This is for anyone out there who, through this blog, has mistakenly presumed that everything I do is perfect:

It’s nice to take pictures of the things that turn out well, but that is simply because it is fun and rewarding. But reality strikes, and I desire to be transparent even in my shortcomings and flat out failures. I don’t want to project myself as inflatedly perfect, because that is just false. I would have loved to make Araiya a picture-perfect Birthday cake, just as she (and I) dreamed it- Pink Frosting with Strawberries, beautifully sculpted with icing and when you cut it, perfectly filled with delicious custard dotted with strawberry slices. Ah. But reality is well, not that. The custard filing wasn’t as firm as I thought it would be. It oozed out the center of the cake. I thought the buttercream frosting would hold it all together. But no, the custard, which made frosting the cake as easy as if the sides had been rubbed with Vaseline first, caused all the frosting I desperately spread and re-spread continue to slide down and off the cake. So I tossed it in the freezer to solidify the frosting, hoping it would hold better. But nope, it cooled the butter in the buttercream to be not-so-creamy– it became solid. Attempts to soften the frosting resulted in making the custard even runnier.

At least it tastes good.