Whhhhoaaaa, Nelly!

Yesterday was quite a day, I gotta tell ya. I had a cake due up at the U of U, and although I am a U of U alumni, I still don't really understand that campus and so I looked up the directions to the Union building online. The way they told me to go, wasn't at all the way I would have gone, but I took it anyway, trusting that maybe I just didn't know a shortcut or something. These directions had me take I-15 all the way to I-80 east & then get off at Foothill Drive; if you are familiar with that exit, you'll know that taking Foothill from I-80 with a cake in the back of your car is quite a feat. There is a nasty merge that caused me to stop a bit short and the bottom tier of my cake, which was "securely" stuck onto my big silver platter, slid completely off the platter and onto it's top on the recently vacuumed floor mat. Actually it was as if the hands of angels had gently placed it upside-down on the floor. It couldn't have fallen in a more fix-able way if it had tried. Not to say that it wasn't completely terrifying. The only other time that anything like this has ever happened, I luckily had Matt there to talk me down from my ledge and make things okay. Not so much yesterday. I couldn't even get through to him on his cell. So here I am, hyperventilating, just blindly driving to deliver it, not knowing how on earth I was going to go through with it. Should I just refund their money & pitch that tier in the bin? Run far, far away & never answer my phone again? I had no idea. So when I finally got there, I realized that I would have to have help getting these 3 parts of the cake into the building, up the elevator and do all this while trying to deal with a tired toddler at the same time. Fortunatley, as I pulled up, I saw the entire bridal party coming out of the building to take some pictures, the bride wouldn't see me arrive with her cake in a rather desheveled state. Luckily, there were two cute little freshmen girls waiting for a ride on a bench outside the building. After I flipped the upside-down tier back onto the platter & assessed the damage, I went over & asked them to help carry my stuff in with me. They were so sweet, I was so lucky that their ride wasn't expected for a while, and they were more than willing to help. Anyway, to make a long story short (although it might be a little late for that), thanks to some extremely kind folk in the family as well as staff at the reception site, things got all fixed up and I did not pass out from anxiety. There was a cute older guy working there, who kept saying all the same comforting things that Matt would have. Word for word. It was bizarre, and really made me feel that someone upstairs was watching out for me and knew exactly what I needed to hear. If it couldn't be Matt, it certainly had to be someone, and this guy was so sweet. I later heard that he got a peice of the chocolate layer & told Amy to tell me that it was the best wedding cake he had ever had, and in his line of work, that was saying ALOT. I am really proud of this cake, certainly not because of my transportation skills, but because of the fantastic flavors. I have spent a lot of time & money on researching & testing out recipes and finding the ones that are dense enough to work as a tiered cake, and moist enough to be delicious even after being worked on for a few days. To have unexpected fillings that totally complement the yummy cake, something that really stands out in peoples memories and makes their wedding day just that much more special, is really something that I have come to pride myself on. I am a cake snob. I am so honored each time perfect strangers or friends or friends of friends trust such a important part of the most important day in their lives.... to me. It is amazing. I never meant to be a baker, but looking back it's kind of a no-brainer. I love making things pretty. I love the fact that I don't usually have to rely on anyone else to make this happen, it's my little pet project and I have no one to blame but myself if it doesn't turn out spectacularly. Anyway, after that prideful little rant, after that completely nerve-racking awful day, (oh, I forgot, after I got the cake all fixed up, they gave me a topper to put on & it just didn't feel balanced, not really secrure, but like a dummy I put it on, stepped away to take a picture & the freaking thing fell down, taking a chunk of the middle tier with it. That's when I really lost it.) after all that, I walked out with my little girl, who had behaved amazingly well, and we blew some celebratory bubbles in the parking lot, and I realized that as much as I LOVE doing this wedding cake thing, no matter how bad a day I have, nothing matters but holding hands with my precious little girl and knowing how much she loves me. Even when I'm completely ignoring her or speaking too sharply at her or being impatient, she loves me. I'll miss that when she turns into a know-it-all teenager and begins to treat me awfully like I did my mom. But for now, things will be okay no matter what, as long as I can laugh with her and blow bubbles on a beautiful early fall night.