On Baking, Besties, and Belief

In my forthcoming middle grade novel, MIDSUMMER’S MAYHEM, my 11-year-old protagonist Mimi bakes special lemon-lavender cupcakes for her best friend’s birthday. These cupcakes always make her happy, even after her friend moves away.

So when a dear friend of mine was celebrating a big birthday, I wanted to bake her this cake. And that’s why on June 23, Midsummer’s Eve, I spent all day baking with my 16-year-old daughter Mira, whom we sometimes call Mimi (does this sound familiar?). We wanted to create a fancy three-tier birthday cake decorated with purple and yellow flowers.

We baked the cake layers. We mixed up a huge batch of frosting. We started assembling the cake and covering it in white frosting.

It was not very pretty.

The cake showed through in some places, especially on the edges. And it was really difficult to make the frosting smooth, even with an icing spatula and both of us trying.

Aha! We said. We’ll cover the flaws with our frosting flowers!

I’d recently gotten a box of new decorating tips. We picked out one that was supposed to produce a rose shape, and tried it out on a scrap of cake.

“It looks like a turd,” said Mira.

We giggled, but we kept going. And the attempts continued to look like something a unicorn might shoot out its rear. Witness our first attempts in purple below:

They were sweet, delicious, and hideous. There was no way we could bring this cake to my friend, who is an accomplished baker. And certainly not for her big birthday!

*   *   *

A few years ago, when I first became serious about getting published, I shared some of the ups and downs with my children. I shared when I got agent interest, and agent rejections, positive feedback, and feedback that required me to change things and change things again. I shared the never-ending waiting. I wanted them to know it’s never too late to try something new, and it’s important to keep learning, no matter your age. I wanted them to see me struggle and persevere, and eventually, succeed.

But it wasn’t easy. We writers sometimes have dark moments when nothing seems possible, and all our hard work seems wasted. I had a moment like that last year, when everything I’d labored over seemed like a lopsided, poorly frosted cake with turd flowers. I thought about quitting. And I said so out loud.

And Mira said, “Don’t give up on something you love, even if you never get published. Besides, I know you’re going to be published some day.”

I reminded her that there’s no guarantee.

And she said, “I believe in you, Mom.”

*   *   *

Back to the cake.

Mira and I looked at the sad cake and the ridiculous flowers, and we started to snicker. We giggled, guffawed, and shrieked. We howled. We narrowly avoided collapsing to the floor and rolling around.

Once we calmed down, we decided to just decorate the cake.

The first flowers were not much better. But then, as we kept going, they improved. Except for the occasional turd-like blip, they looked like little purple roses.

Ultimately, we ended up with a delicious AND beautiful cake we were proud to bring to my friend’s party. Here’s the finished product:

   

And of course, even more wonderful, we’d spent a laughter-filled day together.

Mira was right—about the cake, and about publishing. Because a few months after that low moment last year, I entered Pitch Wars, and I was selected by my amazing mentor. With her help, I revised my novel and made it even better. And then, after receiving multiple offers, I signed with my absolutely incredible agent. A few months later, after receiving multiple offers, we sold that novel to a fantastic publisher. That novel is MIDSUMMER’S MAYHEM, and it will be published in summer 2019.

So here’s the recipe for lemon-lavender cake with lavender frosting. It celebrates friendship. It also reminds me that one of my best friends is my daughter, who really did internalize what I hoped to teach her about believing in yourself and persevering through tough times.

And who, as it turns out, has a lot to teach me, too.

Lemon-Lavender Cake with Lavender Frosting

Ingredients:

For Cake:

• 2 ¾ cups cake flour
• 4 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 2 tsp dried lavender, crumbled between fingers
• 1½ cups buttermilk, room temp
• 5 large egg whites
• 1¾ cups granulated sugar
• 10 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temp
• 1½ tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1½ tsp pure lemon extract
• Zest of two lemons

For Frosting:

• 2 cups (4 8 Tbsp sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 8 cups powered sugar
• 6 Tbsp lavender soda syrup, or 2 Tbsp dried lavender, finely ground in a spice grinder
• Gel food coloring (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Butter and flour cake pans (I used 8-inch, 6-inch, and 4-inch round cake pans).
2. Sift together cake flour, baking flour, crushed lavender, and salt.
3. In another bowl, combine sugar and lemon zest and rub together with your fingers until the sugar is pale yellow and smells lemony.
4. Whisk together buttermilk and egg whites.
5. In a stand mixer, cream butter and lemon-sugar until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and lemon extracts and beat until combined.
6. With the mixer running, alternate adding the flour mixture with the buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.
7. Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 25-35 minutes, checking at 20 minutes, until the cakes have risen and are springy. A cake tester should come out clean.
8. Cool on a wire rack before frosting.
9. Make the frosting: In a mixer, beat butter until light and fluffy. Beat in powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time. Add in lavender syrup (or powdered lavender) to your liking, tasting after each tablespoon.
10. Frost cake and decorate as you like. Enjoy!

 

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