How I Learned the Definition of "Professional"

Or, how my worst cake nightmare occurred!!! I think the blogging gods must have thought I would not have enough interesting things to share, so they decided to have a little fun with my day. As Amy and I often say to one another, "you can't make this stuff up!" It was blazing hot today and I had 3 wedding cakes to deliver. Two of them were going in the same direction, so I loaded up and headed out, confidently. I mean, I am of course a competent professional who has delivered hundreds of cakes. I delivered the first cake without a hitch, but it took about 30 minutes to unload all the cakes and to put flowers on the presentation cake. It was an outdoor wedding and everything looked beautiful. (See lovely picture!)

Just as I was getting on the expressway to deliver the second cake I took a quick look back to check on the remaining cake. To my complete HORROR (!!!!!!!) the cake was completely disassembled in a blob. I had to look again to make sure I was really seeing it. This has NEVER happened before. People ask me all the time how many disasters I have had and I always dismiss them with a friendly laugh, as I am a professional!!! After a moment of complete paralysis I turned around and headed back to the bakery. I wish I had taken a picture of the disaster and the miracle recovery that followed, but I was in a complete panic. I managed to completely recover the whole cake, get it chilled, back in the car, and successfully delivered as planned.

I had previously thought that what makes one a professional is a lack of errors due to mastery of your skills. What I learned today (or how I amended that belief to jive with my experience!) is that a true professional can take whatever comes down the pipe, put it together (pardon my pun), and pull off the job!!! (I also learned that when you are delivering cakes on a hot day, keep your car running and your air conditioner on!)