Wednesday, April 24, 2013

My new blog

I got a second chance at pursuing my hobby. I consider it a fresh beginning. Therefore, starting a new blog www.cakesbecause.blogspot.com.


This will be my platform to write about my baking experiences, my goof ups, successes, share ideas and post pictures of all my creations, good or bad. Please remember, I am neither a professional cake decorator nor a professional photographer. Expecting fabulous results would be a mistake. All I can promise is my sincere effort and total devotion to every project I undertake. I hope to be an accomplished cake decorator one day. With this blog let me take you through that journey with me.

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

I Do Cakes.....Because I Love To

I was feeling restless to do something worthwhile and prove to my children that I could be more than just being their mother who cooks, cleans and stays at home. So I left baking, decorating, cooking classes and newsletters to become a true professional who looks and acts like one, wears high heels and talks of work all the time. Yes, the whole of 2011 and 2012 I was employed at a big Tampa firm as their Research and Data Analyst. I was miserable, so I quit.

Here I am once again, a non professional mother who cooks, cleans and stays at home for her children. I care no more about what my kids or anyone else thinks. I am staying home so that they can eat healthy home cooked food, get help with homework to keep their grades up, and most importantly get an unhurried hug at their bed time. Hopefully, someday they will appreciate my resolve. The fact is, I am a mother and I love being one. I don't ever want to give it up. Yet, I also want to be an individual who can be creative, be productive. This time however, I don't plan to give up all that I love for being a little extra.

2013 has brought in baking and decorating back in my life. Not because I advertised but because my friends still remember me as a cake lady. They ask for the price and just like before, I never know what to quote. Before I used to struggle with all those calculations of costing and profits. Many times it took the fun out of decorating. Towards the end my creativity depended on how much profit I could make. Now that I think about it, that was probably one of the reasons I went back to the corporate world.

This time round I have decided not to get tangled in the pricing at all. For me each cake is a new project. The amount of time and material that goes into each depends on my level of expertise with the technique I choose to use for the cake at hand. Most of the time, its at a beginner level because I always end up trying out a new technique of decoration. What can I do? There is so much to learn and explore! I want to do it all at least once. Resulting, I spend way more time than the experts do on each cake. Of course, along comes wastage when I have to scrape off my mistakes and restart all over again. How do I calculate all this in quoting the price for my cakes?

Cakes are my work of passion. I do cakes because I simply love to. I love creating cakes as much as a child loves to build weird things out of Lego pieces. It is a puzzle for me that if solved properly can be a surprisingly satisfying feeling. It is not a business for me, therefore no need for profit or grudge on loss. I am sure my darling husband is paying dearly for my passion each month towards his credit card bills, but since he doesn't complain, ( I truly consider myself lucky. Touch Wood!) I can keep decorating cakes my way. So no more calculations. I am anyways not a genius when it comes to accounting, so why even bother!

If you want a cake from me, tell me what you can afford to pay for the cake that you want, I will create it for you. That's my motto. I will also take into consideration all your food allergies. Gluten free and egg free cakes have almost become my specialty!

To keep it simple, I Do Cakes.....Because I Love To. Explore more about me, and my cakes in my new blog, Cakes Because