As seen on tv

Oh to be the boss of an Italian bakery and have my large, skilled family around me to handle the paper work, the phone calls, make hundreds of flowers and be there for me to explode at when I'm having a bad day.

Oh how nice it would be to have a dozen interns to hand things off to and a couple of high skilled artists on my team that I know I can count on to make the impossible possible. 

Oh how reality cake television has just about driven me off a cliff with the impossibly high bar it has set with the expectations it presents to the local bride. When  bride-to-be starts laying out her wedding cake plans and wants to "shoot the moon" I'm fine with that.  The only time I ever have issue is when they contact me in such a short time frame that many of the sugar decoratins they want aren't possible in that time frame.  While some decorations can be done a day to hours ahead many take a week and sometimes more. 

What takes mere moments on television takes hours, weeks and days for the rest of us (and secretly for them too.  That's why it's called the "magic" of television.)  It makes me feel like a one armed paper hanger sometimes.  Despite what it seems, baking and decorating really is work.  Transporting and setting up a cake really is work.  It's stressful, tiring, long hours and nerve wracking to say the least.  I absolutely love it but that doesn't make it any less work.   Despite what television shows us in a one hour show, it takes them more than a couple of days as well.  My overall goal is to provide my client with the most delicious and unique cake they can find.  I try to involve my clients in as much of the design process as possible.  I want it to be their cake.

 So if you're shopping for a cake for any occasion please remember to be realistic in your time frame.  Please do not wait until only a few weeks until you need your edible masterpiece to contact your cake provider.  You will either find they are already booked or that the cake you are dreaming of may take more time than you have given your baker/decorator - unless you really want the drama you see on tv.