{simple saturday}: I Knew He Was Comin', So I Baked a Cake!

My youngest son, who has spent the past six weeks in France (doing one of the coolest college internships you could ever imagine) is coming home tonight!  Huzzah, yippee, yay, etc.!  Not only that, but he's riding in the back of the airplane his dad is piloting (oh, the perks of being the son of an airline pilot!).  Actually, I don't know this for a fact yet; if there wasn't any space available on my husband's flight, he may have had to buy a ticket on Air France to ensure he'd make it back home in a timely fashion.

On Thursday, my husband went over there on a working trip and met up with our boy on Friday, just as the six-week gig was coming to a close.  The two of them painted Paris red rouge (they even had beers together--because in France, a 20-year-old is not a boy, but un homme--at a joint called Harry's New York Bar, a favorite watering hole of my dad's from way back in his traveling-for-work years).  They saw some amazing sights together--like the incorrupt body of St. Catherine Laboure, enshrined in the church where Mary appeared to her and gave the humble nun instructions for the creation of the Miraculous Medal.  (When my husband told me about it, my eyes filled with tears...more on that another time, because today my goal is to keep this post short and sweet.)

Now for the sweet.  To me, every celebration must have a cake, so I set out to make my son a French-themed two-layer welcome home cake, with little French toothpick flags adorning the top of it.

Unfortunately, however, after sitting overnight, my decorative icing flourishes began to melt and run off the cake.  My son's name is now unreadable.

And the poor cake looks like it's bleeding...but no worries!  I now proclaim it a French Revolution-themed cake.  It still works!  It's got Les Mis written all over it!

It may not be pretty, but I know it will be simply delicious.

Now go say hi to Iris, because she hosts this simply delightful link-up: