Life Lessons

This week has continued to throw me curve balls - some that you definitely can't plan for. But in many ways I think we're put into these situations so that we understand what's really important. If you're reading this, give thanks for the loved ones in your life today because you never know when they might not be here tomorrow. Luckily mine will.

On a lighter note, Kim's son just turned 18 and he plays in a band. She thought it would be the coolest thing if we could replicate his guitar in cake and despite never having attempted a project of this scale, I was curious to give it a try.

I've made purses which in themselves can be tricky, but a guitar? There's a lot more detail than you would think. What I initially estimated at about 6 to 7 hours of work turned into a cake marathon of sorts. From start to finish this piece took nearly 13 hours - that's an entire waking day! Of course now that I've done it I could probably knock a few hours off the next one by knowing what to do differently.

The structure was put together in segments cut from 3 cakes and the whole thing was edible with the exception of the guitar strings. It was also nearly life size and finding a board big enough to hold this cake was an exercise in itself. Techniques used included handpainting the wood grain on the sides and neck of the guitar as well as handshading the waves on the face of the guitar body. This would've been easier with an airbrush, but alas I have yet to own such a wonderful tool.

When this cake was finally completed I was relieved. Not relieved because it was done (o.k. maybe a little!!), but relieved because it actually looked like it was supposed to.

Hope you enjoyed your party Kyle, and your cake!