Didn't Even Get A Chance! (Long)
Decorating By Ladyofcake Updated 3 May 2007 , 6:17pm by patriciascakecreations
I went to stay with my in-laws for 3 months my my 18 month daughter and just got back. It was WONDERFUL and I love them all very, very much. Miss them so much and had hoped to stay on until July, but had to return.
That said, I am also a little hurt and depressed and need to vent to my fellow cc'rs, as I know you will be able to at least understand if not agree.
I was so excited about going and brought a half a suitcase of cake tools and ingredients with me just so I could do cakes for them there. You do not get our type of cakes there as the materials are unavailable, but cakes are of a different type. There are TONS of varieties of sweets though and India is heaven for anyone vegetarian, craving spicy or having a sweet tooth. I have been before and love it there so no problems in that respect.
Well, right off the bat the week I landed, I got to work and while baking my first cake (that is another experience, no ovens there in homes - had to use an electric table-top oven which was off-kilter so had to balance on coasters to make it level !) my dear MIL tells me she wants NO ICING because they don't like it!!!!!! WHAT?!?!?!?????!?!??!!?
***(Edited to say that they have never tasted our icing before, so how can you know you don't like it if you haven't tried?)
Now, they knew I was coming and knew I was planning to do this for them. They knew the trouble I took to bring all the stuff and the valuable luggage space I used for this, that could have been better used for dd's clothes, diapers, toys, or oh yeah, maybe clothes for myself (haahaaa). They know that I quit the career to stay at home with dd and have been practicing cakes and developing styles and trying to maybe start my own business. They have seen my cakes in photos and were telling me how beautiful they were, etc. And again, India is FAMOUS for it's sweets (which I love) as well as the rest of it's culinary gems, and my other friends have even taken my cakes to India for their own families and were thrilled.
So was I wrong to expect to be able to practice there and make pretty cakes for my own family? Was I wrong to expect that they would at least indulge me a little so I could show them this? Especially as I took the trouble to spend $$$ on sugarless ingredients and special stuff to make healthier sugarless cakes as diabetes is in our family so that everyone coul enjoy and nobody would be left out!
Needless to say, I tried to explain that to ask me to do cakes without icing is like asking us to wear a blouse/petticoat with no sari. The beauty is in the decorating, the design, the ART. It is what I do. I made one and nobody wanted it. They said it looked nice but gave some away to guests and the rest went waste. My niece asked me to do one for her dh's birthday, so I did a simple chocolate BC and made a chocolate plaque for him, which they all loved but only because it was chocolate. My MIL told me she prefers the cake there, so I asked my niece to take me to the bakery and the cake was SO dry we threw it away. *I am sure it is good if you are used to that, but not my taste. Another one was called a "Japanesecake" which was very hard like a cookie with a little creme inside and a squirt of chocolate on top. Again - tasty, but very dry and NOT CAKE. Nice stuff you get there, but not the same!
I was appalled that this is what was in favor over my own soft, moist, light, airy creations that everyone else always liked so much. If I had been given a chance, I was sure she would have like it but no chance!
As I said before, I love them all very much and I am sure there was no malicious intentions here as they are all very very good to me and treat me with utmost love and respect, but boy did I feel bad. I didn't do anything else there, didn't waste my time or $$ or materials and just lugged it all back here only. Otherwise I had a wonderful time and can't wait to get back, but this saddens me. Now I don't feel like doing cakes at all. Am I nuts? My confidence is totally shaken.
Also I really would like to convince hubby to move back there someday. That said, would I be able to do cakes as I wanted to over there? Seems impossible to me now. Still I would rather go and live with our family than do cakes, but part of me is really sad.
Someone please say something and at least let me know if it's me.
Thanks for listening.
DO NOT give up on your cakes! You were in another country where tastes and tradition are different as well. If you had grown up eating the dry yucky cakes, and that's what you were used to, the wonderful light sponge cake would be completely foreign to you as well. I wish they would have at least tried it. I'm sorry that made you feel insecure, but please DON'T!! Typically, we Americans GAG thinking of eating fruitcake, yet our English and Australian (I think) friends assure us that fruitcake is like food of the gods. It's all in tradition, custom, and country!!
Let us all eat cake of different flavors...that IS what makes the world go round! 
I can understand your disappointment, but not your depression....... Just because WE love something.... (((( CAKE ))), does not mean EVERYONE will love it....... It would have been good if they had told you they wouldn't eat the icing BEFORE you lugged all the stuff there though... Try to remember, YOU didn't like the "cake" that THEY were used to..... Bake for the people here, that you know love this type of desert.......
Your cakes are beautiful so it would be such a waste of talent if you gave up. There are probably quite a few people in India who have had our "version" of cake who would appreciate your cakes. If you move there, you will just have to advertise. My husband doesn't like cake so he won't eat my experiments. It was pretty annoying/discouraging at first, but I realized that it wasn't personal. It wasn't that he didn't like my cake. He just didn't like cake in general. Soooo I found others to experiment on.
Other than the cake part, I'm glad you had such a wonderful time with the IL's. It's great that you have such a loving relationship with them.
Sorry you feel so disappointed. I wouldn't take it personally in the least. We like cake here in America because we are used to having it around at nearly every event. Birthdays, parties, celebrations, etc. Although, I personally am not a big cake lover. (Don't shoot me anyone!!)
People get used to the desserts they grow up eating and are familiar with. Most countries aren't big cake eaters and prefer other sweets. It's that simple. You might not have been impressed with what the family prefered, but it doesn't mean that your cakes aren't delicious.
It sounds like your in-laws really love your works of art, but just don't want to eat them because they aren't into American style cakes. That's okay. You weren't into theirs, either. 
It goes back to liking what we know. I wouldn't call their cakes yucky or just assume they don't know what great dessert is. They're not big cake fans, that's all.
Now, my family is Greek, and my mom makes all the notoriously heavy sweet desserts, but won't eat frosting off of a cake because she thinks it's too sweet. Hello....anyone ever have a piece of baklava??? LOL. She just laughs and says it's not the same.
So, don't dwell on it too much. If you ever move to India, you can still start a business and introduce your cakes. Look at all the fushion of great food we have available to us here in the U.S.
Keep decorating your beautiful cakes. It honestly does sound like your in-laws are impressed with your talent.
Angie
Well, I guess I am being silly.
It is just that I was always told you should try something before you say you don't like it, especially knowing someone went to the trouble for you.
Nobody there does what I do and nobody does sugarless or vegetarian cakes like mine either. If they had no intention of eating it, I would have appreciated if they told me that BEFORE I spent the money and lugged the equiptment and materials all the way around the world for them.
That is all I am really upset about I guess.
And not to say that the cakes there are all bad either - on the contrary, many desserts are fabulous and I LOVE sweets there, but nothing the way we have and I just wanted to share it with them.
Thanks for listening.
You are not being silly, they should have given you a try first as you took so much effort!
Keep making cakes in the country that appreciates it!
My SIL prefers Costco cake to mine. For x-mas I was told not to make cake and than arrived to find costco cake. I was so mad, it was like saying my cakes are uglier and taste worse than Costco. I use premium ingredients, only butter, high quality chocolate.
When my SIL started to serve the cake she asked me if i wanted some I said no. She asked again and I just told her straight out, I don't like Costco cake, it's very poor quality and I would never eat it. That shut her up and made me feel a bit better.
It always hurts when family does something like that. Cheer up, they might be nice but they are far away and if they don't appreciate your cakes find someone closer to appreciate them!
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