The big sister to the sweet and merry Potter and Butler Cake Garland, the Gracious Garland, wanted a kid sister. And we had to agree. And to conceive how to bring this life, I tapped into a birthday tradition that has been with me since I was old enough to say, “I don’t like frosting.”

As a kid, and even to this day, I was not a fan of frosting. My mother, being the creative and thoughtful woman that she is, came up with her own way of decorating my birthday cakes, because after-all, adorning it with loads of colorful frosting in all sorts of motifs with all kinds of messages, simply wasn’t going to fly with this opinionated and frosting-sensitive gal.

When it came time to decorate my birthday cake (more than likely a chocolate chip cookie cake), rather than dipping into the kitchen drawer to get out her frosting tips, mom went to the desk drawer and handpicked a selection of crayons or markers or a combo of both. Admittedly, her selection was probably limited due to the fact that us kids would take from the collective pot of colorful writing utensils and give them a new permanent residence in our own personal pencil cases – oops. She would tear off a wide strip of blank paper from the one notepad the family desk drawer possessed.

She then got to crafting a special birthday cake banner. Each year it was new, though the message remained similar, “Happy (fill in the age)th Birthday, Emily!” The banner was secured on each end to a skewer, which had been broken into two pieces. The life purpose of those skewers was fulfilled, and only fulfilled, by the birthday banner duty because I don’t recall why we would have ever had skewers for any other purpose, nor can I even recall where they were kept in the kitchen. Yet there they were each and every year proudly and reliably providing the framework in order to hold up the handmade birthday cake banner.

There was no need for frosting (though its presence wouldn’t have weakened the delight of the banner).

The simple banner conveyed the spirit of celebration. Loudly and proudly.

The Potter and Butler Cake Garland is created with the same intention :  with handmade simplicity, add to the merriment of the celebration (be it in the presence of mounds of cake frosting or not).

And that, my freinds, is how the Potter and Butler Cake Garland came to be. You can read more about how our Cake Garland is constructed, as well as check out more images by visiting us at our shop.

Cheers!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010 at 2:58 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.