Saturday, November 27, 2010

Meow!

This cake was a fun adventure. My friend Erin requested a cake for her mom. It was on the calendar for well over a month and as the date approached I really didn't have much direction. So, I called Erin earlier this week and asked her what kind of flowers her mom liked. Also, did she have any color preferences. In the background, I could hear Erin's husband, Steve, say, "Tell her she likes leopard print." Erin says, "Whatever Steve! I don't even know how she'd do that." Then she talks to me and says, "Steve's just being Steve. Anyway, yeah...whatever you'd like to do. Fall colors would be fine. Pretty flowers...whatever." I clarified and asked, "So your mom REALLY likes leopard print." Erin laughed and said, "Yeah...you know my mom, right?" Okay, so leopard print it was.

I do know that after having this conversation, Erin was TOTALLY under the impression that her mom was getting a carrot cake with fall-colored flowers on top. I was okay with that, hoping beyond hope that I would MORE THAN satisfy my customer. Erin was going to be the superstar and bring this awesome cake to her mom. She'd be the hero. It'd be totally awesome. Super-charged theme music would play as she opened the cake box and people would rush up to her - total strangers - and ask, "WHO MADE THAT CAKE?!!!"

That is...if her mom REALLY liked leopard print and Steve wasn't just teasing.

Oh gosh. Was he just teasing? Will Erin totally hate the cake? Should I scrap this one and make a new one altogether? No, I told myself, it'll be fine.

Well, I continued on with my leopard design and did a great deal of research. I used food coloring and a splish splash of vodka to paint on the design. Then I called my mom, who always seems to have an answer for everything. I called her at work (because this was a REALLY important call) and asked her which color would be a good accent color to leopard print (and I didn't tell her I was making a cake). She said black or gold and I disagreed. So, I added the pink cream cheese lettering and border and made a matching pink bow out of fondant.

Then I breathed deeply into a paper bag while I waited for Erin to pick up the cake.

She totally LOVED it! In fact, she kept opening the box to look at it. Phew!


I slept really well that night.

Today is Erin's mom's birthday and I wish her the very best! I hope SHE loved her cake as much as Erin did.

And by the looks of this picture (thank you Erin and Kristi), I think she did!

2 comments:

  1. Hey Ann! The cake was A HUGE HIT TONIGHT! It really made my mom smile and she was really impressed! She does love animal print after all! She was sick with the flu on Thanksgiving and didn't get any turkey, so we cooked up an awesome dinner. The cake was a surprise, and it was great seeing her reaction. Kristi has pics to put up soon. She LOVED it! Even my Dad thought it was cool too! Oh, and don't forget... DELICIOUS!

    Thanks so much!

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  2. The cake was really beyond my expectations too, I really appreciate all of the thought you put into your work!

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