I Tried Cake Decorating

It all started when my sister graduated and became a certified EMT—Emergency Medical Technician. I had to stay home while my mom and sister went to a humanitarian aid packing even due to my tremendous lack of energy from Lymes. I wanted to do a surprise for my sister's completion of the EMT course. What a better time for a surprise than the three days when she would be gone?

Before my sister left, I managed to get her badge without giving away my secret, but she was suspicious. For once in my life, I didn’t give up my secret when pressed, because this was a good one I desperately wanted to do. The day she was to come home, I baked a round cake, studied her badge and recreated it on the top of the cake. I unveiled it when she returned, and she was surprised and pleased in her own quiet way.

I enjoyed making edible art, so I found every opportunity to do it. I made cake for my own birthday, using a pink ombre finish on the sides and top of the cake. Then, I made a cake for a friend’s baptism. It was a white cross with her name written across, decked with a few cosmos. I did a lovely job, and the result looked like a granite tomb stone. This happened to be appropriate for a baptism, as we are buried with Christ through baptism into death. My experiment included a pink cake for my grandmother, with my attempt at icing roses which were only ¼ inch tall.

My brothers, for a triple birthday, got my rendition of a fishbowl—brilliant blue, perfectly frosted cake speckled with Swedish fish and jellybean bubbles. My enthusiasm was whetted, as I worked with a fun art form related to food.

This year, my little brother turned 4. He really wanted an equipment cake: bulldozer, scooper, front-end loader—something both a truck and yellow. After assembling and frosting the cake, I began placing mini chocolate chips as a tire. After about 5 minis, I went and found a pair of tweezers. After 20 minis, I got up, hopped on my scooter and went to the nearby Dollar General to pick up some other candy to finish the cake. It turned out okay; my family says it was really nice, and I got a little better at not being super stressed out about making nice-looking art in the form of cake. Best of all, my brother liked it, which was all that mattered anyway.

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