Ba-Dum.......Ba-Dum.....Ba-Dum Ba-Dum..Ba-DumBa-DumBa-DumBaDum

This past week I had the awesome opportunity to grow as a cake decorator.  Lindy Merkley, a friend of mine from the home ward, asked if I would make a cake for her son Wyatt.  I was more than honored especially since it had been awhile since I had really had a chance to decorate.  She told me she wanted a shark cake since they were going to have the party at the aquarium.  I thought about it all week trying to decide what I should do.  As any cake decorator, there is a lot of research that has to be done when making a cake.  I usually find pictures on the internet of the subject and let my imaginative mind take over.  As I was researching sharks, I knew that I wanted to do a Great White simply because they are obviously the king of all the sharks thanks to the movie Jaws (which I had seen recently thanks to my mom who watches all of them way too much).  All the pictures of Great White sharks happened to be of them jumping out of the water.  I could not draw away from the idea.  I knew it was going to be difficult and I also knew that I had never sculpted a cake like that before.  Sure I have done shaped cakes which I usually just do the one dimension, but I had never really done a three-demensional cake made purely out of cake and frosting.  I was a little nervous but excited for the challenge.  I unfortunately had work that day so I knew my time would be limited on the cake.  I had about an hour.  I started with mixing some of the frosting into a pretty blue color for the water and iced a quarter sheet of cake.  Then I took the rest of the cake and stacked it on top of each other putting frosting inbetween each layer.  I then stared at it for a minute not quite sure what to do.  I just let my hands cut away at the cake until I saw how I could make a shark.  Once I saw what to me resembled a terrifying shark but what you may have seen as a huge mess of chocolate cake, I began the difficult task of icing.  Buttercream icing and chocolate cake do not get along very well especially when the cake is thaw.  Let's just say that it looked more like cookies and cream icing rather than white icing in the end.  I quickly took the cake and put inside the freezer for a few minutes just to let the icing harden a little while I got the fondant ready.  Surprisingly, the fondant was the easiest part about the whole thing and I was able to smooth it on the cake with no problems.  Next came the teeth in which I had to make from marshmallows and believe me it was a tedious job which consisted of cutting each marshmallow twice to make one tooth.  When you are in a hurry it is not the funnest thing in the world but it was definitely worth it.  Then came the task of putting it together with the other quarter sheet.  I knew placing it on top was not going to hold at all.  The shark was much too heavy.  So I cut a hole in the middle of the cake and I placed him inside.  Next came the task of covering the mess I made putting the shark in so with the remaining icing, I made it look like water was coming up.  There it was.  The finished product.  I must say I was impressed with my job well done.  One thing I know is that there are always critics.  Some people may like and some may not.  All that I care about is that the person who buys the cake loves it and that the person the cake is for loves it also.  They are the only people that really matter.  As I showed them the cake, they were really excited about the cake and I knew then that I had done my job.  So here is what the cake looked like for those who care, and for those who don't I am sorry you chose to read this whole thing on something you don't really care about.