Growing up in Niantic, Connecticut, I was the youngest of five children. Like most children, I had a favorite color, and it was purple. For my seventh birthday, my mother had a friendof hers make a “doll cake” for me. Her dress was purple, and she had a wide rimmed matching bonnet. I was a tomboy, liking neither dresses, nor dolls, so you’d figure that I wouldn’t have liked the cake, but I did. It was purple, and made especially for me.

 

   The following year, my mother decided that she would make the “doll cake”, and she did a wonderful job. Every year after, she would make the purple doll cake for my birthday, so it became a tradition. Along with that came the tradition of cutting the cake, and having three older brothers, there was always the laughing and joking about which side of the cake was going to be cut first, to reveal her tiny plastic derriere.

 

   After the years of childhood doll cakes had come and gone, we had all grown up. My sister and I decided to take a Wilton cake decorating course at a local mall in 1986, and as a result, I started making cakes as a hobby for family and friends. In the early 90’s, we were enjoying an early spring day at Devil’s Hopyard State Park, with an Easter Egg Hunt.

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    In the early 90’s, we were enjoying an early spring day at Devil’s Hopyard State Park, with an Easter Egg Hunt. My mother’s birthday was only four days after mine, so I decided that I would surprise her by making her a doll cake of her own, but in pink. I took the cake out of the back of the car, and placed it in front of her. She was so surprised and happy, and then said, “Wait a minute.” She went to the trunk of her car, and came back with a box containing a purple doll cake, to surprise me with, too! As we were having a good laugh at the two unsuspecting doll cakes, sitting side by side, my sister said, “Hold on!” She went to the back of her car, and returned with yet another doll cake, but in yellow. I don’t think that we have ever laughed so much than about those doll cakes.

 

   Although Mom isn’t with us anymore, the memories of the doll cakes are still with us, and how much joy they brought to us and to my brothers, as well. Now, as my mother did for me, I have the opportunity to create centerpieces for my clients’ events, and to give them the opportunity to make someone else feel special, just as I did, as a little girl, on my birthday.

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-- Erin Perry