Page 171 of Prized Possession

If he is, he doesn’t say anything that I hear, though Penny is pulling me alongside her, muttering about all of the things she got for her birthday.

Once we get into the kitchen, she spots the big white box instantly, bouncing around in excitement. Leo quickly grabs hold of her, picking her up and settling her onto his hip.

“Are you going to close your eyes?” I ask her, and she nods.

Penny makes a big deal about squeezing them shut, but she’s clearly just squinting, so she can still see. Marcus moves closer to her.

“Why don’t I cover them, so you can’t peep?” he asks, and she nods excitedly, making Leo laugh.

When Marcus wraps his hands over her eyes, she giggles excitedly, placing her hands over his.

I think someone has an admirer.

As I lift off the middle section of the box, and pop open the bottom, the sides fall away to reveal the cake. Leo’s eyes widen as he gasps. Penny must have heard him as she begins pulling on Marcus’ hands.

“Let me see. Let me see,” she chants, full of energy.

Marcus looks to me, and when I give the nod of approval, he removes his hands. Penny’s eyes grow wide and full of wonder as she takes in the cake, her face almost frozen as she stares at it.

The longer she’s silent and unmoving, the more anxious I become. My heart is pounding and my hands are clammy, and I’m seconds away from hyperventilating.

“Ohhh, that’s so beautiful,” Penny eventually cries out, and I finally breathe a sigh of relief.

She leans forward to get a closer look, taking in all the details of the large castle cake.

Although Leo didn’t need a lot of cake, he wanted something special for his princess. This is her first birthday without her mum, who passed away ten months ago, and he wanted to make it special.

So the large bottom tier of the cake is fake, made of polystyrene, but covered in white fondant that I’ve made to look like marbled brick.

The next layer is a chocolate fudge cake, just what the birthday girl requested. It’s also got the same white brick effect, and around the top of both cakes, I’ve made it look like the turrets of a castle.

On each side of the cakes, I’ve added two towers, the larger ones at the back, with the smaller at the front, using ice cream cones to create the spikes of the tower.

The four towers have the white brick effect, but the spikes have been covered in pink fondant, to give it a princess vibe.

Around the base board, I added green fondant, as well as lettering that reads Happy Birthday Penny. Then after adding some windows and flowers, to make it look really pretty, I put on the final finishing touches.

Three Disney Princess figurines were placed on the cake, and she’ll be able to keep them afterwards. I added bright pink flags to the top of the tower spikes, with the number six on each of them.

I then covered the cake in glitter, making the white castle sparkle. Before finally, on top of the cake, I placed a pink number six candle.

“Do you like it?” I ask, trying not to sound too desperate for praise.

Penny turns towards me, lets go of her father, despite still being on his hip, and throws her arms around me, pulling me into a hug.

“I love it so so much. It’s so pretty. It’s the perfect princess castle, and it looks just like the one I want to live in when I’m all grown up.”

Marcus chuckles as Leo smiles at me, his eyes becoming misty. “It’s fantastic. I can’t thank you enough for this.”

“It was my pleasure. I had a lot of fun making it,” I tell him, as Penny lets go of me to take another look at her cake.

“I know you said you didn’t want payment, but you have to let me pay you for this. It’s more than I was imagining when I asked for a princess cake,” Leo tells me, setting Penny down on the floor as he reaches for his wallet.

I put my hand on his arm to stop him.

“Absolutely not. We had a deal. As long as you tell people about the cake, and it’s okay for me to put the pictures I’ve taken online, then I’m more than happy.”

Leo nods and smiles, grabbing hold of Penny’s hand when she reaches out to touch the cake.

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