EVERYDAY ADVENTURES: TAKING THE CAKE

I once got fired for making a birthday cake. Actually, it wasn’t just one cake, but a handful of cakes that did me in. It may have been the seven layer number that finally pushed it over the edge, but I think it really started with the first one, the princess cake.

See, my daughter was about to turn one, and we were planning her first birthday party. By we, I mean my wife. She’s the one with good taste. So she picked out the decorations, the presents, the food, etc.

But I was itching to contribute. After all, this was my little girl’s first birthday. I wanted to make sure it was one she would never forget. Well, okay, maybe she wouldn’t actually remember it, but, at least, I wanted it to look awesome in pictures we could show her when she was all grown up.

So, I volunteered to decorate the cake. Since we wanted it to actually taste good, my wife did the baking part, but the frosting? That was all me. I figured, hey, I’ve eaten a lot of cake in my life, and I have a little artistic streak in me so how hard could it be?

So, I volunteered to decorate the cake. Since we wanted it to actually taste good, my wife did the baking part, but the frosting? That was all me. I figured, hey, I’ve eaten a lot of cake in my life, and I have a little artistic streak in me so how hard could it be?

Well, I finished at 1:30 in the morning, the same day as the party, if that tells you anything.

I should have known I was in trouble when my wife brought home the fancy cake pan from the craft store. It looked like a princess tiara, a really big princess tiara. A sane person would have just slapped some icing on it and called it good. I, however, wanted it to look professionally decorated, despite the fact that I had never decorated a cake in my life.

Fortunately, the fancy cake pan came with simple instructions. All I would need was decorating tips 3, 5, 16 and 21 and, don’t forget good old Flower Nail No. 7. I didn’t have a flower nail, so I thought I might improvise with some hardware from my toolbox, but for some reason my wife discouraged it. I checked the instructions again and it turned out I did not need Flower Nail No. 7 after all. That was for one of the other cakes on the sheet, so it looked like I could avoid the toolbox altogether.

My cake’s directions sounded easy enough. I started by outlining the tiara with violet icing, then smoothed the area around it with white. No problem, I thought. I’ll have this thing done in a half an hour.

Then it got a bit trickier. I was supposed to outline the white border around the cake with stars.

You make those one at a time. Just squeeze, squirt and repeat. A million times. The border took awhile. Unfortunately, the inside of the tiara, which was ten times bigger than the border, was covered in stars as well.

Imagine painting a portrait just by making a bunch of dots. It was kind of like that but with frosting. Oh and don’t forget I also had to make hearts, spirals, rosettes and write my daughter’s name across the top of the cake without messing the whole thing up.

Imagine painting a portrait just by making a bunch of dots. It was kind of like that but with frosting. Oh and don’t forget I also had to make hearts, spirals, rosettes and write my daughter’s name across the top of the cake without messing the whole thing up.

I’m not sure what time my wife went to bed, but by the time I crawled under the covers at 1:30, I was an exhausted mess, my vision blurry from squinting at tiny frosted stars for hours and my fingers stained pink and purple and curled into claws from squeezing so much icing from a bag.

Did I mention I had to get up at 6:00 to go to work for the morning before the party? As you can imagine, I was a lot of fun by the time the festivities rolled around. I was ready to snuggle up in the pile of presents and take a nap.

Hey, but the cake looked awesome! So the next year, I did it again! And again and again! Train cakes, mermaid cakes, ladybug cakes, Barbie cakes and more! Every year I cranked out another one. To make it even more exciting, by this time we had two daughters which meant twice the decorating! I was knocking them out of the park right and left.

Meanwhile, my wife was doing all the other work.

When my oldest turned four, she started having friends over for her parties, which meant games, more decorations, more food and more errands, not to mention trying to clean the house after two preschoolers had spent the week trashing it. Strangely enough my wife felt like our division of labor wasn’t exactly working for her.

When my oldest turned four, she started having friends over for her parties, which meant games, more decorations, more food and more errands, not to mention trying to clean the house after two preschoolers had spent the week trashing it. Strangely enough my wife felt like our division of labor wasn’t exactly working for her.

I didn’t see what the problem was. My job was to go all in and obsess over perfecting the cake, and then if I had time, which I typically didn’t, I could help her with the other minor details.

And that brings us to how a birthday cake got me fired.

Once the friend partiers started, I was politely informed my cake decorating services would no longer be needed for our children’s birthday parties. I think the last one I made was a seven-layer miracle of engineering that collapsed while we were cutting it and almost crushed a couple of kids.

At least I went out with a bang.

Looking back on it years later, it makes me think about how easy it is to get so caught up in our own stuff that we neglect the needs of others. I wish I could say I only did that with cakes.

However, the truth is we’re all prone to zero on what matters most to us. Even if those are good things, they can become bad things if they cause us to miss out on an opportunity to serve someone in love.

However, the truth is we’re all prone to zero on what matters most to us. Even if those are good things, they can become bad things if they cause us to miss out on an opportunity to serve someone in love.

Jesus knew all too well the human propensity to put ourselves first and that’s why He told His followers, “whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant” (Matthew 20:26).

Jesus modeled that kind of upside-down life by serving the last and the least among His people to the very end.

Living a life like this may sometimes mean volunteering to decorate a cake, but other times it means cleaning the toilet before the party. And sometimes it means just stopping what you’re doing to notice the needs around you and asking how you can help. •

Photo credit:  iMoStudio/ shutterstock.com