high-bar baking

I don’t know what I was expecting. I’m telling myself that this is the “before” picture, that there’s no fun in an after picture if it’s identical to the before. That the point of this whole shindig is to get better at the thing I’m bad at. 

Not a ton of consolation, I have to say. I still think this cake looks amateur enough to be kindergarten level. But this is just the beginning. 

All beginnings start this way. I like to point out that people use “baby steps” wrong, in my opinion. They usually take it to mean “small steps.” Pardon my French, but I posit that baby steps actually means shitty steps. They don’t call them toddlers for no reason. Babies fall down a lot. Their steps are halting and terrible and wobbly. But nobody laughs at a baby and says never try again. Universally, as a species, we cheer for babies to take their first steps. And their seconds. 

I’m doing a self-imposed cake challenge this year. Sixteen or so friends. Birthday cakes. And here’s the kicker. They’re supposed to actually look good.

That’s the challenge; trying all the cake decorating techniques that I scroll right past because I don’t like the “fiddly bits.” You see the line halfway up this cake where the frosting pattern changes? I lost my patience. I got tired of taking a knee beside the counter. That’s what we’re here to work on.

And maybe I never do it again. That’s usually my pattern — I get good enough to pull a skill out of my back pocket should I ever need it, and then I move on to something else. I want to see if I can do it. 

So this year, we’re seeing what I can do.

This is Sarah’s Almond Cake with Amaretto Buttercream. I halved the leaveners but should have gone a smidge further; the cake sunk ever so slightly in the middle. I should have used a real round tip to pipe out of, and I should have watched Preppy Kitchen’s video about how to do it before attempting the technique and not after. I should have cut the holes in the bag bigger, and I should have taken a walk when I wanted to rush forward and finish the damn thing when I lost my patience. 

Those are today’s lessons. 

May the Irish win.