What I learned this week - Look inside the box!

I finally have something to share in Jo-Lynne's "What I learned this Week" blog carnival! I haven't participated in this in quite some time - but this week I had something I was dying to share!

Last weekend was Sunshine's birthday. I had been sick the week leading up to it, and I wasn't up to baking a cake or cupcakes. So we decided to just buy a cake after we went out to dinner Friday night.

We enjoyed a scrumptious dinner at Red Lobster. We don't live close to a Red Lobster, so we don't eat there very often, and one of the items on their menu that we all LUST over, is their Chocolate Wave cake! OMG have you ever had it? It's like Death by Chocolate! They serve it warm, with fudge drizzled on top with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

After talking to our waitress, we discovered that they sell the whole cake! They don't make them, they purchase them frozen from an out of town baker. Our wonderful waitress explained that it comes presliced (14 sliced per cake) and told us how they prepare it (thaw, microwave and drizzle the fudge). $36 was a little steep, but there were 14 slices of heaven! Who could put a price on that?! and it was a cake we ALL loved! Hollywood was not able to go to dinner with us, and we knew she would be ecstatic to find out we brought the whole cake home to share!

So Saturday night rolls around, we have a few family and friends over for Birthday cake. I quickly discover that I forgot to buy candles and the only candles I have are BLACK! LOL Thankfully Sunshine doesn't mind.

I pull the solid brown box out of the refrigerator and struggle a bit to get the solid brown box open!......do you see what's about to happen here? I never checked the box at the restaurant. I finally get the box open and what do I see??????? A wonderful, to die for layered Chocolate Wave cake...........with SIX PIECES MISSING!!!! Are YOU kidding me?! They sold me 1/2 of a cake!! The sad thing was, I joked on the way out of Red Lobster that the box felt "lopsided" - WHY didn't I open it and check it????

Thankfully, we had enough cake for all of our guests.

I took birthday pictures with the missing pieces facing the birthday girl, so it wasn't as noticeable that she only had 1/2 a cake (with black candles! LOL).

So my tip to you this week, my friends.......if you ever buy a cake in a solid box....OPEN the box and check to make sure you have a full cake! LOL

*NOTE* I quickly called Red Lobster, they apologized and offered me the 6 missing pieces! - That wasn't going to happen since we live about 45 mins. from them. I asked for a refund of 1/2 the cake, but the manager insisted on refunding the full $36- but he doesn't know how to do it!??? Are you kidding me? 3 days later, I still don't have a refund. He's waiting to hear from his corporate office on how to process the refund?! - needless to say, I'm NOT happy at this point.

Here's Sunshine with her presliced 1/2 birthday cake with black candles! LOL Thank goodness she's a good sport about it all!! {Our friend's son Davey would not leave Sunshine's side ALL night! }

All she cared about was eating that cake!