Icing or Cake?

When I choose a cupcake, it's about the icing. In fact, when I went looking for an image for this post, there were lots of great colors and images to choose from.  But I saw this chocolate icing and of course, I chose this one.

I feel like dreams are like cupcakes.  The icing is the delicious part.  It's what we think about when we have a spare moment.  We go for the icing!

The cupcake is what it takes underneath the great ideas.

When I started dreaming of doing a Christmas show, my original idea was to build it in my home area and then take it to cities across the U.S.  That was the icing on my cupcake.

There's one thing I forgot about cake.  It's made of things that take a lot of work to produce.

Flour
Eggs
Sugar

Think about where they come from.

Someone bought a farm, bought chickens and started gathering eggs. They have to feed the chickens, build a home for them and keep them from foxes.

Somewhere someone is growing canes of sugar. It takes months to grow and lots of care. Hard work.

What about chocolate?

"First, the pods must be harvested, which is usually done twice a year. Because the trees are too fragile to climb, harvesting is accomplished by workers on the ground, who wield either a machete or a long pole with a machete on the end. Then, workers open the pods by hand, taking care not to damage the beans inside.

Next comes one of the most important steps in the process – fermentation. The beans, still sticky with pulp, are placed in earthen pits or wooden bins and covered with banana leaves, then left to ferment. The heat of fermentation changes the bitter flavors in the beans into something more edible, more chocolatey. 

The sugars in the bean turn into acids, the color changes from pale to dark brown, and the pulp residue melts away. The length of the fermentation process depends on the type of bean; the higher quality beans may need only a few days, where others may need a week or more.

After fermentation, the beans are dried in the sun for about a week. The flavor continues to develop during this time. Some manufacturers try to speed this process along by drying the beans over a fire, which gives them a smoky, inferior flavor.

Once the beans are dry, they are ready to be shipped to a factory, where they are turned into chocolate."  Taken from "Facts About Chocolate".

We haven't even touched on how to get flour.

Now that I know what's involved in doing a big Christmas show (the icing) I have a much more realistic approach to that dream (the cupcake).  Right now, it's all I can do to pull of ONE show.

So here's what I'm thinking.  The icing keeps me going.  The cupcake underneath - that's the hard work.  Put them together and it will be quite tasty!  Most days I'd rather sit and lick the icing....forget the rest. But I can't. I will need both!

Hmm...I'm feeling kinda hungry for chocolate.  Better get busy growing a chocolate tree.