The only way to succeed is to fail, or how diseased slugs inspired a new idea.
I accidentally made two cakes yesterday.
The first was planned. The second, much like an illegitimate child, I was not prepared for.
But I didn’t learn anything from making the actual cakes. I’m not here to talk to you all about cakes a la The Tintern Baking Challenge.
I’m here to talk to you about chocolate, and how first time failure led to second time success.
For what is essentially just a baking story, this is deep stuff.
My friend Abbie helped me make the cakes. We did our pre-bake shop in the Co-op, and she picked up the white chocolate which would be later melted and drizzled over the cocoa icing.
Once we got back and started creating, everything went great. The mixtures were spot on (it was marble cake), what were intended as top and bottom bases rose better than expected (hence two cakes) and we didn’t cause too much kitchen carnage.
We took the cakes out of the oven and Abbie left to go make dinner while I went for a run to waste some time. No dramas.
I got back, made the icing — perfectly sweet — and then smothered it over the top of the two cakes. All was still going just as planned.
Then I picked up the white chocolate.
White chocolate with crisped rice
with crisped rice
crisped rice
Perfection ruined.
This wasn’t chocolate made for melting and drizzling over cakes.
But I tried it anyway.
It looked as if I’d let a family of diseased slugs set up shop on my new creation.
Jen warned me not to do it.
She was right. I shouldn’t have done it.
But all was not lost; I still had one more cake to decorate.
I knew I couldn’t melt the chocolate.
Simply being lazy and putting big chunks on top wasn’t an option either.
I looked around for inspiration.
A knife.
Ooooh.
White chocolate curls.
There’s something to be said here about the fact I failed – at least by my own standards – and then succeeded on the second attempt.
The failure inspired an idea I didn’t have the first time around. Only after disappointment did I end up with something I was prouder to call my own (and Abbie’s).
Major success obviously – generally – takes more than two attempts. It’s the result of years of hard work and countless failings.
But don’t give up.
Never give up.
Maybe one day your own diseased slugs will give you inspiration to succeed.
“The master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried.”
Stephen McCranie
