Today I walked in the Beggin Barkus Pet Parade with the cake lovers. (http://stlouis250cakelovers.com). I had such a good time meeting new people who have the same love for these crazy cakes as I do. Let me back up to Allyson’s and mine second cake adventure. This was right after we had returned from Big Stuf camp. Our tenth cake was at Clementine’s which was St. Louis first LGBT bar. There were two men sitting outside and when we walked up to the cake, one asked us how many cakes we had seen. I said about ten or so. He told me I must see many more, that finding them is half the fun. (I thought he was kind of crazy at the time, little did I know). He then introduced himself as the cake artist. I said get over here and have your picture taken with my daughter. He asked if I was sure and I said yes. He then told me he also did the Powell Symphony Hall cake. Well I knew at that moment I would for sure have to see that cake. After I got home, I looked up his name and he is Earl Miller.

So today which cake do you think was on the float? The one in the picture of course. And somehow I managed to be the one in the back to help Earl steer the float. This made me extremely nervous because it’s just like steering a boat which I cannot do well at all. I think Earl figured this out pretty quickly and probably wanted to shoot me. I had a hard time talking to him because he’s a cake artist and in my head famous. It would be no different from walking with Michael J Fox. The parade was very cool because I love dogs. Heck growing up I wanted to own a dog farm. I got over that, way too much work but I still love them. I saw so many cool ones. Since it was a pet parade there were other pets there as well. I saw a rooster, a goldfish, a cat, a huge bunny in a stroller and a pig. And some of these guys had on some crazy costumes. I didn’t take any pictures though. After the parade we had to take the float back to Nadine’s Gin Joint (Clementines closed the end of September and the cake was hosted in front of Soulard Art Market) where it will permanently reside. On the way back the float tipped over and the cake went crashing to the ground. My heart stopped beating and I flashed back to dropping mine out in the front yard. At least this time I didn’t gouge my leg which I still have the mark from. I felt horrible especially since Earl was right there. I set my bag down and totally forgot about it. Thankfully, Jason was paying attention and grabbed it for me. So we righted it and then somehow I ended up in charge of steering. Those of you who know why my passenger side view mirror is missing can understand the comedy of me being in charge. When we got back I told Earl I was sorry it fell and he told me not to worry it wasn’t damaged. There were a couple of scuff marks but I am sure he could fix that in two seconds flat where it would take someone like me three weeks or longer. I would have to research it and think about it for a while. Better to take my time than to mess it up.

Mole moral~I would have never guessed last summer that I would be walking with a cake artist and his cake. One of the most coolest cake experiences so far.