I was thinking about some of the thoughts/comments from people outside of the cake world that have lead some of us to refer to them as "cake muggles"....

Well....I decided that for a long time, even once I got my feet wet, I was still decidedly a cake muggle!!

I decorated probably 1000 cakes when I worked for TCBY, but still had no idea that to start stacking I needed dowels! And it took me the longest time to understand when I would need fondant and when I would need gumpaste!

The most ridiculous thing, however, was I had no idea that icing/frosting/buttercream....could be made at home! The only icing I ever made was with my Grandmother....it was powdered sugar and milk. I thought...."How on earth can I ice a cake at home with this?"...

I just thought it was funny. I'd love to hear some of things some of the rest of you thought before you knew what you know now....and maybe you can claim to have been a cake muggle too!

I neeeeeeeeever knew the time, patience, know how, and equipment it took to make a cake. I thought "humph, Martha Stewart just make and decorated a cake in this 15 mnt segment. how hard can it be?" One year later I yell at the TV show and say "you lie!!! it did not take 15 mnts to create that 5 tier 3D cake and ps show us the price"

For the longest time, at least into my early 30's, I thought homemade
cakes were the ones you would make at home vs bought at the bakery.
I would buy the mixes at the grocers and then would go home to make
the cake!! I mean, how much more homemade could it be!

I grew up baking so I guess I wasn't a "muggle" in that area....BUT the part I WAS "muggle" is pricing....it took me a long time to get over "sticker shock" and pull out my pricing with a straight face and a shrug of nonchalance!!!!

Wow - didn't realize how blessed I was. I joined 4-H at 10 and learned to make cookies, cakes, pie crusts, rolls, etc. from scratch from the beginning!! Mom couldn't cook when she got married and was determined that her daughters would learn to cook. However, she has never been good at cooking meat. I grew up on a farm and we probably had the best beef in the freezer!! But, Mom's meat was so dry, I didn't realize beef tasted good until I went away to college.

occther I can relate! people ask me all the time if I became a caterer because my mom was a good cook? Heck no! My mom could screw up a box of Kraft Mac-n-Cheese! I learned to cook out of survival!!

I finished highschool and my father asked me what I wanted to do for the rest of my life......his suggestion was marriage. I didn't walk....I ran to culinary school....funny thing I met my hubby there. Hubby quite and I got fasinated with pastries and baking, and trust me when I say I was suprised that we didn't have a machine that make puff pastry lol. You mean we have to make custurd, it doesn't come from a can? Them were the gold old days.