10/28/2025
It’s been a long time since I got to simply play around in the kitchen. I got so busy with markets, Malcolm’s school stuff, summer plans, helping Dennis with the shop, and such. Life happens, you know? But because of that, I had started to lose my love of baking.
Then, the Savannah Cemetery Tour came up. For two years I had wanted to make a Cemetery Cake - chocolate beet cake with matcha buttercream decorated to look like a grave. And for two years I always ran out of time to make that cake reality. This year, I made it a priority.
And do you know what? Baking was fun again! I got to play and be creative with it. Don’t have the right icing tip for grass? Do the best you can with what you do have. What do I use for a headstone? A cookies and cream Hershey bar segment looks a lot like stone and is the perfect size. How do I make it clear it’s a headstone? Hand paint “RIP” with edible paint. Don’t have a small enough paintbrush? Use a tiny fondant tool and treat it like a quill and ink.
My love of baking had been lost in the monotony of making the same things over and over. It became work, and not the fun kind. But this? This was work AND fun!
I think the saying, “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life,” should modified a bit. Maybe it should be, “Stay creative and playful at what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” Something like that, at least.
The next time your work starts to feel boring and underwhelming, maybe you even start dreading it, just remember to stay creative and keep playing.