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One of My Former Lives
So before I was able to start writing full-time, I had several other varied and interesting careers. The most recent one was that of a sugar artist making bespoke wedding and special occasion cakes. I even competed at cake shows and won medals and everything. That lead to opportunities for publication in national and international magazines and even a big multi-page spread featuring a tutorial on making elements of the garden cake pictured here.
Another cake I was pretty proud of was for an online competition that used to be put on annually by Threadless, a cool t-shirt company that allowed you to choose from thousands of images by amazing artists. The competition rules stated that you must pick a design from one of the t-shirts they offered and recreate it in cake. I chose one called "My Playtree" by an artist named Yoann Plard (here's a link to his page on the Threadless website: https://www.threadless.com/@apy). I didn't win the competition, or even place actually, but a lot of big name cake designers liked it a lot and at that time in my career to get their attention was darned exciting. I've included the artist's image so you can decide for yourself if I did it justice.
I don't do cakes professionally any more, but I did my son and daughter in law's wedding cake in April this year. I also did a groom's cake for my son. That brisket there? That's a cake! When our son saw it, he thought we'd actually brought a brisket to his fancy wedding. It was pretty satisfying (shout out to my daughter for helping me create the 'rub' and a bowl of 'BBQ Sauce' on the side). We had just a little too much fun working on it, but getting the cakes to the venue reminded me that I do not miss wedding cake deliveries AT ALL.
Have you had a winding path to your dream career? Let me know! Some time, I'll have to tell you guys about another one of mine: Wedding Band Singer.
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