Perils of Caffeine in the Evening

I’ve had a crazy week putting out fires and buttoning up projects in preparation for my week in Milwaukee next week. One last loose end was to stop in at my bakery client’s to get their info ready for the 9/15 corporate tax filing deadline. Everybody should have a bakery client (click any photo to enlarge):

The cake on the right has a sort of tiramisu layer with fresh strawberries embedded, then a layer of chocolate cake on either side, topped with chocolate buttercream frosting. I got a taste of it when the decorator gave me a cup with pieces of the side trimmings. I was drafted to help load the wedding cake on the right into a van, from whence it was whisked off to a happy nuptial somewhere. At first, I thought the lopsidedness was due to the heat and my inadequate ferrying technique from the cooler, but I was told that it was designed that way.

I’ve worked with this business since 1984 as a consultant, CPA, VP-Finance, and back now to a consultant. They have a nice little mail order business here.

They probably won’t be able to send the above cakes via mailorder, but there are a lot of other delightful pastries that do very well via second-day air. I suggest the kringle, which is a puff-pastry filled - and I mean filled - with almond paste. If you’ve had those flattened things in the midwest that they call “kringle” and think you like them, you’re in for a real treat with Larsen’s. </shill>

I remember one night about 15 years ago when someone was delivering a 5-tier wedding cake - chocolate cake, mocha buttercream frosting, each tier topped with a poured chocolate layer - and the weld on the cakestand broke on the way to the wedding venue. This poor devil came back to the bakery, opened the back of his van, and the floor and walls were just covered in chocolate mess. While we were tempted to grab spoons and just eat out of his van as if it were an ice cream carton, the wedding had to be covered. All the decorators had gone home, but we found a wedding cake in the cooler that was the same size (though a lot plainer and, well, just white), and that cake was whisked off to the panicky, but caterer. They were happy to get it.

So, almost all of my fires are banked, and now I’m cooling my heels at SeaTac waiting for a redeye flight to Minneapolis. I pushed my client to let me work Sunday - Thursday, because I’m flying to Columbus on Friday to once again play with my Ohio State Marching Band alumni. More on that tomorrow.