The year was 2014 and New Jersey was hosting the Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks in the most exciting sports event of the year, Super Bowl XLV111. I don't care much for football but this particular year was special for me.
If you have a dog or cat you know that Animal Planet has the "Puppy Bowl" and it is scheduled for the afternoon of Super bowl Sunday.
If you don't know what the Puppy Bowl is, its an annual television program on Animal Planet that mimics an American football bowl game similar to the Super Bowl, using puppies each year on Super Bowl Sunday, the show consists of footage of a batch of sweet puppies at play inside a model stadium with cute commentary on their actions. All the puppies featured in the Puppy Bowl are from shelters ready for adoption. And then there is a "kitten halftime" show which features adoptable kittens. Adorable, right?
So getting back to why it was special to me. I got a call from the producer of this show to do a dog cake for the "winning puppy team" celebration pawty. O-M-D!!!!! I was only in business a short time and didn't know much about business so I was a little nervous about baking a dog cake for a big production. We talked for a few days via email and we decided I would to do a few sketches based on what the network ideas were. Designing a dog cake is much like a building, it needs to be balanced or the cake will fall. Of course TV executives know nothing of designing cakes so their ideas were... well ridiculous.
They finally would not budge and were stuck on a 5' x 7' dog cake of a bone with a football standing vertically on top! Silliness. I tried to talk them into different directions but to no avail. They wanted BIG, GIGANTIC, ENORMOUS!!! After a week of idea exchanges and sketches the producers scraped the idea and I was so disappointed.
I knew this would have been a huge boost to my very young business dog cake business, but some things aren't meant to be, at least at that time. I knew I would have many more opportunities to showcase my dog cakes when the time was right.
I watched the Puppy Bowl that Sunday and wondered what could have been. Looking back now I now know it wasn't my time...yet.