Baked with Love

When I was little, I remember sitting at the kitchen table and watching my mother bake cakes. She never baked professionally, but she was amazing at what she did. She made cakes for friends and family. Everyone always raved over her cakes.

I also remember sitting on a stool in the corner of my Aunt Stella’s kitchen watching as she made frosting from scratch and baked elaborate cakes. I remember her having an extra freezer in her kitchen and how I always loved to go and open it to see what she was working on.

Growing up, baking and cake decorating was inevitably a big part of my life. Every cake I had for my birthday, when I was little, was either made by my mother or by my Aunt Stella. Even now, my aunt still makes me a cake for my birthday.

My mother taught my aunt how to bake, and by me watching the both of them – they both taught me. This past year I re-found my passion for baking and cake decorating. I bought a beginner kit from Wilton and slowly started to re-teach myself the craft. As the year progressed, I slowly started to gather a good amount of baking supplies and tools. Wilton also sells a tool caddy where you can store all of your supplies. It has a nifty built in tip holder, a huge drawer to store supplies of any shape and size, and mini drawers/boxes. Wilton sells two kinds: 1) the caddy alone and 2) the caddy full of supplies.

I’ve wanted the caddy for a while. At first I wanted the caddy with all the supplies, but the price discouraged me, that’s when I decided I wanted to slowly grow my collection. But now, I’m at the point where I have too many supplies and not enough storage.

Today I went to the store to check the price on the caddy. I had a coupon and I was hoping with the coupon it would be affordable for me to buy. I found the cake aisle and the caddy – once I laid my eyes on it, I knew I would take it home today. I walked over to the caddy lifted it up and saw the price: $199.99. I stared at the caddy, in disbelief, and then I looked at the price of the fully supplied caddy - $199.99.

I tucked the empty caddy under my arm and walked to the front. I asked the lady at the register if I could get a price check, I didn’t think the price on the caddy was correct. She looked at the price, gasped and agreed. She spoke to her manager and the manager went to the back to get the book to check the price.

Leaving the caddy on the counter, I stepped back to allow other customers to be helped. After two other customers checked out, a little old lady stepped up to the register checked out and then spotted my caddy. “What is that?!” She said with delight. I explained to her what it was and what you could use it for. Before I knew it we both were extremely excited over the caddy and I had shared with her that I was learning to decorate.

The manager came back to the front with the book and then corrected the price: $65.99. I asked how much it would be with the coupon: $40.00. I looked at the caddy, thought for a minute, and then the wanting of owning the caddy won.

I took the caddy to the register, the little old lady following close behind. “Wait! Wait! Wait one second.” The next thing I knew, she placed a 20 dollar bill in my hand and smiled. “I want to go half on it with you.” She grasped my hand, gave me a hug and then walked out of the store.

So, there I stood, caddy in one hand and $20 in the other. I watched as the lady left, and I knew, I was blessed. I paid the remaining $20 and took my caddy to the car. Sitting in the car I stared at my caddy, something I have wanted for so long. Something, normally I wouldn’t be able to afford. And I knew, at that moment, that God loved me enough to bless me with something that would bring me joy.