Let them eat cake.

Ah, the love birds.



No, not us. Our cake topper:


(weddingstar.com)

This was the first thing I bought after we got engaged last summer. I fell in love with it after I saw it in what I thought was the first bridal magazine I'd bought. (It turned out to be the Weddingstar catalog, but was still very helpful!) On some level, we actually built out wedding around it. We don't have colors, just a theme: nature. From recycled paper to compost-able decor and tons of "to be re-used" items, we're trying to have an environment-friendly environment-themed wedding.

But I digress. Where was I? Oh, yes. Cake!

It shouldn't have been such a challenge to find a cake for our birds to perch upon. I liked what I saw in the snippet of cake visible in the Weddingstar shot: the branch and the orange flowers. I scoured the Internet and found this to be the best example I could find, showing the branch I was looking for:


(cake with 3D branch from flickr.com)

As opposed to this:


(frosted-on branch from coolest-birthday-cakes.com. Nice, but not what I'm looking for)

I didn't think it was that hard of a request. I loved the orange flours and the wire paper-wrapped branch. On a simple, three-layer cake with ivory butter cream frosting.

I was wrong.

Bakery 1 assured me it was no problem, but that it would cost a lot extra because they had to be handcrafted. Well, OK, but THAT much extra? No. Not to mention the owner wasn't even there when we came in for the meeting and didn't send us the estimate even after two requests. Fail. (Though their cake was awesome.)

Bakery 2 insisted I should go buy silk flowers, handed us a box of cupcakes and shoved us out the door with a hand-written estimate on the back of a fax cover sheet smeared with cocoa powder. Um, no. Fail. (Plus your frosting - though I know Mr. Calico disagreed - was inedibley sweet.)

Bakery 3 = the winner! They made time for us at a moment's notice as we were sadly leaving Bakery 2. (Well, I was sad. Mr. Calico had a box of cupcakes.) They offered us the samples they had available, gave us a great price quote and set up a time for us to come in to talk about the cake design and taste the flavors we were more interested in. This was accomplished last weekend, in between two Niece Calico birthday parties. Cake overload anyone?

First, we selected our cake flavors:


Yum. Three layers. Three delicious flavors. I was sort of concerned about having two non-traditional flavors, but early polls indicate excitement about the options. Phew!

After that delicious task was completed, we moved on to the design. I showed the cake agent (do they have a title?) the picture, which she had previously assured me would be no problem. She called the designer for a consultation and... problem.

They don't make branches like that. They can do the flat frosting branches and add orange flower bunches like the Weddingstar pic, but that's it. Gulp.

Mr. Calico sees my expression and starts asking all kinds of questions about what they can do. I look around the bakery at all the cake samples, hoping for some inspiration. And then I see it in the window:



Our cake!

Well, not exactly. I don't love the pink flowers or the green buds or the color of the frosting or the topper. These turn out to be mostly easy fixes, except that the branch is pre-ordered and, after several phone calls, we learn only comes in pink. We compromise on the suggestion that the buds can be clipped off and the branch spread out a bit more. I'm a little nervous and, I'll admit, a little disappointed that I'm not getting quite exactly what I wanted. But at least I know it will be delicious, and no one but Mr. Calico and me will know if it doesn't look right. Besides, I doubt that at that point in the day I'll really care if something that's going to be cut up and eaten isn't quite the version I was looking for.

Has anyone else had to do a cake compromise?