Fifi the Poodle

This is Fifi the Poodle. She is the cake I entered in the North Show 'Decorated Children's Cake' competition. Sadly she did not win a place but she went to a good home as I donated her for the charity auction held on the last night of the show. I hope she earned them a few pounds.

The phone rang last Sunday week, a few days after the North Show had finished. Mr Bee answered.

Mr Bee: ‘Hello’
Lady: ‘Hello, I was wondering if I could speak to XXX’
Mr Bee: ‘Yes. Who may I say is calling?’
Lady: ‘Oh, she won’t know me.’
Mr Bee: ‘Oh. Um….I’ll just get her for you.’
Me: ‘Hello’
Lady: ‘Hello. My name is Louise. You don’t know me but are you the lady who made the poodle cake at the North Show?’
Me: ‘Yes, that’s me.’ (bewildered)
Lady: ‘You are probably wondering how I got your telephone number.’
Me: ‘Well yes I am actually.’ (To be honest this had not even occurred to me at this point.)
Lady: ‘Well I got your name from your entry card. It was half hidden under the cake board so I had to get one of the officials to come and move it for me so I could see your name and then I looked you up in the phone book. You have quite an unusual name so I thought that there would probably only be one person listed.’
Me: ‘Oh, well yes it is a bit of a long and unusual name.’ (Still wondering what on earth is going on.)
Lady: ‘My daughter fell in love with your poodle cake and has not stopped asking me to call you. Do sell birthday cakes?’
Me: ‘Uumm…no. I just make them for my kid’s parties really.’ (Now I am totally astounded that someone actually liked my cake enough to go to the bother of tracking me down.)

The long and the short of it, as the conversation went for about 15 minutes, is that this lady ended up asking me not once, not twice but four times if I was sure that I didn’t make cakes for children’s parties.

I must admit that I did waiver at one point and nearly gave in. I am glad I didn’t as I tend to worry A LOT when I make cakes for other people that they won’t turn out or they will taste terrible. So I told the lady which Women’s Weekly Cake book I made the cake from and where I bought all the sweets/lollies I used for the decorations (particular sweets can be quite difficult to find in Guernsey – I improvise a lot; but this time I managed to get the ones listed in the recipe book). I told her how very simple the cake was to make.

She kept telling me that I should open a business; that Guernsey needed a lady who made children’s party cakes and that I should be that lady. She even told me how much to charge; about £25 to £35 per cake. She kept asking and encouraging me to start my new found business right then and there on the phone.

I finally managed to get off the phone and told Mr Bee what had happened.

Mr Bee: ‘You DID NOT agree to do it did you?’
Me: ‘No, it would stress me out too much I think.’
Mr Bee: ‘Thank goodness for that.’
Me: ‘Why?’
Mr Bee: ‘Because in a place this size word would get around very quickly and you would end up being swamped with cake orders!’

It’s nice he likes my cakes that much :)