A lot has happened since I blogged last Friday. Actually, the biggest event happened right after I clicked post.
Just as my finger hit the enter key, my phone rang. My mom was on the other line and she sounded distressed. "They lost the cake". Those were her words, simply put, but it took me a few moments to get over the shock. When I did, I got angry. "What do you MEAN- they LOST the cake!?!" Turns out the lady who took my order never filled out a pink slip and so the cake slipped through the cracks and was never made. The bakery initially offered to sell my mom a sheet cake for half price, but I said- NO WAY. Didn't these bakery ladies understand that the strawberry cake was the centerpiece of the entire party? Didn't they know how much I was looking forward to seeing my sister's face when she saw that cake? A plain 'ole sheetcake was not going to elicit the same reaction.
I told my mom (who was a true champion for being the middle-woman in this situation) to put me on the phone with the manager, but just as she was about to hand the phone over, Mom made a comment like, "My daughter wants to talk with you and she is REALLY angry about this whole thing, REALLY ANGRY." I could hear the manager respond with, "Well... I don't really need to talk to her... I think I need to go stock grapes... in the meat aisle. See ya around." Oh geesh.
I hung up with Mom, telling her I was going to call the manager through the store's direct line. Before I could dial the store's number though, Mom called back to say they had agreed that we could have a free cake, but it would have to come from the shelf because the baker/cake decorator was gone for the day. So, it was a score for us, but it was still not as exciting as the awesome strawberry cake would have been. Sometimes, you just have to roll with the punches. In the end, we got two 1/4 sheet cakes, both chocolate. Mom had them write "Happy Birthday" on one and then "Happy 30th Birthday Sister" on the other.
But that is not the end of the story (psych)! At approximately 3pm on Friday, my mom got a voicemail from the baker I had originally spoken with about the strawberry cake. She felt awful about the mix-up and wanted to make the cake for us and deliver it to my parent's house! Mom, who had had enough of the cake debacle asked me to call this lady back and strike a deal with her. So, I did. I called the lady and she explained how things at the bakery had been crazy that week, but that should not have affected their customer service. She felt just awful that the cake was not made on time, but wanted another chance. Even though it was her day off, she said she would make the cake, deliver it to my parent's house that night (around 8:30pm because Mom and Dad were leaving the next morning at 7am to drive to my sister's town) and she would do it all for free. Would I allow her to do this- she asked. Hooray- YES!
We ended up with three cakes! I told my mom to freeze the one that just said "happy birthday" and then to bring the other two (the strawberry cake for the party and the other for my sister to take home). Believe me when I say that there was a whole lot of cake going around this weekend and it was all free!
In the end (and it really is the end this time), my sister was very surprised by her party and she loved the strawberry cake. A fun time was had by all. I will post pictures later today, so you can see how it turned out.
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