For his birthday, he didn't want anything too crazy, just dinner out with friends and then back home to play Rock Band.
I asked him about the sort of cake he wanted and he said he wanted some carrot cake cupcakes. Now, I despise carrot cake, but I obliged since it was his birthday and all and agreed to make it for him.
About 2 1/2 weeks prior to his birthday, I was looking through my Twitter feed and saw "HensonCompany" tweet about this bakery, Kandy Cakes, that made these awesome Labyrinth inspired cookies. I stalked around the site and realized the bakery was only about 1/2 hour away in the town where we used to live. I thought to myself how wonderful it would be to have one of their cakes.
Around that same time, the Disney Parks blog announced some of the Walt Disney World 40th anniversary items on sale. One of which was a Mickey Ear Hat with various images on it commemorating the 40 years of Walt Disney World. We're heading there later on this year and we're looking forward to the 40th anniversary merchandise. I think Mike is more than I am since he can use this as his "Disney thing", being born in the same year as Walt Disney World.
My "Disney thing" is better though.
It was then it hit me! Why not have them make Mike's cake in the shape of the black Mickey Mouse Ear Hat?
I got in touch with Kandy, how fortuitious!, and we got started planning.
I must tell you, during this time, I became even more secretive and self conscious during this time. During my emails back and forth with Kandy, I told her I worked from home so if she had any questions or needed an answer right away, to call at home. Our phone has caller id that is spoken. As you might expect if the phone said, "Kandy" or "Cake" within earshot of Mike, he'd become curious. Then he'd ask me and while I'm good at lying to him, with this cake being so cool and all I was sure I'd start giggling and spill the beans.
Naturally, the week Kandy was making and decorating the cake, Mike worked from home all week because he was sick with his Karma sickness. So there is my BlackBerry going off all throughout the day with Kandy and I conversing. Of course this coincided with my Facebook notifications malfunctioning on the BlackBerry, which leaves only the text messages 'dinging' every time I got a new one. He did ask if my Facebook notifications were working again and I did lie and say they were, but only because I started at my work computer screen and pretended to type away so he wouldn't press the matter.
Then I grabbed the BlackBerry like a thief and typed in my response to it.
Finally Saturday came and Mike drove my brother and I to the bakery to pick up the cake. During the car ride over, he asked, "Hey, how come you didn't make a cake?"
To which I replied trying to kill the smile that was slowly appearing on my face, "I had too many things to do and figured I'd get it made." Then, I fumbled with the BlackBerry again hoping he'd stop asking.
When I saw our cake on the shelf, I got the biggest smile! As we were putting the cake into the box, which needed to be kept open due to those big ears, Kandy said the following:
"The best part for the cake is to go into the trunk or on the floor to minimize any shaking. Don't do any hard turns or hard stops either."
"Ok, sounds good!"
Little did I know we would hit what seemed like EVERY. STINKING. POTHOLE. on the way back home. We had to stop so I could put the cake on the floor in the front passenger seat but angled away from Mike so he couldn't see.
The cake made it home mostly unscathed, except for the little yellow bits at the top from the shaking from the potholes. But, what can you do, I was glad it was all in one piece still as I was expecting it to have fallen apart!
Needless to say, Mike was thoroughly surprised. The cake was yummy, even though the fondant turned everyone's teeth black... tee hee.
Kandy was great throughout the entire process! I was very impressed with the workmanship and care put into our cake. And she's got a great name, what can I say?
The only unhappy part is that I live too far away to frequent the bakery on a regular basis to sample all the other goodies they have.
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