Tuesday 13 August 2013

Are you K.I.D.D.I.N.G.?

The Keep It Simple, Stupid principle states that most systems work best when they are kept simple rather than made complex. Therefore, simplicity should be a key goal in design, and unnecessary complexity should be avoided...

Ha! Well, I don't have time to KISS because of KIDS: Keeping It Difficult... Seriously.

Today was cake stall day at Ben and Tamara's school. I really did try and aim for this successful strategy and principle of keeping things simple. I even Google'd 'simple cupcakes' (for ideas on what that meant)... And that's when I could not stop myself from sliding into a steep downward spiral of creative brainstorming that I didn't have time (or motivation) to reach out and grab something to stop me being pulled further into the pit of "that doesn't look so hard" and "why just stick with one type of cupcake when I can make FIVE different types??" and "wheeeee! This is so much fuuuuuuun!"

It's clear that I can't make decisions. And that I don't keep things very simple. Ever... I'm not sure if I even know how to! I consider myself to be LEVEL: EXPERT at complicating the heck out of a cake stall day at school for absolutely. no. reason!

... And made these:



But despite what you might be thinking (and overlooking the probable truth behind those current thoughts), even though these cupcakes may look incredibly difficult, they totally weren't. They were just incredibly time consuming. Here's some guides to the character cupcakes if you wanted to try them at home! Note: these are simple versions :)

Mike Wazowski:
Green, white & blue fondant; tic tacs; fudge frosting.



Despicable Me Minions:
Yellow, white & black fondant; silver glitter frosting; fudge frosting.




Nemo:
Orange, white & black fondant; fudge frosting

I asked Husband what he thought these looked like, and he said "Monsters?" GRR!! They were supposed to be fish!! "Fins would help" he said, so I got out my little heart cutter, and made what would become fins (though not technically Nemo fins, because one was not smaller than the other). But, really, who was going to notice but me?


The Shark cupcakes were piped blue icing, with grey fondant triangles poked into the tops of them:


They could have been called "Bruce" cupcakes, but you'd need to have children (or have seen Finding Nemo a thousand times like some people who have kids) to understand what that would have meant.

For the rose/butterfly cupcakes, I piped a rose onto the cupcakes... And then put a butterfly on top of them... Pretty complicated stuff, I know.


3 hours later, I had made four dozen of these delicate little cupcakes, minus one that Jonathan swiped and ate half of for breakfast. The kids were amazed. A rush of pride swept through me, followed closely by PANIC because I hadn't worked out how I was going to now get them to school, and "Oh My Gosh, it's 5 to 9! Time to go!! Jonathan!! Where are your pants!?!"



Are you Keeping It Dramatically Difficult, Including Necessary Growling?

Keep It Simple, Silly!
Unless you find that extremely difficult to do. Like me. <growl>
In which case, you probably also CURSE when
Creating Under Really Stressful Environments.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Natalie, I'm Julie. My mother-in-law (Ronwyn) recommended I look you up. Your cakes are amazing. Those "Nemo" ones are too cute.

    Do you bake as a business, or just do cakes for friends and family? (I have nothing in mind at the moment... but for future reference!)

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    1. Hi Julie! Thank you! Nice to 'meet' you. I met Ronwyn at our church; she is lovely and also recommended your blog to me!

      Not as a business. I'm mainly baking for friends and family, but I do make cakes/cupcakes for the occasional friend-of-a-friend, or the neighbour-of-a-cousin-of-a-friend's-pet's-previous-owner's-friend, type of thing :)

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