Whew. What a party!
Last night was my friend Mandi’s birthday. This is the woman who went from hiring me – as a complete stranger – to becoming my favorite client EVER, to the person who started me off in the HUGE change of career from flowers to cakes.. to a good friend. One of the sweetest, most fun people I’ve known, and she’s like a little sister to me.
Her husband is great too, and he planned this party as a surprise for her. To be honest, I wasn’t sure he’d manage to pull it off. She’d ASKED him to plan a surprise party (kinda makes that difficult!), she lives next door to one person that was instrumental in pulling it off, and works with someone else!
About a month beforehand, she told me that I needed to make her bday cake, and that she would make her husband contact me (didn’t give him a choice, lol!). I told her I wouldn’t be able to do this weekend, as I had a wedding show – she was ok with that, because he’d plan it for the following weekend.
Well, he (Charles) did get ahold of me, but had planned it for this weekend. We later found out that he had NO idea that she was planning for the following weekend (???).. But whatever. I squeezed her cake in anyway – this was Mandi, and I HAD to make it work somehow! He didn’t care what I did design wise, as long as it was pink – pink was the theme of the party.
I sent her an email this past week, asking what flavor she’d want for next weekend. She mentioned a few ideas, then joked “Or you could just get a box of Funfetti Angelfood Cake. Haha! Just kidding!”
Uh oh. She gave me an idea!
So, I baked her a little 8″ FUNFETTI cake (oil? Ew. My cakes are all made with butter, FYI!). I’d purchased a tub of store bought pink strawberry frosting.(!!!). I didn’t level the cakes, and I literally slapped that canned icing on – I wanted it to look horribly amateur and awful.
It worked.
So, we left the earlier mentioned dinner party early, and headed to the surprise party. Her other friends had decorated her house all in pink, very festive! No one had picked up birthday candles, so we improved and took a white taper candle from the living room… stuck it right in the middle of the cake. Oh, it looked awful.
We surprised her when Charles brought her home from taking her out to dinner. I presented her with the cake, and was really disappointed in how gracious she was about it! The hideous cake didn’t even register on her face!
So, we lit the candle and had her blow it out, and she started cutting the cake. I went down the hall to her room to get her REAL cake (“Girly Birthday” in the less-traditional gallery), and stood behind her. The people on the other side of her (facing us) were grinning like mad when it came out, and the people behind us were aimed with cameras waiting to snap the look on her face when she saw it.. But we waited.. and waited! She was totally oblivious until one of her friends said “Mandi!! TURN AROUND!”
We got her! She was surprised and thrilled!
Cake was enjoyed all around, and she was presented with her gifts. The last gift was a total shock to her – Charles had arranged for a party scrapbook to be made, pretty much on the spot! Photos from the decorating and pre-surprise parts of the party, right up through the cake were all photographed and stealthily printed on site. One of her friends mounted them into a scrap book, and each partygoer had a page with their photo on it, which they signed. Really touching.
I feel a little sorry for her husband.. He’s going to have a REALLY hard time living up to this in the future. Way to set your own bar there, Charles!!
