Caketastrophy...

It's a nice enough cake.

If you like that sort of thing.

If birds, branches, and other dainty girl things peak your interest, you might like this cake.  If you like vats of Maple Cream Cheese Frosting, and piles of Spice Cake...

... and even more layers

... then this cake could have been for you.  That cake, and three others.  And about 2 weeks ago, I could have given you a really good deal on one.  I was selling them for really nothing at all- for holiday parties, birthdays, personal fat days, whatever occasion you had- I could have frantically delivered a cake to your door.

Really.

For whatever occasion, except the one for which the monster was created.

As you can probably tell, this cake was a wedding cake, but it was a bit late to the altar.  Now, before you label little ol' me as "the worst person in the world" (as I did myself, about 1000 times), hear me out.

...

...

OK.  Now you can.  Label me as such.  But the story begins in March of last year, when for whatever reason I decided to put an ad on Craigslist for wedding cake.  It was even a silly ad- completely honest and completely silly- explaining how I had never baked a wedding cake, but had a hankering to do so.

And you wouldn't believe the response.  Really.  So many people responded with orders for "pink and black cupcakes with swirly designs," and "autumn cake with leaves," among many, many others.  "H" was one of those girls hungry for a deal on cake, and boy, did I offer her a deal!

We emailed lazily back and forth for months, and a few months ago we set up a cake tasting, which she had set up with not only her fiance, but she also brought her parents (or in-laws), and her two children.  Of course I was expecting her hubs, but the entourage I was not, and the "coffee shop" where we met had cupcakes in the case that by looks blew mine completely out of the water!  Add the shop owner who by rule wanted to kick me and my cupcakes to the curb, and I was one nerve-wrecked little girl!

Regardless, the meeting went really well, and I really loved "H" and her family.  I am sure we talked about the date and location... but did I write it down?  No.  I'd remember it.  It was, after all, my first wedding.  How could I forget a day like that?

Fast forward a month or two, and I received an email to "be sure everything is OK for next week."  "Honestly," I wrote, "I thought your wedding was New Years, so that's awful!  So next Saturday, can I deliver your cakes after work, say at around 6?"

"That's fine,  The reception isn't until 8."

So all week, I planned and made perfect, baking three enormous cakes for a girl I had grown to really like.  And as I was piping the middle tier on Friday night, I took a break to check my email at around 11:30 PM.  There, tucked into my spam folder were two frantic letters from "H," wondering where the heck her cakes were.

I stood, bent over, my face a mere 3 inches from the screen, feeling as if I had gone completely mad.  I paced and wondered, scouring emails and spam folders, wondering if she had corrected me when I said "Saturday" a week earlier.  The only email I found from her containing the date of the wedding was from the initial email in March in response to the Craigslist post.  Why didn't I write a contract?  Why didn't I write it down on my calendar?  You've got to be kidding me!  Why did this happen?  Why did it happen to me, but also, why did it happen to her?  I have ruined her wedding!

So I sent her an email, blubbering and bawling the whole way, promising her money back (long gone, and the week before Christmas), and I believe referring to myself as some degree of ogre.  She was professional in her response, and later I did some stalking on the internet and found pictures of her, gorgeous and without mascara down her cheeks (Publix cakes lurking in the shadows).

Now, I started writing about this a week ago or more, but it didn't seem right to share until today (today, being New Years morning at 4AM).  I can't say that that this morning dawns a new beginning for me in any way more than a calendar change, as I have never been much for New Years shenanigans.  It just took me this long to be able to share this failure with you, and to be able to say that I am not done with baking.

And in all of your planning for the new year, to tell you that it is OK to fail.  And expect to fail, especially if you're really good at stuff.  Even if it is your one-year blog-aversary.

Because stuff happens.  And stuff only makes you better, or so they say.

Still baking,

Rachel Bee