Happy Wedding Cake!.......I mean......Happy Anniversary!

October 23rd marks our first anniversary. I've been looking forward to this day for a while. Not because I wanted to say hey we did it - high five!  But because I've been thinking about our wedding cake.....for a whole year.

I love wedding cake.

The moment Jason asked me to marry him (the second time) I started thinking about wedding cake tasting and all the wedding cake I would get to eat between that point and the wedding. At my wedding, one of the few things I remembered eating was three pieces of cake and one when I got home. It's a real problem for me. 

I figured out early on that I wanted my cake to be from Swiss Confectionery. My caterer had a cake from Swiss at our wedding food appointment and it was love at first taste. From that moment on, I knew I needed to get over there.

That week I called Swiss asking for an appointment to try their cake. They said that they didn't really do cake testing but if I wanted, they would give me one piece of cake to try when I got there. They said I should come in on Friday so I could see all the cakes for the weekend weddings to get an idea of what I wanted.

But the truth is I didn't care what it looked like.

Fortunately for me, Swiss is walking distance from my work. So that Friday morning I went to work pretty early so I would have plenty of time at Swiss. I parked my car at work and set out on foot. As I turned the corner to the street where Swiss is.....I was almost knocked out by the intoxicating smell of delicious divine wedding cake. I breathed it in like I was taking my last dying breath.


I think this is what Heaven must smell like. Like Swiss wedding cake.


* God if you're reading this, I want my heaven to smell like wedding cake. I think the whole rest of Heaven should smell like wedding cake too. I bet everyone up there would really like that. Just a suggestion. Love, Carrie


As I walked up the street to Swiss, I couldn't help but wonder how many other people take this route. How many others go out of there way to smell wedding cake. I would. Everyday. Wouldn't you?


I threw open the door and glanced around the room. I have to say I didn't see wedding cake right away and I was disappointed.


I walked up to the counter and waited for someone to come out of the back where I guess wedding cake magic is made. Wish I were back there.


Finally a woman came out. I tell her that I'm there to see some cakes and that I heard about them from my caterer.


"Oh,"she says, "then you got to try a piece of it at the wedding food tasting?"


I look at her and squint so she won't see my lying eyes. I'm the worst liar. "No mam. I didn't" I say shaking my head.


She eyes me up and down. My eyes dart to the floor.


"That's odd."she said and walked into the back of the cake store.


I let out all of the breath I had been holding just a she emerges with a piece of cake on a napkin.


"Thanks so much," I say. " I really wanted to get an idea of what it tastes like, this helps out a lot." I'm so full of it.


She ushers me over to another room where all the weekend wedding cakes are hidden, tells me to let her know if there is anything I might like and leaves me in a room full of dreamy wedding cakes.


I have an impulse to dive into them, devouring cake by the handfulls and making sounds like the cookie monster but I don't. I contain myself. Somehow.


I don't see anything that screams Carrie's wedding cake, but the truth is that's not why I was really there to begin with. I'm here for the cake. Who care's if it's three-tiered or two-tiered.....well, three-tiered means more cake......


After a while, I return to the counter with the woman who makes cakes. I tell her I haven't quite found what I was looking for that I'll return on another Friday.

"Do you sell cake by the slice?" Wouldn't that be a dream, because I'll take two to go.


"No we don't." "Just whole cakes."


I hide my disappointment and wave to her as I leave the store. Certain I would be back and hoping she wouldn't be there when I returned..


The next Friday, I made sure I made it to work with enough time for Swiss. I didn't want to miss out on one minute of our time together.


As I made my way to the store, I crossed my fingers and hoped the woman cake maker was not there. I pushed open the door, my eyes adjusted to the lights and there he was.... a man cake maker. Thank goodness.


"I'm here to look at some cakes for my wedding," I told him. "I heard about ya'll from a friend." Oh Carrie, stop. Stop lying.


"Oh? Have you tried our cake before?"


"No, no I haven't." I said smiling. I'm amazed at how easily it rolled off my tongue.


And there I was eating another piece of wedding cake. Pretending again that it was the first time I had it. Walking through the room full of wedding cakes to kill time, because I would be back anyway....next Friday.


You might be wondering how long I would get away with this and at that point was I beginning to wonder it too.


The answer is not long.


The fourth Friday, I went to Swiss, things didn't go as smoothly as I hoped. I had my whole act together, what to say to get them to offer it. "No, no I haven't tried it. I've heard it's delicious." or "I heard the cake here is so amazing, I had to come try it."


But that day, after my Friday piece of cake was secure in my hand with a napkin,  guess who walked out of the cake making room?


The woman cake maker.


"You?" she said.


I had just finished telling a guy that worked there that I had not tried the cake before. I had just shoveled a piece of cake in my mouth.


"You've come in before."


I chuckled a nervous, get me the heck out of here laugh.


"I......"


"I couldn't help myself." "He offered and well........"


And I just told her. I told her the truth. Yes I come in here every Friday to look at the cakes. Yes I'm really getting married. Yes on several occasions I said that I hadn't tried but in fact....I had. And....I'm sorry, but.....I love wedding cake. I love this wedding cake. I love Swiss.

I shrugged my shoulders sheepishly. I gave her my most pitiful face.


And she looked at me and she smiled, shaking her head. "You know, you're going to have save the top of the wedding cake for a whole year."


"I know."


"And you can't eat it before then."


"Uh-huh."


"But if you do......" "If you can't make it a whole year...." She said. "I will make you another one."


I smiled. "Really?!"


"Yes. You just let me know."


And with that I went to the room of wedding cakes and I picked out our wedding cake. Nothing fancy. Nothing over the top. It doesn't matter what's on the outside anyway. I picked out a wedding cake that made me smile....thinking about eating it.


And it did make me smile on my wedding day as I'm sure it will on my anniversary.


Thanks Swiss for putting up with me.