Ok, I’m gonna be real with you right now. Like, embarrassingly real. The kind of real that makes me want to revoke my “Cake Ninja” status…
I struggle with making “simple” designs.
I, literally, do not know how to think in terms of “simple.” This is not how my brain operates. My brain likes detail. It produces elaborate, ornate, lush, and complicated solutions in both cake and in life.
My greatest fear, is when a client comes to me wanting “just something simple,” in hopes they can keep their experience budget friendly. My dears, I want to help you. Really, I do! I honestly, from the bottom of my heart, want to fulfill your uncomplicated order that fits within your budget. But it breaks my heart that “simple” designs are something that, for me anyways, require more work than something shaped like this.
It is often said that Less is More, which is true: A cake with fewer design elements demands more perfection and more time to execute it. If anything is even slightly askew, it will be noticed. For my brain, Less is far scarier than More. I want to give you colors, and shine, and interesting shapes and movement! A simple cake with “Congratulations” and some buttercream flowers is easy to find anywhere but here. Go through my portfolio. You will find that they are not the cakes I often make.
My favorite orders are always the the ones where my clients expresses that they trust me with the design and leave it up to me. This little beauty was one such case. The only downside to being given total creative freedom, is that more time is spent trying to nail down a design. This cake had two different incarnations of itself, both involving an unfortunate experiment with trying to color buttercream with an airbrush. But hey, what did I expect when I tried to break my own rule? I’ll spare you the pictures. It was not a happy outcome.
But from these attempts always comes something more lovely that I imagined I was capable of making. These challenges force me to think outside of my own creative box and expand the parameters in my head for good art. And so, little monochrome cake, I thank you for keeping me awake until 3:00 am… This time. 😉
I’ve also begun experimenting with making time lapse videos! What others kinds of videos would you like to see? Leave a suggestion in the comment section below!
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