Creative Outlets

I know it’s been a week since I last posted.  I took a mini vacation to go visit family. 

One of the things that I looked forward to (other than spending time with my family and celebrating with my sister and brother-in-law) was the chance to make them a cake to help them celebrate.

I’m one of those people who likes to find creative outlets for my energy and ideas.  There’s always something running around in my head, and I love when I can find something that helps me take those ideas and make something physical out of them.  It’s the act of creating something real out of whatever’s clunking around in my brain.

I started really trying to make cakes a few years ago when I had a friend who made amazing cakes.  I loved the creative license she could take, making whatever she imagined, using colors and shapes to paint ideas.  I started out by just experimenting with flavors and icings.  I knew that for cake, taste is most important.  No matter how it looks, it has to be good enough to eat. 

Fortunately for me, I had quite a few supportive coworkers who would try anything that I made.  And because they were good friends, they let me know when they didn’t like something.  Actually, I knew it when there were leftovers. 

But over the past year, I’ve been experimenting with decorating.  I try to find something new to try for each cake that I make.  The cakes for this weekend, I used modeling chocolate for the first time.  There was a lot of trial and error, but by the end, I think I got the idea of what I was supposed to be doing.

And here’s the final results!

For a Mechanical Engineer

For an Elementary Education Major

What kind of creative outlets do you use?