Let Them Eat Cake

So tomorrow (with any luck) I'll be posting pictures of Parker's first birthday party. I don't know how to prepare the world for what ended up passing as the birthday cake. But in the end we were lucky to have a birthday cake. I should start at the beginning.

Months and months ago I decided that I wanted Parker's 1st birthday party to be pink and pretty and cupcake themed. Some day soon she'll grow up and pick her own birthday theme and Halloween costumes (Gideon has already informed me that he needs to be a Transformer for Halloween this year. Guess we won't be doing a cute family theme this year. Or any other year in the forseeable future.) Anyway until that day comes I get to have free reign.

I really wanted her birthday cake to just look like a giant cupcake. I've seen the pan and decorating stuff at my local party supply and craft stores. I could probably have made the thing myself, but when it comes to entertaining, particularly where food preparation is concerned, I prefer to leave that to professionals or people who enjoy it, (or at least leave it to someone won't completely unravel from the stress of preparing food AND doing all of the cleaning, decorating, etc.) About 3 months ago I started making the rounds at the bakeries in town getting prices and discussing options. Anyway I placed the order like 6 weeks ago. I'm obsessive enough that whenever I order anything I ALWAYS call and double check the week before just to make sure. Last week I went into the store and checked the order, reiterated what I wanted, and changed the pick-up time. I watched the girl mark out the original time on the order slip and write in the new pick-up time.

You know where this is going right? So I show up today and my cake isn't ready. The lady (who turned out to be the bakery manager) didn't seem at all concerned. "Well that cake isn't due until 3:00. I have 14 cakes to do today and 5 of them I need to get done before 1." I not only told her that I had changed the time, but I pointed out the girl who I spoke to about changing the time. I'm pretty sure it wasn't my mistake because she pulled out the order form and said she'd try and slip it in as soon as she could. I firmly told her that I needed it as soon as possible because the party was starting in like 2 hours.

As if this screw up with the time wasn't bad enough she then proceeded to tell me that she didn't know how to make what I had requested, so it probably wouldn't look the way I had pictured it. I told her that I didn't really have any expectations other than that it look like a big cupcake. To which she said she'd see what she could do. I was absolutely LIVID by this point. Literally shaking. She actually had the audacity to tell me to chill out. At which point I was really afraid I was going to start saying something I'd later regret. So I left and picked up the rest of the food and headed home. I called my mother & vented to her and asked her to go back and pick up the cake. As soon as I hung up the phone I got a call from the bakery saying they'd finished the cake and they were only going to charge me $5 for it. I was even more worried at this point because really, what could they have possibly thrown together in 20 minutes time that would be at all passable or decent for my baby's first birthday party? I told my mother that if it didn't look good, she didn't have to accept it and we'd go get cupcakes or something.

When she brought the thing home it wasn't as bad as I had been envisioning. But it didn't really look like the giant cupcake I had hoped for. The only way I can think to describe it is that it reminded me of what would happen if Strawberry Shortcake decorated a Smurf's mushroom house.

And on that note I think it's time for me to have another slice of said Strawberry Shortcake Smurf Mushroom (which turned out to be surprisingly good despite how it looked and the fact that it was actually two different kinds of cake and two different types of frosting) and then head to bed. I was up until 2:30am cleaning the house, so I'm exhausted. Pictures forthcoming.