So, there’s cake, and then there’s CAKE.
Moist, melt in your mouth, full of butter cake, carefully handcrafted, with the soft tears of visionaries and dreamers mixed into the batter (it’s possible). It creates in the mouth a watery meltdown. It shakes the entire body. It renders knees useless.
I was lucky to be sitting down when I tried SusieCakes. The SusieCake ambassador dropped samples by an office where I was consulting. When offered, I said yes. Yes, I will eat your cake. After that, I felt like joining the SusieCake religion. I wanted to bow down and never put crappy cake in my mouth ever again.
They labeled the spoons! Sampling was a celebration.
This happened to be on a day we were shopping for a very special girl’s very special birthday cake. Luckily, they made a tasting appointment for my birthday girl that very afternoon. We felt called.
Three flavors of cupcakes arrived with six flavors of icing on twelve mini spoons. They offered us drinks. They brought plates, napkins, and utensils. They whipped out an iPad like they were serious. They were serious about our cake.
The girl with the vision.
Audrey had drawn what she wanted on her cake: a beach and ocean theme, with a dolphin leaping. Every element was carefully discussed and considered. How puffy will the waves be? How much texture? How much flattening? How smooth will the color blending be over the water? Exactly what shade of pink will the beach towel be? Not light. Hot. We want hot pink. Of course. Each design element was depicted for an example, then carefully recorded on the iPad, like a visual order for the magic makers who would actually decorate the cake. Talk about notes.
Finally, the tally. I saw the bill. I nearly fell over. It was twice what I expected. And I expected to pay twice what we paid somewhere else last time. So, it was expensive. I asked for and listened to the breakdown, which was interesting, but really listening was just a way for me to silently give myself secret CPR while the celebrations specialist talked.
Yes, please!
I thought about our experience, sipping drinks, and sampling cake. I thought about the darling retro-vintage decor and branding. I thought about how incredibly kind our celebrations specialist had been. I thought about how this cake was twice as tall as others.
Mostly, though, I thought about my little girl, and how this was almost like preparing for some (far distant) wedding, but not so far, not so distant. They grow up so fast. I thought about her, and how much I love her, and how I want to give her everything fancy, personal, delicious, exquisite, unique, fun, lovely, connective, and dear–just as she is. We could start with cake.
So maybe I’m a sucker. But look at this face: I don’t care. We did it. It was fun. Just ordering it was a special date. I hope it does make a splash at her pool party.
Audrey chose a vanilla cake with sprinkles baked inside “The Celebration Cake”, with strawberry buttercream between each of four decadent layers, and vanilla frosting on top in her own design, carefully crafted by loving hands, who sing as they labor, and who have halos delicately wafting above their heads.
Shopping = the pre-party. SusieCakes makes every detail part of the celebration.
For delicious cake, for a lovely boutique ordering experience, for a kind warm and perpetually upbeat celebrations specialist, for care in the making, and for a real shazam moment upon diving in, I recommend SusieCakes. No, they’re not paying me. They didn’t know I’d blog about it. And neither did I.
The motivation here is to consider and to share what makes us buy luxury: an excellent product, disarmingly great customer service, a personal and fun experience, and celebrating in an elaborate way that I’m still contemplating. Maybe it’s this: Every now and then a little spoilin’ feels like a really, really nice hug.
We all need love and belonging. Maybe we can use a little spoiling, too.
It’s like they want us to come back.
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