Crazy Peach Cakes

Where is the line between creative enthusiasm and obsession? I found the line this week. It is called peach cakes. I've crossed this line before. The ingredients for turning a great idea into an obsession are the following:
1 great idea
1 plan to make it reality
1-10 problems to overcome
1-10 reasons to continue beyond normal sanity
a pinch of blind pursuit of the creation

First take the great idea and make a plan, stir well. Then encounter several reasons that this plan may be impractical or unwise to pursue, yet press on where normal people would give up and try something saner. The result will either be complete failure where you kick yourself for wasting your time or something wonderful that may still require some post-creation kicking because the end didn't justify the means.

I am working on a new quilt project now that may just turn out to be this project, but it's too early to tell.

But the peach cakes my daughter and I made this week for my husband's work party 100% qualify. I found a recipe on stumbleupon.com that had what seemed to be a perfect summer cake that I foolishly thought would be easy to make.

With steps that included making your own colored sugar and cutting cinnamon sticks into peach stems, it's difficult now to see why I thought this would be a quick dessert. Other obstacles to this project included the need for special baking pans I didn't have, completion in four hours, and making them look good/real. I resorted to using disposable muffin pans and rounded out the bottoms with an alabaster egg which was round and hard enough to do the job, then I had to cut the cakes smaller because they were too tall to make rounds. After coating the kitchen in frosting and colored sugar granules, Mckenna and I did persevere. The project ran overtime thanks to a break in the project to pick up my other daughter and squeeze in a 15 minute practice drive.

When my husband arrived home to a train-wreck of a kitchen and a platter of half and whole peach cakes, his response: "Why did you go to so much trouble?"

I had no answer.

Mckenna had fled the kitchen by that time realizing that making the cakes look like peaches was stressful, and maybe fun the first time, but not by the 10th or 12th time.

The cakes impressed people at the party. They tasted good too, although that's thanks to the box mix and tub frosting, not my cooking expertise. Do I regret the project? Not really. Will I excite my friends with summertime peach cakes again. Probably not.

I know you may be looking at them thinking.....hmmm....I could make those. That's what I did on the night I found them on the internet. Go ahead and try them if you have four hours to kill. Here's the site: http://www.bigredkitchen.com/2009/07/little-peach-cakes.html. I used pineapple box mix not yellow cake and sour cream frosting not buttercream. I thought a fruit-looking cake should have a fruit taste. But be warned this project is not for the faint of heart, when you finish you'll have a mess, but also a pretty, tasty unique-looking cake. Let me know how it turns out. I'd better go obsess over my latest quilt.

Lesson In Day Dreaming

I spent four days in teacher school this week, otherwise known as a "conference". It's still school though. I know this because a) it took place in a school (not mine), b) we sat in uncomfortable desks for seven hours a day after minus-ing breaks and lunch, c) learning took place and there was homework, and d) my mind wandered.

That's what my mind did when I was in grades k-12. On several of my elementary report cards, under comments, my teachers would write: "daydreams too much." This would seem to indicate that there is an appropriate amount of day dreaming, and I too often exceeded it. Exceeding in school is often considered a mark of excellence, but in this case, it was the opposite. Possibly elementary school teachers are provided a range of frequency that dictates what is part of the norm for wandering minds and what is an objectionable or disruptive amount. I teach high school, so I am not privy to the inner workings of K-5 teachers. In high school if you can get the student to focus on learning (not ipods or texting for which teen attention spans are infinite), enough to turn in homework assignments, you feel successful. There is no report card comment code for day dreams too much. There is, however, a disciplinary form you can use for students who fall asleep behind sunglasses which should have been removed upon entering class.

So I learned this week many helpful things from a very smart teacher with great ideas. I also observed that a room full of teachers gathering knowledge has similar dynamics to a room of teens, except for the sleeping behind sunglasses part. Over four days, several cell phones rang during class. Certain individuals don't know when to unwrap food with crinkly paper. The front row participates quite a bit (where I sat). People on the edges can get by with less participation. There is always one know-it-all student who likes to hear the sound of his or her own voice. No matter how engaging the teacher, sometimes you will feel sleepy and be unable to demonstrate your highest quality work. No one, of any age, likes homework even when they fully understand the concept of practice to improve a skill. At first it's scary to give your answer aloud, but it does get easier the more often you do it. Presenting in front of others you perceive to be potentially more clever than you is nerve-wracking. Finally, the age group of the students does not preclude them from rudely talking while others are answering questions OR teaching. This last one is surprising because we English teachers are notorious for getting rankled over inattentiveness in our own classrooms.

I learned many valuable teaching techniques this week. As I reflect, I wonder if the most vital lesson won't come from my experience as a student. This taught me to remember the challenges that learners of all ages face and to leave plenty of time for minds to wander into the occasional day dream.