Trip Report There's Something About Mary...and it's called DRAMA!

HouCuseChickie · Oct 3, 2013

ThatBrunette said:
MD has strict attendance rules as well. They are not allowed to give out work or topics that might be missed during an 'unexcused' absence.

How are you feeling? Still achy?

I know at least for us, a lot of it is motivated by funding. i.e. we lose this much $ in government funding if your child misses a day. While we could face fines and misdemeanors for contributing to attendance issues as defined by said laws, some states have gone as far as approving jail time for parents.

I'm still a little achy...it comes and goes. The muscle relaxers make me so sleepy that I've been trying to stick with ibuprofen during the work week. DH has to go back into the dr as his stomach pain has not improved...so, I'm guessing they'll need to do an ultrasound.

HouCuseChickie · Oct 3, 2013

One other little positive :happy:

non-Disney side note piece of DRAMA (well, sort of)...since my previous post today was kind of gloomy.

As some of you may know, I also sing. I haven't done any real singing since 2005/2006, but I used to sing in the Houston Symphony's chorus. It was just something fun to do on the side...well, if you consider hours of intensive rehearsals and crazy concert schedules for a professional classical music group to be fun.

Well, the Houston Symphony is celebrating their 100th birthday this year and it looks like they're ending the 2013-2014 season with a bang by putting on Mahler's Eighth Symphony. Former Houston Symphony Orchestra director Christoph Eschenbach (now director of the National Symphony Orchestra in DC as well as music director for the JFK Center for the Performing Arts) will be coming back for this concert series in Houston to conduct.

So, how do I factor in? I received an invitation today from the choral director to come back and participate in these performances :geek:

(and the grueling rehearsals :bookworm:

). The concert isn't until May and I could wait to start rehearsing with the group as late as Jan 7th. Now to figure out if I can make this work.

OK- back to working on Disney pics

Pooh'sBuddy · Oct 4, 2013

HouCuseChickie said:
One other little positive non-Disney side note piece of DRAMA (well, sort of)...since my previous post today was kind of gloomy.

As some of you may know, I also sing. I haven't done any real singing since 2005/2006, but I used to sing in the Houston Symphony's chorus. It was just something fun to do on the side...well, if you consider hours of intensive rehearsals and crazy concert schedules for a professional classical music group to be fun. Well, the Houston Symphony is celebrating their 100th birthday this year and it looks like they're ending the 2013-2014 season with a bang by putting on Mahler's Eighth Symphony. Former Houston Symphony Orchestra director Christoph Eschenbach (now director of the National Symphony Orchestra in DC as well as music director for the JFK Center for the Performing Arts) will be coming back for this concert series in Houston to conduct.

So, how do I factor in? I received an invitation today from the choral director to come back and participate in these performances (and the grueling rehearsals). The concert isn't until May and I could wait to start rehearsing with the group as late as Jan 7th. Now to figure out if I can make this work.

OK- back to working on Disney pics

Absolutely fantastic! Congrats!

On a side note, I miss doing Fantasy Football - just not enough time to devote to it. Our last year playing - we just got done with our draft, and not two hours later my QB Michael Vick broke his leg. ed me off but good. Same year, the hubby's defensive guy, Joey Porter got shot in the bum. We still joke about it today.

LuLaSue · Oct 4, 2013

I just caught up! So sorry about the accident! You have a beautiful family!

Lexi · Oct 4, 2013

HouCuseChickie said:
This was also when I’d find out that the hag that hit us was disputing my statement

Totally random, but I absolutely love that used the word hag to describe driver of the other car!

docdebbi · Oct 4, 2013

been reading along periodically (busy getting us ready for the trip in 2 weeks). finally getting caught up.
your girls are absolutely adorable.
so glad you are doing this report
and the pics of the fireworks over the castle are incredible, i clearly do something wrong taking mine, nothing like those!
glad the accident is fixing up, it is such a hassle to deal with. but this too shall pass

fractal · Oct 4, 2013

HouCuseChickie said:
One other little positive non-Disney side note piece of DRAMA (well, sort of)...since my previous post today was kind of gloomy.

As some of you may know, I also sing. I haven't done any real singing since 2005/2006, but I used to sing in the Houston Symphony's chorus. It was just something fun to do on the side...well, if you consider hours of intensive rehearsals and crazy concert schedules for a professional classical music group to be fun. Well, the Houston Symphony is celebrating their 100th birthday this year and it looks like they're ending the 2013-2014 season with a bang by putting on Mahler's Eighth Symphony. Former Houston Symphony Orchestra director Christoph Eschenbach (now director of the National Symphony Orchestra in DC as well as music director for the JFK Center for the Performing Arts) will be coming back for this concert series in Houston to conduct.

So, how do I factor in? I received an invitation today from the choral director to come back and participate in these performances (and the grueling rehearsals). The concert isn't until May and I could wait to start rehearsing with the group as late as Jan 7th. Now to figure out if I can make this work.

OK- back to working on Disney pics

That's awesome!

HouCuseChickie · Oct 5, 2013

Pooh'sBuddy said:
Absolutely fantastic! Congrats!

On a side note, I miss doing Fantasy Football - just not enough time to devote to it. Our last year playing - we just got done with our draft, and not two hours later my QB Michael Vick broke his leg. ed me off but good. Same year, the hubby's defensive guy, Joey Porter got shot in the bum. We still joke about it today.

Thanks! I'm really hoping I can make it all work out.

That's always the worst when a key starter on your team goes out with a season ending injury. DH drafted Darren McFadden first a few yrs ago and we really had to scramble after he got injured. Of course, that wound up working well for us as we drafted his backup- who wound up having great #s that year. Forgot all about the Joey Porter issue LOL

LuLaSue said:
I just caught up! So sorry about the accident! You have a beautiful family!

Thank you!

Lexi said:
Totally random, but I absolutely love that used the word hag to describe driver of the other car!

It's a pretty powerful word, but it's fitting in this situation. I know there are more popular words one might use to refer to such a person, but for whatever reason...the term hag packs a punch.

docdebbi said:
been reading along periodically (busy getting us ready for the trip in 2 weeks). finally getting caught up.
your girls are absolutely adorable.
so glad you are doing this report
and the pics of the fireworks over the castle are incredible, i clearly do something wrong taking mine, nothing like those!
glad the accident is fixing up, it is such a hassle to deal with. but this too shall pass

Thanks!
I think the key to the fireworks pics is experimentation. They improve a bit each trip.
The accident is a colossal headache, but it could have been so much worse...something I try and remember when the hassles are starting to really get to me.
So exciting that you're down to 2 weeks until your trip! :joyfull:

fractal said:
That's awesome!

Thanks!

HouCuseChickie · Oct 5, 2013

Before I start up where I left off…I actually got a few pics from my dad. Love this one of him and my mom before MNSSHP started…

Also love that mom got into the spirit of things and was wearing Disney attire. I think she wore Tink for Sammie.

OK…back to September 21st…
I have to admit that I was both excited and nervous for this meal. Some of it was my parents…i.e. would a character meal with the Fab 5 go over better than their last character meal (Akershus back in 2010). Some of it was my nephew…he’s 1 and I don’t know how much he gets out or how much he’s exposed to like this, so I was afraid he might scream. And then- there was the cake.

I know…who the heck gets a case of nerves over cake? ME! Even though I’d sent the chef a very detailed sketch and list of instructions, I had this bad feeling that the cake would not live up to my expectations… especially since I asked for A LOT! The only things they said they couldn’t do were dress Donald in a grass skirt and lei and combine two separate filling flavors based on the fillings I’d requested. I actually traveled with some fondant, tools and food coloring- hoping I’d find the time and energy to at least make an edible lei- but that just didn’t happen. The accident kind of zapped a bit too much of my energy and patience to make that possible. In any event, I had a few cake nightmares leading up to the trip…so I was on edge. OK- more on the cake in a little bit.

We checked into Chef Mickey’s, took our picture (which was a bit of an ordeal since we were a party of 9), and we were seated almost immediately after that. I also confirmed the allergies and the cake on the ressie. We were once again seated in that back room where the characters start…and I was happy because I had a nice view of Mary Blair’s mural.

I felt bad…the girls’ hair was soaked when I did it back at AKL and it still hadn’t dried. Nothing like hitting an early morning breakfast with a bit of a drowned rat look - LOL.

I think my nephew (Jake) was pretty tired being at such an early breakfast.

Ultimately, it's just so much for any kid to take in. He had been in the Swan (Edit- Dolphin) and had been to Epcot the previous evening, but the room we were in at Chef Mickey's has so much in the way of visually stimulating décor up on the windows + there's this huge atrium and monorail to make any kid kind of be wowed for a bit.

DH and Sammie were at least able to get food, but I had to stick behind with Kendall to go over the allergy info with the chef. My brother also stuck behind since his allergies are specific to mangos and cashews.

I was looking through my pics in this section and I see my SIL prepping food from home for Jake. I know they're delaying some of his food introductions due to some of his issues from being a very early preemie, but I figured they would have at least gone with some of the food from the buffet for him. Oh well.

So, if you've been to Chef Mickey's and eaten in this part of the restaurant, you can tell from the pic above that we were pretty early on in the character rotation.

I made Kendall a plate of food, but Goofy was already out…so I waited to get anything for myself. We were so early on in the first room M&G order that I just didn’t want to miss it. This Goofy was exceptional…on par with the Goofy we had at the girls’ first Chef Mickey’s experience back in 2010. He was very playful and – goofy – and got down on the girls’ level so I could get better pictures.

Kendall has some unfortunate Goofy whisker shadows in all of my pics like this.

Even more pronounced in the one above.

Where he really shined was with Jake.

This was Jake’s very first character meeting ever and I have to admit I was even more nervous since Goofy tends to be the most scary of the Fab 5. I thought back to the girls’ first trip and how Goofy encouraged them to play with his whiskers to help them warm up. He didn’t really need to do any of that with Jake…Jake was just in awe.

These next few were my absolute faves for him and the Goof.

No smiles from Jake, but no cries or whimpers either. I’m not sure if he really knew what to make of him, but considering how hard it is to make him smile and keep him engaged…well, I’d say this went very well. It's also funny- I took a bazillion pics of Jake during this meal...I felt kind of silly at first, but now I'm glad I did. Turns out I was the only one who was actively photographing the entire thing.

After this, I finally got some food. Nothing really exciting here, but not bad either. I think I’ve gotten spoiled with some of the specialty breakfast dishes at the other character meals…so I was a tad bored with the offerings. Like I said- not bad, but just not exciting either. Of course, it’s a character meal so I also know food is not exactly the star of this show.

Next up- the Big Cheese himself…it’s MICKEY TIME!!!

Kendall’s smile is a little goofy here, but I think this is my official Mickey pic of the trip.

My only real disappointment here was Mickey & Jake. Jake had started eating, and while he wasn’t overly messy (in fact, he was pretty clean), it was enough to keep Mickey from going over to say hi to him. Now I’ve seen enough Chef Mickey videos of messy babies meeting Mickey…the one that stands out was a baby destroying a blue frosted smash cake for his first bday. In that case, Mickey kept a safer distance … like a few feet, but he still approached the child. In Jake’s case, Mickey waved to him from the other side of the table and that was it. So, I was pretty bummed. I guess the silver lining...nobody else seemed to care.

HouCuseChickie · Oct 5, 2013

Next up was Donald…YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My dad took this pic of him with me and my mom…not exactly the greatest pic...to put it mildly.

Donald actually spent the most time with me - at least on our side of the table (thinking someone tipped him off about the cake). Sammie was at the table and got to give him a hug, but he was on to Jake before I ever got to snap a picture. He really liked Jake!

Donald never snuggled in like Goofy -probably because Jake was eating - but this was what I expected from Mickey. OK- must get over it.

This was also one of the great Kendall let downs of the trip. DH took Kendall back up to the buffet at this point. I’d said something about Donald approaching, but I guess nobody heard me. Kendall has become pretty fond of Donald, so we’d have to promise her some Donald time in the parks later on to keep her in good spirits.

Minnie came by after this. Many of my pics are sort of odd since the kids were chewing their food when she came over. This first one actually looks like Sams is trying to clock her in the chin. Ooops.

Sorry- I crack up every time I look at it.

I really think K has a mouth full of potatoes in this one...

And she finally gave up and started chewing...LOL. I guess I at least got a few with smiles.

By the end of this series, Kendall just looks bored. I'd later ask her if she's getting tired of character meals... and after a big NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO... I found out this was her fave meal- at least as far as characters went this trip.

And again…Jake was in awe of Minnie.

Pluto came to the table at this point…

…but Pluto’s visit also coincided with napkin waving, birthday celebrations…and yes…cake.

HouCuseChickie · Oct 5, 2013

CAKE 1

I know a number of people have been waiting to see this cake. I was torn about expressing my cake feelings early on, but I decided to wait until we got to this point. The reality- I didn’t love my cake.

It’s certainly not totally awful and everyone around us (including the rest of the family) loved it…thought it was beautiful…but it wasn’t how I envisioned my sketch and directions being executed and while I held it in, I was very upset. So, before I get into the good, the bad, and the made we want to cry…here’s what it looked like from the front (the best angle).

Or...if you want to see it with the lit birthday candle...

The first thing I noticed was that the queue backdrop was a) an edible image b) the Disneyland queue. In their defense, I don’t think I said I wasn’t looking for an edible image in this section. I’d envisioned hand cut and piped details made from a combination of pastillage/gum paste, white chocolate, and royal icing. Yes, it’s a much more labor intensive concept, but it also would have made the cake spectacular.

The second issue…absolutely no Mary Blair concept art on the base. Yes, this is the standard cake drum (board) size for an 8” cake, but the no brainer solution is to use a drum for a larger cake. I’m guessing the sun created around the base of Donald was to compensate for it. For those of you who hadn't seen my final cake sketch...this is what it was supposed to look like.

The decorations around the sides and back of the cake were the most shocking. I specifically asked for generic shape cutouts (like triangles and rectangles) from the queue area in white, silver and gold. I really don’t know how this translated into random edible images around the rest of the cake.

I mean seriously, that blank rectangle on the pic below would have looked really nice trimmed in silver or gold, accompanied by a bunch of other rectangles, triangles, squares, etc. Maybe it was to make up for the decorations not added to the base, but it felt more like a patchwork quilt than a tribute to Mary Blair's concept art.

Now, some of my local friends are on board with this next gripe while others say I’m just being nitpicky since I do cakes. I just can’t help but look at some of the hand painted details and cringe a bit. I know the person that did this worked very hard, but it just feels sloppy to me (this is why I have a whole series of brushes going from super fine to this thickness level)…not to mention that some of this should be silver and much of it should have been fondant cutouts to give it that queue like 3D effect. And well the 40...just not nearly as detailed as my sketch- causing it to just blend into the cake. Of course, the lack of silver contrasting the secondary details is partly to blame.

The last straw…the cake flavor… I asked for an orange cake with a combination of passion fruit and tropical mousse filling. They told me I had to pick one filling and after remember that my brother couldn’t have the tropical mousse due to the mango in it…I went for an orange cake with passion fruit filling. Now, I don’t know if my taste buds were playing tricks on me, but I’m pretty sure that was a yellow cake. Orange is a fairly distinctive flavor and I tasted no orange.
At this point, I was so bothered by everything else that it really didn’t bug me that they couldn’t put Donald in a lei and grass skirt. They did do a really nice job painting him and based on a recent cake price I saw coming out of the Boardwalk Bakery, they certainly didn’t charge me full price for painted Donald.

I really hate being such a downer about this, but I was extremely disappointed. I know the chef put a lot of time and effort into this, which I do appreciate…I just wish the end results were much closer to my vision and sketch. In hindsight, I wish they would have just told me no. I had a plan B cake that I probably would have liked better (and wouldn't have had all of these issues) considering the end result with this one. I guess they also tried to keep it safer for Kendall. While it was a bit odd, a small cake board/drum was placed on top of the cake and covered in fondant so that Donald and the backdrop didn't touch the rest of the cake. i.e. white chocolate has a nut cross contamination risk.
A side note on cake 2…while cake 2 is not without issue…cake 2 is MUCH better. So, don’t worry- there is a much happier cake moment ahead of this.

So, I tried to distract myself from cake sadness by watching the monorails pass above us...

I guess at least Donald did come back around the time they brought out the cake and stuck around for some of the singing of Happy Birthday. It was also nice to see much of the family get into napkin waving.

We got a few more pics with Pluto at this point…and I don't think Sammie wanted to share him or let him go.

I realized in all of this that Pluto also only waved to Jake. I know I was pretty hard on Mickey for only waving to Jake, but for whatever reason, I’m more willing to forgive it with Pluto. It’s funny, as far as characters go…I’m more of a Pluto fan than a Mickey fan, but meeting Mickey for the first time is sort of a WDW first trip milestone sort of thing. So, I guess that’s why it’s not as much of a knock on Pluto for me.

…and I think Jake was finally waking up and warming up to his surroundings. Smiles :happy:

It was after 8am at this point and we were all ready to get out of there. We boxed up the cake, I put Donald and the backdrop in my Rubbermaid container, and then we waited for the check. I recall my dad being pretty frustrated with the service at this meal. It’s a buffet so my expectations are lower, but considering she was getting auto 18% on a party of 9 with a rather expensive cake…well, I guess it made the service issues sting that much more.

We left Chef Mickey’s and popped over to Contempo to refill our mugs…

And then it was back up the escalators to catch the monorail. See…they really are good with the escalators!

Coming up...we catch the monorail to Epcot.

Jessica Meier · Oct 5, 2013

I am with you on the cake. It looks like something I would have done. I am no artist. I totally understand your being upset. The piping on it is super sloppy and weird. I don't understand the images either, especially since they are different heights and then they piped around them. Argh!

Brwneyedgirl72 · Oct 5, 2013

As someone who also does cakes, I agree with your disappointment. It is ok, but would have expected a little more from the pastry chefs. I think they took the easy way out with the edible images, it looks a little sloppy. That being said, Donald looks cute

DisneyDebNJ · Oct 5, 2013

Sandy ... firstly, in ALL honesty regarding singing... YES, do it! You know you'll kick yourself if you dont. Push comes to shove, afterwards, decide if you want to put it off until the girl's are a tad older, maybe??
Secondly, the cake, it does look nice and all? But doing cakes yourself, you know exactly what you want, and how it SHOULD have been done. I'd send the pictures you took of the base, and (not that you're asking for anything) let them know how these type of requests are better handled.
Thirdly, I LOVE Chef Mickey's. Out of all of the character meals we've been to over the decades, the character interaction was always best at Chef Mickey's.

lbrad · Oct 6, 2013

disneygirl1 said:
No lie Hallowishes and the Boo to you parade are my absolute favorite! The headless horseman is so AWESOME!!! I love the grave diggers too when they scrape their shovels on the ground and the sparks fly. Yes, yes I know its the little things in life that make me smile! LOL

We were just at AKL in June and I went to settlement on our new house 3 days after we got home. Talk about a worldwind! Sheesh! Anyway, point of tell you that is I looked into getting two of those rocking chairs for the front porch and holy moly those bad boys aren't cheap! LOL

My DS in 11 and is now in 6th grade, so I know the taking him out of school to go to Disney days are coming to an end. Luckily his school is pretty good with vacations during the school. They just request that he keep a journal while he is away and make up any work missed. Easy enough, but the school work is getting more intense.

We are a football LOVING household... Spend all day Saturday at the football field with DS, then come home and watch college football and Sunday;s are spent watching the Eagles. Even though they are stinking right now, got to support the home team!

Loving the TR!!!

Love my E-A-G-L-E-S !!!

DisneyDebNJ · Oct 6, 2013

lbrad said:
Loving the TR!!!

Love my E-A-G-L-E-S !!!

GO BIRDS!!!!!!!!!!!!

HouCuseChickie · Oct 6, 2013

Jessica Meier said:
I am with you on the cake. It looks like something I would have done. I am no artist. I totally understand your being upset. The piping on it is super sloppy and weird. I don't understand the images either, especially since they are different heights and then they piped around them. Argh!

I'm glad it's not just me. A couple of my friends have said it's just b/c I do cakes that I was so disappointed, but that still doesn't explain away all of the noted issues. My one friend said that it's my sign that I was supposed to do this myself. Another said this may be a symptom of the increased cake demands at each of the WDW bakeries. I guess at least the price was below my max cake price...not that it was cheap, but a girl recently got a cake at BW with a hand painted Donald and they charged her $115 for just the Donald. :jawdrop:

Brwneyedgirl72 said:
As someone who also does cakes, I agree with your disappointment. It is ok, but would have expected a little more from the pastry chefs. I think they took the easy way out with the edible images, it looks a little sloppy. That being said, Donald looks cute

Yeah- I mean it's hardly the biggest cake wreck on the planet, but I had higher expectations from their pastry chefs. After seeing enough cakes come out of the various WDW bakeries and ordering cakes for our girls on the last few trips that turned out great...I don't think my expectations were unreasonable. Agreed on Donald- I could at least look at him and smile

DisneyDebNJ said:
Sandy ... firstly, in ALL honesty regarding singing... YES, do it! You know you'll kick yourself if you dont. Push comes to shove, afterwards, decide if you want to put it off until the girl's are a tad older, maybe??
Secondly, the cake, it does look nice and all? But doing cakes yourself, you know exactly what you want, and how it SHOULD have been done. I'd send the pictures you took of the base, and (not that you're asking for anything) let them know how these type of requests are better handled.
Thirdly, I LOVE Chef Mickey's. Out of all of the character meals we've been to over the decades, the character interaction was always best at Chef Mickey's.

I'm definitely going to try and make it work. I have always planned on trying to get back into it when they got a bit older, but just wasn't expecting something like this to come up in the interim...at least not without re-auditioning for a spot.

And that's just it...when you give another pastry chef a sketch and detailed instructions...you have higher expectations. I fully intend to voice my displeasure with the cake to the Contemporary private dining, but I've decided to wait until I'm done dealing with all the accident crud. Sadly, it's looking like sometime between Halloween and Veterans Day when this all gets resolved. :arghh:

For the most part, I think everyone really enjoyed Chef Mickey's. I don't know if my dad really grasped the benefit of a character meal until experiencing this one. He had memories of the first time my brother and I met Mickey and Minnie = CHAOS! Just the idea of 5 of the most popular characters in one conveniently located breakfast that doesn't burn any park time = GENIUS!

lbrad said:
Loving the TR!!!

Love my E-A-G-L-E-S !!!

Thanks!

Now, I can't say that I love them, but I do like them when they do well for our fantasy team.

DisneyDebNJ said:
GO BIRDS!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's funny...all of these Eagles fans on here. It's starting to look like my Sunday Facebook feed. LOL :hilarious:

docdebbi · Oct 6, 2013

HouCuseChickie said:
I'm glad it's not just me. A couple of my friends have said it's just b/c I do cakes that I was so disappointed, but that still doesn't explain away all of the noted issues. My one friend said that it's my sign that I was supposed to do this myself. Another said this may be a symptom of the increased cake demands at each of the WDW bakeries. I guess at least the price was below my max cake price...not that it was cheap, but a girl recently got a cake at BW with a hand painted Donald and they charged her $115 for just the Donald.

Yeah- I mean it's hardly the biggest cake wreck on the planet, but I had higher expectations from their pastry chefs. After seeing enough cakes come out of the various WDW bakeries and ordering cakes for our girls on the last few trips that turned out great...I don't think my expectations were unreasonable. Agreed on Donald- I could at least look at him and smile

I'm definitely going to try and make it work. I have always planned on trying to get back into it when they got a bit older, but just wasn't expecting something like this to come up in the interim...at least not without re-auditioning for a spot.

And that's just it...when you give another pastry chef a sketch and detailed instructions...you have higher expectations. I fully intend to voice my displeasure with the cake to the Contemporary private dining, but I've decided to wait until I'm done dealing with all the accident crud. Sadly, it's looking like sometime between Halloween and Veterans Day when this all gets resolved.

For the most part, I think everyone really enjoyed Chef Mickey's. I don't know if my dad really grasped the benefit of a character meal until experiencing this one. He had memories of the first time my brother and I met Mickey and Minnie = CHAOS! Just the idea of 5 of the most popular characters in one conveniently located breakfast that doesn't burn any park time = GENIUS!

Thanks!

Now, I can't say that I love them, but I do like them when they do well for our fantasy team.

It's funny...all of these Eagles fans on here. It's starting to look like my Sunday Facebook feed. LOL

count me in as an eagle fans, philadlephian, born and raised.

and as far as the cake, I also do cakes. still trying to figure out what they were doing. to the un-decorator eye, it's a lovely cake, so i wouldn't feel bad
but to the decorator eye, cheap edible images, OF DIFFERING SIZES, with piping around the edge is indeed the lazy way out
also, the proportion is off. of course, you can have a background that is smaller than the figure, but I don't do it. and your sketch had the proportions right! that to me is a big deal, even though, as I said, to the general population (not us cake nuts) it truly is a lovely cake. can't wait to see cake number 2

Tigger19 · Oct 6, 2013

The cake is lovely but it's completely different from you designs. The images around the bottom are very strange as well. Why are they all different sizes?

Can't wait to see cake no. 2 now!

HouCuseChickie · Oct 6, 2013

docdebbi said:
count me in as an eagle fans, philadlephian, born and raised.

and as far as the cake, I also do cakes. still trying to figure out what they were doing. to the un-decorator eye, it's a lovely cake, so i wouldn't feel bad
but to the decorator eye, cheap edible images, OF DIFFERING SIZES, with piping around the edge is indeed the lazy way out
also, the proportion is off. of course, you can have a background that is smaller than the figure, but I don't do it. and your sketch had the proportions right! that to me is a big deal, even though, as I said, to the general population (not us cake nuts) it truly is a lovely cake. can't wait to see cake number 2

Wow! Another Philly person! It actually kind of amazes me that I'm a Giants fan. I grew up in NYC Metro NJ- so that part makes sense, but my maternal grandfather was primarily a Jets fan, my parents really didn't care, and my dad's whole side of the family (all in south Jersey) are Eagles fans.

I don't think I'll ever understand the edible images on the physical cake. I don't love every cake I make, but I always step back from my cakes in both the sketching and decorating process to make sure my plans are tasteful and would come together as a cohesive artful presentation in the end. The person that did this cake - aside from taking a lazy approach - just didn't do that...or else their taste levels for decorating need to be reexamined.

I totally agree on the proportions issue. My friend and I were discussing this the other day. She's normally pretty easy going with this stuff, but even she was bugged by it.

Cake 2 is not totally gripe free, but the issues are petty compared to cake 1. And most importantly- the recipient of cake 2 was thrilled with design.

Tigger19 said:
The cake is lovely but it's completely different from you designs. The images around the bottom are very strange as well. Why are they all different sizes? Can't wait to see cake no. 2 now!

Yeah- it was like, "let's take her sketch and make our own cake design inspired by her sketch." Oh well- it's disappointing, but I'd rather they mess up my cake vs. my mom's. Still got a ways to go before we get to cake 2, but we will get there

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