Here's your sign...

Yesterday we delivered a wedding cake and we chuckled at some of the comments we were getting. First, as I was assembling the cake, the wedding coordinator (that's another subject for a blog post) looked at the cake and said, "Why do you need to put those plastic dowels in the cake?" Duh...so the cake won't fall, so the tiers won't sink into the ones they're stacked on, so the cake stays level...a strange comment I thought to come from a wedding coordinator who must know something about wedding cakes. Next, I was putting the finishing touches on the cake and a gal from the bridal party comes over, stands in back of me and looks directly at the cake and asks, "Is this the wedding cake?" I kid you not...it was all I could do to keep my mouth closed and not reply... I could have said, "Oh my gosh, I brought the wrong cake. This is the birthday cake. The wedding cake is at the little boy's house down the road," or "No, this is the wedding gown, the bride is wearing the wedding cake." I was so proud of myself for not saying anything. Last of all, a young girl was watching as I was putting on the borders at the back of the cake, and she asked, "Would you like me to spin the cake?" I replied, "No thank you, it would mess up the tablecloth." I'm afraid some people forget to think before talking...to each of them..."Here's your sign"...wear it proudly.

Another Cheyenne Canon Inn cake delivery

Cakes and Pets

While my children were young, they did not have dogs or cats as pets. Instead, we had goldfish and, our favorite, turtles. There was a reason for that...dog and cat hairs do not combine well with cakes, especially wedding cakes. When I got too busy for all of the orders I was getting, I went looking for someone I could refer my customers to. So I found this one lady, went over to meet her, to check out her work and her home, and decided that she was a safe bet as a referral. To my horror, the first customer I referred her to for a wedding cake (a friend) called after the wedding and asked me not to refer any more customers to her as they had cat hairs in the wedding cake. I apologized profusely, but at that point, there was nothing I could do. I had not seen any cats when I went to check her out. Needless to say, I did not refer this lady, or anyone else, to anyone ever again. I just told them I was too busy.

Another time, a customer picked up a full sheet cake the night before to take to work in the morning. It was, of course, in a box. She put the box on the kitchen counter. That night, her cat decided to climb up and sit on the box, which destroyed the cake. She called me up in tears the next morning. I told her to bring the cake over and I would repair it as much as I could. Of course, it was not the same cake as I had given her the night before.

My latest run in with a pet was the wedding cake delivery I had last Saturday. The family had a pit bull. First of all, I was met at the table by this dog, and had to ask that someone take him outside while I was setting up the cake. Then I was informed that the dog would be inside (where the cake was set up) while everyone was at the ceremony. I did not know whether the cake would survive the pit bull or not. I just made sure that I took a picture of the cake before leaving, and I let them know that I was not responsible for anything that happened to the cake after I left. I'm not sure what they did to protect the cake, but apparently, it survived as the bride said she was happy with the cake. By the way, this was an interesting cake...check out the picture. The "black" fondant strips were made with the special dark ccocoa, and the red strips were airbrushed so that the back of the strips were still white where they touched the cake. The top had large silver dragees, which I found out have been the scrutiny of law suits. So I had the customer sign a release form before I left the delivery site.