Five Years, Baby!!

Remember this?

And these?

How about this one?

Or this story?

Five years ago today I started a goofy little cake blog, just for fun. I never intended for anyone other than a few close friends to read it, and I was terrified the first time a stranger found it and commented.

Within two months, though, my goofy little cake blog went viral, garnering about 50,000 visitors in a single day.

It's been a wild ride since then. I realized my life-long dream of becoming a published author not once, but twice, and Cake Wrecks even landed on the New York Times Best Sellers List. John and I got to travel across the U.S. and Canada meeting thousands of you readers, sampling dozens of your bakeries, and only almost-dying that one time.

I was invited on more TV shows than I can remember, including David Letterman, Rachael Ray, and I think even Martha Stewart - and one of my proudest achievements in life is that I turned them all down. I've also turned away TV producers, web content "gurus," and website conglomerates offering a pretty penny to purchase Cake Wrecks and turn it into something else - something less personal, something not ours.

Cake Wrecks has been a labor of love from the beginning, and I've fought - and will fight - to always keep it that way. It's not a vehicle to make me famous, or a stepping stone to get me to where I *really* want to be in my career, because I'm already here. True, it has become my job - John's, too -  and like every job it causes heartache and frustration and burnout sometimes. But at the end of the day, I get to check my e-mail, find a cake that makes me giggle, and share it with all of you. That's pretty frickin' awesome.

Five years ago I never would have dreamed my goofy little cake blog would last this long, or that it would amass such a devoted readership. I mean, this blog was supposed to fizzle out four and a half years ago, and yet here you all are! I always told John I'd quit when the readers left, but it turns out you guys are more stubbornly loyal than I anticipated. Curse you.

So here's to us, my dear wreckies, five years, 1,800+ posts, and roughly 8,000 cakes later.

And if all that doesn't deserve cake, then I don't know what does.

So here's Brent Spiner trying on a Carrot Jockey necklace:

Let's be honest: it was all downhill from here. :D

Oh, and I have to give a million thanks to John for getting me through these past five years - and also for not dying that one time - as well as to Lindsey, who writes more than half of our Sweets posts these days, and to Sharyn, who helps me write to the wrecks. You guys are awesome, and get a lifetime pass for extra sprinkles.