Adam turned 30 on April 28. Even though I had begun thinking several months prior about what we could do to celebrate, the day before his birthday rolled around, and I still had nothing up my sleeves. I decided to make a cake (mostly because I like to eat cake). I wasn't sure how to decorate it, so I looked online for some ideas and was inspired by this. Bingo! I decided to do a cake with red icing and write "Happy Birthday" in Chinese with yellow icing.
The best laid plans.....
Unfortunately, I realized about 2 seconds too late that red food coloring does not make red icing. It makes pink. And in case you didn't know, adding black food coloring doesn't make it look more red. Neither does adding blue food coloring. In fact, what you end up with is a cake that looks like this:
You may wonder why it says "Humility" instead of "Happy Birthday." One reason is that I simply could not bring myself to write "Happy Birthday" on a cake that was so ugly. The main reason, however, is that the cake was a clear message from God to me about humilty (and my lack of it). My pride had demonstrated itself on many levels. First, making the cake really wasn't for Adam, it was for me. I wanted to practice using the cake pan I was planning on using for his graduation cake, and I chose my own selfish desires instead of considering what would really bless him on his birthday. Second, I already had a lot on my plate for that day and really did not have time to make and decorate a cake. My pride rejected my creaturely limitations and sought to do more than was reasonably possibly. Knowing that I would not be able to get everything done, my selfishness ignored the more important things I needed to do and chose to do what would be most self-satisfying, namely, making a cake. The really sad picture of my pride is that even when I realized there was no way to redeem the icing, I kept trying to make it better somehow--making it smooth, adding edging.
Can you believe I actually served this to people? It didn't even taste good!
So let the lesson(s) be clear:
"Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall." Proverbs 16:18
"God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." Proverbs 3:34
Use round cake pans.
And be very careful when using food coloring.
3 comments:
It STILL looks better than anything I could ever have done...
Sorry about the cake failure. :(
If you're going to be decorating cakes more, you should buy Wilton's paste colors. You only use a little bit - and I do mean a little bit, like dip a toothpick into it. They don't cost much can you can get them at the craft stores or even Wal-Mart. Just remember when you get them for black and red to try to get the ones that say no taste. [And for future reference: it's how to get a really nice red icing that's how my sister makes Elmo and 'Piderman. And for black it's easier to add the black to chocolate icing so you don't have to add so much color.]
JJ
Mary, that was hilarious. I don't know the last time I've emitted a genuine guffaw while reading someone's blog, but it sure happened just now! Mary, you take the cake (groan). Say hi to Adam for me, and congrats on the b-day and graduation!
Shalom,
David
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