So, in addition to checking out online writing courses (it seems that’s all my schedule will allow for), I also remembered my perpetual fascination with cake decorating, and I called Michael’s to see if they had any classes I might enroll in.
Fortunately, there was a class that was due to start the following week (which was two weeks ago), and it was “on sale” for half off! Because I had to rush to work, I handed my mom $20 and asked if she might be able to go by and register me before all the spaces were taken up. Then I eagerly awaited the following week.
Of course, I was a bit late to the first class. I can’t remember why… but I was. But by that time, I had spread the news to my cousin who ended up enrolling in the class with me. So, she was kind enough to fill me in on what was going on when I got there.
I walked into a small room in the back of Michael’s where everyone was sitting at a table listening to the instructor go through the supply book and letting everyone know what they might or might not need to purchase to complete the course. After pointing out each item, she would give a brief description of what it was for and why we may choose to purchase it or not. Some of the stuff I understood. A lot of the stuff left me confused. This lady obviously had the strange notion that people in this class knew what the heck we were doing…
I sat there wondering why we weren’t just frosting cakes.
Then she pointed out that she had a cake that she would be demonstrating with a little later.
I remembered that I hadn’t eaten, and the cake started to look really good.
Then I wondered why it had to have frosting. As far as I’m concerned, cake tastes really good all by itself. I never have been a big fan of actually EATING frosting. I just have this intense desire to learn how to decorate with it.
The class continued.
She told some funny stories about how past students had misinterpreted her instructions and goofed things up. She even mentioned that one lady kept bringing pancakes to class instead of actual cakes… because she misunderstood when the instructor told them to bring a “pan” cake to each class. I figured that maybe that meant there was hope for me yet, even though I was confused about the type of shortening we were supposed to use.
Part of the “lesson” that first evening was watching the instructor actually mix up several batches of icing at different consistencies. It required some type of shortening, which she kept stressing was NOT lard. Yet to me, it looked a lot like it was, and if you sent me to the store to buy some, that’s probably what I’d end up coming back with.
By this time, I was bored. Plus, I was starving.
I thought we were supposed to decorate cakes. Yet here she was telling us that we had to bake them first! Ugh. And she expected us to make our own icing and bring it to class the following week. We had to make the three different consistencies and label them and have them ready. And while I actually have a label maker that I got for my last birthday, I really didn’t know that I wanted to go to all that trouble, especially since it wasn’t even a kind of icing that I liked. It was the gross kind that has tons of sugar in it and gives me neurotic thoughts about developing diabetes. And when I asked if we could reduce the amount of sugar in the recipe, she told me no! I really did not like that.
Needless to say, I intended to go back… I really did, but I just don’t think I’m ready for all that just yet. I really just wanted to decorate cakes for friends’ parties. I just wanted to make cute cupcakes that I found in this awesome cupcake book.
It’s a really cool book I found at Wal-Mart. It has really creative ideas. I just wanted to have some fun.
I’m just really not in the mood to figure out HOW to make frosting at this time. And I’m not in the mood to bake that many cakes. I can only focus on one thing at a time. Maybe in a few months, now that I know what the course really entails, I will be more prepared… mentally and financially…
Right now, I think I am just going to check out some more of those online writing courses…
