10/11/2025
There is a story to tell about this cake...
In life we all have our passions and things that we obsess about in what we call "the journey". In this journey of cake, which for me began as a therapy of sorts. I just started by buying a few tools and started making some manic cakes, very reflective of my headspace at that time. Since then, I have done all the work to improve and rediscover who I wanted to be, what I wanted to be and what I needed to change my situation at that time. As I started, I fell into a love like relationship, with cake decorating. Just like any relationship, we fight and then we make up.
This cake is my statement.
It said to me, Donna you took on two insanely important events, catering for 300 plus people, one at a wedding the other a career celebration, both of which I very much wanted to be a part of. I have such deep emotions and a connection to my clients needs and all I want to do is make them happy. However, this cake was set on testing me and pushed me past my limit and to be fair, it wanted me to learn something more valuable than how efficient I thought I had become.
Come mid week, progressing well with my 10" by 5' base cake, starting to stack and fill, and it came time to use my template so I had to lift this cake into the air and flip it upside down to allow me to place the bottom guide, then lift again to have to top guide put in place. Somewhere within that process, the cake weighing possibly 8 plus kg it was just to heavy and mid flip, my arms just could not do it. Yes, the cake was ruined... I knew this meant remaking, stacking and frosting and coming up with a solution so this would not be repeated.
At this stage, I just dropped to the floor. Yes I went down and stayed on the floor sobbing, "I just can't" ... my heart was breaking because my inner voice was saying "look what you have done", "you are so stupid", "you are not good enough"... 'Just Quit".
I admit this is not a post that promotes how great I am at what I do, it is however a very honest disclosure of my mistakes, my struggle with my anxiety and my overwhelming emotions when things go so terribly wrong.
On the flip side, first thing I did was call a meeting with my clients and I come forth with the difficulty of the design coming together. I told them how sorry I was that I knew I would be making them nervous, but I had to be honest and say I am just not strong enough to flip this size and weight and offered up the solution that the base cake guide needed to stay on the cake. We were aiming to use the corrugated details at Lilburndale.
So here we were Tuesday... I after an emergency call to my therapist, a really good cry and the love and patience of my clients and Amy, at the venue, I overcame what could have possibly ended this whole relationship with baking.
I am deeply aware, how important events such as these are. I approach my work as if I were doing it for my own loved ones. The same amount of cost, time and love go into every detail. I am so incredibly grateful for how things worked out and apart from a few nerves, I had some little helpers at the final hour, who turned it around, if I'm honest, I learnt an incredible lesson.
Seeing Lauren with her two young daughters really was the illuminating message of the night, that life is a gift, it is filled with things that can go wrong, things we can not control, things we can not do and it is ok to be true to yourself and know that a little extra self care, some self love and a plan B is all we need sometimes. As Lauren shared with me, "you are going to slay this cake, and say, I did that, even when I was faced with that" and it really landed with me. As she left with her daughters, I was reminded of the joy caking gives. That was a very special moment for me.
So this cake, is my latest Milestone. It is a beautiful feeling deep inside when you reach the top, when it comes together and you can know, I did that!
