cake therapy

It's been a while since I've posted. It's been a while since I've felt like myself. That's not to say I haven't have some lovely glimmers of happiness over the last couple of weeks, but the clouds have been pretty dense and the tears very close to the surface (or burbling over) much of the time. But I'm coping and that's worth noting. And I've had some lovely positive experiences, and that's worth celebrating. Tonight I'm compelled to share how beautifully helpful it's been to be creative in a completely different realm than my work-a-day creativity. It's all about cake.

Riding on the inspiration of a dear friend, I've ventured into the wonderful world of fondant icing. My travelling companion in this fair land is the fabulously creative J, at whose side I've spent hours playing with colour and shape and texture and creating playful works of edible art. Our first venture was a fairy cake:



With fairies such as this wee star-gazer, whom we named Violet:



Then we moved on to bug/garden cupcakes, with characters like this:



Can you see how therapeutic this can be? It's play-dough for adults. There is, of course, extra pleasure in knowing what delight will rise in the eyes and appetites of the little ones for whom we make the cakes. This spring we made a Tea Party cake:



I was particularly proud of the cucumber sandwiches. Yes, that's all icing.



Last week, we branched out to serve adult (albeit playful adult) tastes with a daisy wedding anniversary cake:



All the more satisfying when it elicited this response:



But tonight's decorating venture really takes the cake. Tonight we laughed so hard at the results of our handiwork that it was abundantly clear that we were both delighted with the whimsy we were able to participate in and desperate for a laugh. First, the scene... A tranquil garden, peaceful green, playful pink...



And into this Garden of Tranquility.... Enter Felix, the Snail, the Party Dude.



In the spirit of the five year old for whose party this was created, we thought it fitting that Felix (the birthday girl simply ADORES snails) took a pre-emptive sample of the birthday cake. It was especially fun to "nibble" into the cake and affix enough buttercream icing and chocolate cake crumbs to make Felix look joyfully guilty.



"Who me? What cake?"

Laughter really is the best medicine.