Holy Hannah

Holy Hannah is a term that I picked up from my oldest sister. I have no idea if she still uses the term at all, but as anyone who knows me well can attest, I still use it daily. Usually I use it to express surprise, or incredulity, or shock. For instance, I used it when I opened up my blog and realized the last time I had posted a new piece was in September 2011. Holy Hannah. Sorry, folks. Some of my most loyal "fans" have been bugging me to post new stuff. I nod and smile and flutter my hand like, "yeah, yeah, yeah," but then I never do anything about it.

Have I stopped baking? Certainly not. Have I stopped living? Most assuredly, no. Do I still enjoy writing? Of course! The issue lies in a certain amount of inherent laziness, and the fact that I work in front of a computer all day--so getting motivation to sit at it again, at night, is really not on the top-ten list of things likely to happen on a regular basis. And then it got to be so long between posts that I just figured that no one would notice anyway. If I put new stuff up, no one would ever see it, and the blog would just sit here collecting little electronic cobwebs and pixel spiders and remain very much the same--except here I would be, spilling my culinary guts into the vastness of cyberspace, with no hope of response.

BUT... then a friend whose input I value very much basically gave me a metaphorical slap upside the head and told me to get that giant stick out of my you-know-what. So Friend--you know who you are--this is for you.

My dear, devoted, long-suffering fans (of whom I am not sure there are any but that one), I promise to be better. I do. I have a backlog of photos now, so I'll try to ration them out. And if you think my blog is worth reading, you really ought to check out my sister's. It's all professional looking and getting recognition, and like, total strangers read it and everything. In short, it's everything mine is not. Go ahead. give it a go. It's at www.wherethecookiesare.com. And once you've seen it, you're not allowed to come back and judge this one in relation to hers. You're just not.

As you know (if you've been sticking with me through my silent period), I often bake and send things in with Sean. He's given away a ton of my cards, and they asked me to bake a bunch of cupcakes for a fundraising bake sale. When they told me the quantities they wanted, I encouraged them to get more, because I didn't think it would be enough. They declined, saying, "maybe next time." Then I offered $50 of my services as a raffle prize, but they declined--"maybe next time." Then it turns out that they completely ran out of the red velvet cupcakes by 9:30 am, and the rest of them were gone by noon.  I never really have any interaction with any of them, so I didn't say "I told you so." Besides, you don't say that sort of thing to your clients.

And then, months later, orders started coming in. I'm doing a wedding cake in June (a wedding cake? really? me? Holy Hannah!). I did these cupcakes for a kindergarten spring party:

Aren't they cute? Didn't they come out well?

And then the same lady wanted a cake for her anniversary, iced in white with powdery-blue scroll work. Yeah. Not so great. It had structural issues and some poochy frosting (yes, poochy). I was NOT a fan.  I REALLY didn't like it. I told the lady that I wasn't happy with it and I'd refund her money, but I haven't heard from her. I sent a picture of it via text to some friends, and of course they all said it was fabulous, but it's because they were not there. They couldn't see the uneven corners and the pooched line in the middle. Yes, I have since analyzed it and determined how to avoid this in the future. However, I have decided that I should stay away from cakes and stick to cupcakes. Obviously, the key to success is sticking to your strengths, right? (Sorry, wedding cake person. I promise your wedding cake will be ridiculously fabulous, because I will bake it 8 times until it's perfect. And it helps that you want 75% of the layers to be fake.) So, long story short, who knows if you'll see any cakes ever pop up on this blog. We'll see.

In the meantime, I'll be gathering thoughts for new posts. I'll try to be better. Maybe once a week? Holy Hannah.