I love baking, but I don't want to be a professional baker.  I'm more than happy making the occcasional cookies or cakes for friends.  It gives me great joy to make something special for the people in my life, and I love knowing that, if some disaster struck--the cake got smashed, or I couldn't draw a mermaid nearly as well as I thought I could, perhaps--at least there would be comfort in knowing that at least it was free!  I haven't had a disaster on that scale, thank goodness, but the thought still gives me comfort.  I'm happy being a hobbyist baker, just making gifts of my baked goods.

Like this small wedding cake I made for Hayley and John, who are getting married this week.  Hayley's sister made the fabric flowers used to decorate the cake--the blue is actually leftover fabric from the bridesmaids' dresses!  What a cool, amazingly personal touch.  And also a really easy way to decorate a cake.  

This was the first time I'd attempted a textured buttercream finish.  I'm great with fondant, and pretty good with a smooth buttercream finish, but this was a new experiment and challenge.  I quite like how it turned out, and will definitely do it again! It only took me smoothing out the icing and attempting the texturing about three times before I liked what I was doing.  ;-)  

Happy Halloween to all my readers!  See you on Monday, for the start of Thanksgiving and Christmas fun!