Closet Perfectionist and Baking...

Whew...this weekend is finally over...perhaps I should go pass out on the couch with Franny Girl...not sure why I haven't yet, but I think I have a sleeping problem.  You know, where you just don't sleep???  Got to sleep around 4:30 this morning after baking, cooling, baking, frosting, chilling, smoothing, decorating and chilling again...I still don't know why I do this, other then the fact that I do love to bake.  I just wish I had more time and money to experiment and/or take classed to better myself with all those tools out there.  I guess, with no formal education in the 'baking/decorating' world, I do ok.  But, I just wish I knew more!!  I totally don't like to do the big cakes...so any time someone asks me to do something, I always try and make them order a cupcake cake or now cake pops or mini cupcakes with just a small cake to 'cut' or for decor.  I am much better at the small stuff!!  Check out the cake I did...I don't know how I feel about it yet...opinions???  Be honest...(but gentle....lol)...I can only learn from my mistakes and grow from there:
(oh yeah, and you can never have too much powdered sugar in your house...wasn't sure I was going to have enough butter cream to finish it off and had a sinking feeling I was going to have to run out and buy some...yeah, at 3AM...ha ha ha she laughs hysterically to Franny girl who looks at her with drooopy eyes)

It's definitely not your typical Baby Shower cake...and I'm sure someone liked it and some hated it.  Again, I think I'm still on the fence with this one...just wish I had had more time to get it together!!  But, I will say, whether you like the look or not, you will LOVE the taste...and that's the most important part, right??  Perhaps I should start calling myself- Ugly Cakes with the tagline- "Imperfect looking cake, but the most PERFECT tasting"  LOL
Oh, but there were mini cupcakes to go along with it...they just look sooooooo much better, I think anyway:

And, on a high note, my FlipFlop & Sunglasses Cookies were the Bomb yesterday!!  Check 'em out:

And oh so yummy!!! 

So, this weekend we had (in my eyes) a 50/50 success rate!!  I am a Closet Perfectionist and when I don't make something perfect the first time, I beat my self up for it.  But, at least I learned some valuable baking lessons this weekend:)

-you can never have too much powdered sugar in your house...wasn't sure I was going to have enough butter cream to finish it off and had a sinking feeling I was going to have to run out and buy some...yeah, at 3AM...ha ha ha she laughs hysterically to Franny girl who looks at her with drooopy eyes)
-try and make sure your cake is completely cooled...throw it in the freezer if you can to make cake a little more solid when you are layering...thus avoiding a big crack in the middle forcing you to figure out a way to make it look normal...
-don't try a new 'writing' method for writing on the cake...the 'writing frosting' you bought just might run...again forcing you to try and recover
-just run with it...if they don't like the look of it, they can go somewhere else, right???
-stock up on powdered sugar...you just never know when you'll need it
-white frosting on a chocolate cake will never be perfect...repeat several times so that I can finally understand this and push people to do a 'colored' or chocolate frosting
-keep that heavy cream in the fridge always...when all else fails, just cover the cake in chocolate ganache and move on...(totally what I should have done had I actually not broken this rule of mine and had heavy cream in the house)

See, I learned a few things this weekend too:)