I had a friend write the other day and tell me she had lost her mojo. She asked
if I had words of wisdom for that. I thought a lot about what I would say and
realized she had to go on a cake diet. Before you think I have lost my mind,
hear out my logic.
How many of you have smart phones? The more we use them, the faster the battery is drained. I often have a phone gasping for a
charge. Because I am who I am, I plug in and keep right on using the phone. Not surprisingly, the phone can barely get ahead of me with a charge because I am draining it almost as fast as I am charging it. It takes all my self control to plug in the phone and not touch it while it recharges.
Our love affair with cakes is the same. For many of us, it is our hobby as well as our job. We step away from cake orders to work on cake projects. Our “cake batteries” never get a chance to fully recharge. This is why I am proposing a cake diet. Nope, not a diet where you only eat cake. Instead, I want you to restrict yourself from cake.
Don’t panic…let’s just try a day. For one day, you don’t talk about cake, look at pictures of cakes, work on cakes. Cold turkey. I need
you to be hungry for cake. I remember as a little girl, I was on a medicine that restricted my intake of milk. I never wanted milk as bad as I did that week. I craved milk in a way that was almost not human! When the restriction was lifted, I was overjoyed and relished my milk.
The same thing will happen if you step away from cakes for a day or a week or whatever time frame you need. Your brain will be itching to design something. Your hands will crave playing with the buttercream or fondant. You can go back to your normal life and enjoy
cakes again.
So what do you do for that day or week or whatever? I hope that you will spend time with your family or spend the time enjoying other types of art. If you start looking at paintings or sculptures or anything artistic, you are going to start seeing sugar designs and you will get hungry to create. One of my favorite ways to recharge is to walk into a card store and look at the designs on them. I see cake possibilities at every turn. Go into an antique shop. One of the classes I will be teaching in 2013 came from just such an outing.
I hope you enjoy your short diet and find a new joy in cake decorating.
SugarZen 
I need at least a day of cake diet….thanks that was great as usual.
How appropriate..i was complainingof how exhausted i am..everyday getting only 3-5hours rest…my body feels burnt out…this is exactly what I need….But how do i say no..
You HAVE to say no, I order to say yes to yourself!
Maybe you need to go on a phone diet then??? My cell phone is strictly for my car or an emergency. I hate packing a phone around all day. Much rather do the cakes!
It’s a love hate relationship for me. When a cake is going well and the design is just how I envisioned it, my world is at peace. When things go wrong, I want to pull my hair out and ask why am I doing this to myself. No wonder that at the end of a busy season I think that I’m never going to do that again. Then I go into a fabric store or see a dress design and I start wishing I could get into my cake room to try new possibilities. That is when I jump back on the Merry go round.
Thank you for this post Taking a cake break will be hard but refreshing.
Awesome insight as always…..I think you need to write a book! A cake self- help book. 🙂
I’m not sure if I took a vacay or not !?! I took o a job at another bakery as well as doing my own LOL Change is good & I can walk away & leave it behind as it is not my business 🙂