Last week was Erin’s birthday and though she turned 25 years old, she will always be known as the baby of the family.

Erin helps me out with most cake orders and adds amazing details to each cake we work on. Whether it’s from the kindness of her heart or from what she calls being “volun-told,” Erin is an amazing cake partner and little sister (it’s at this point she’ll probably say, “Casey, I’m your only little sister” and though this is true it changes nothing…)

Since the baby was turning a full quarter of a century I wanted to celebrate her in our traditional way, with a bit of sugar.

For those of you who don’t know south Florida, US-1 is a long and sometimes bumpy stretch of road filled with lots and LOTS of traffic lights and drivers who fear the use of turn signals, a perfect environment for transporting a cake. Yeah, right. In retrospect, it probably wasn’t the best idea to transport the cake on a solid diet of coffee/ caffeine; my nerves were not built for such things.

As a result, the little balloon detached itself from the elephant. In all honestly, I’m a bit surprised the cake survived the car ride at all. Miami drivers make NASCAR look like a round of bumper cars at the fair. And being a fellow Miami driver, I can tell you from experience, WE WILL RUN YOU OFF THE ROAD and blame you for getting in the way (I’ve even seen someone knitting while driving!).

Our mother joined us and we surprised Erin with lunch, cake, cupcakes and a heavy dose of embarrassment. Everything was chocolate, from the cake to the cupcakes; it’s Erin’s favorite.

These are the cupcakes we made to match the cake…

(Sorry for the low-res cell phone pic. I was too busy embarrassing my little sister to remember to take one with the actual camera)

Everything was meant to be girly and young, I wanted her to know, that no matter how old she is, she will always be my baby sister.

Happy birthday little one.