First of all, I will make a list of ten things I want to explore and since Ray Bradbury was a friend of my mothers, I will use his example of creating a list of nouns that will lead to exploring potential writing ideas. So here goes:
1. The cake class
2. The art gallery
3. The garden
4. The shelter
5. The frosting
6. The flowers
7. The tile
8. The family
9. The music
10. The books
Now this is a list with possibilities that I can live with for awhile, ponder, reflect and cradle. Beginning with “the cake class,” I saw today, during my first class, that there is way more to cake decorating than first meets the eye. There are trick of the trade, just like any other profession, that make it easier for those who know them to accomplish the task and make it look spectacular. The first trick I learned today was to “crumb coat” the cake in order to seal in the crumbs. Allowing the cake to slightly harden in the freezer for a few minutes creates a nice hard surface on which to spread the fluffy icing.
Making creative swirling lines of colored piping takes the trick of dragging a wooden toothpick horizontally through the vertical colored piping lines. The border, consisting of swirling frosting shells connected by border lines connects the cake to the serving board. Of course the butterfly needs antennae and a cute face. The cute factor is a big part of this cake and the final, beautiful touch is the edible glitter lightly sprinkled over the entire cake.
Since my youngest daughter and I did this together, our two butterfly cakes rest silently in the refrigerator almost too pretty to cut. Notice I said, almost for as if on cue, daughter number two arrives in the living room with the question, “Does anyone want to try cake?” Writing, and frosting; both are essential!
BetweenTheWords 