A Purple Hairstreak Butterfly lands on a wedding cake with quite a dramatic story behind it. I was paging through a book of flowers and came across the Passion Flower. I thought to myself, “That is the next sugar flower I would like to work up”. That week a bride called to set up a consultation. During the meeting, I asked her if she was open to the Passion Flower as her decoration. She loved the idea, so off we went.
Flash forward to the cake delivery…as I was setting the cake gingerly onto the table at the restaurant where they were having the reception, a sudden thought popped into my mind. It was Passion Sunday! What a coincidence! For you see the flower is a symbolic representation of the Passion of Jesus. Here are the symbolic parts of the flower::
The large 5 sepals and 5 petals represent the ten loyal disciples.
The corolla, the crown of thorns.
The red stigma, the three nails.
The stamens, the five wounds.
And the 5-fingered leaf shape, the hand of Man.
Now flash forward another year or so…I was at a bridal show and one of my friends who is a caterer was looking at my cake portfolio just for fun. Suddenly the expression on his face changed to anger. He said passionately, “That cake! I had to take the bride to court over that sugar butterfly!”
He further explained that when they cut the cake, the wings broke off. (That almost always happens for large sugar butterflies since I make the wings paper thin.) The bride was so upset that she decided to not pay him the remaining 50% of the catering fee at the end of the reception!
I then remembered too that she had called me shortly after the event to ask if I would make her another. She was so passionate about the butterfly being a keepsake. I explained to her the utter fragility of the sugar decoration, and said the caterer was not at fault, and thought she would let it go. Obviously not!
The caterer continued to share that the judge laughed at her suit and insisted she pay him what he was owed.
The lesson the bride should have learned is that sometimes it can be the perfect choice to be passionate, and other times, not so much!
