learn how decorated cakes are mass produced; what the most popular motifs and decorations are; how to price, label, and package cakes; how to airbrush cakes; and all about marketing strategies and techniques. It’s very valuable schooling.

Just before I was hired at County Market I’d had my first wedding cake order and was a nervous wreck over the affair. Several friends kept saying "you should go see Charlotte", an elderly woman in our community who is a master at making cakes. I kept putting it off, but as luck would have it I ran into her daughter one day when I was buying baking supplies and her daughter, who worked at the grocery store, said "It looks like you’re baking a cake. You should talk to my mother." So I did. I looked her up and introduced myself and told her about my worries regarding the wedding cake project. She offered me the reassurance I was seeking and told me to come see her when I’d gotten through it. A month later I finally had a day to myself and so I called her and she invited me over to her house. I love her to pieces and think that she is one of the most amazing women I’ve ever met. We spent 3 hours talking non-stop about cake designs and how she made them. She told me how she’d had 8 children and after the last one was born decided she’d better find a new hobby! She also kept saying she was a frustrated artist. She always wanted to paint or sculpt but never felt confident ... but when making cakes, she found she could manipulate frostings with some talent and in time she became somewhat of a local legend. The most amazing thing about Charlotte is that she is self-taught. Hearing her story gave me courage and helped me to realize that one need not rely on schooling or an institution to form you and make you a professional. Being professional – being a master at something can be done individually but it requires determination, focus, tons of practice, a willingness to learn from failure and accept some vulnerability, time, and faith in yourself.

Charlotte shared her secrets with me over a glass of iced tea and before I left presented me with a collection of cake decorator’s books she no longer wished to keep. She invited me to call her if I needed to borrow anything and we agreed to keep in touch. I will always treasure this meeting and the sisterhood of cake decorators out there. She gave me much more than baking and decorating tips.

I have only known one other Charlotte in my life but in the next week I would meet my third one. This one, also is a cake decorator. This Charlotte is my supervisor at the County Market and she too is wonderful and an amazing self-taught cake decorator. Both Charlottes have been making cakes for over 40 years and have tackled some phenomenal requests. They talk about these experiences with a calmness that I cannot fathom.

I am fortunate to have these two wonderful mentors in my life and it’s my mission to learn all that I can from them and to make them proud. Knowing them, has taken away all the sting of my departure from my former job. Their gentle ways have given me confidence not just in my work, but in myself. I have a mantra again... "If I think it and I want it, I can be it."
I am in a new world now. A world of making ephemeral, edible art for those celebrating the happy moments and milestones of their lives, and it is good work.