Photo courtesy of Rick DeFilippo
Magic Muffins birthday cake
Glenn Weaver, owner of the Magic Muffins bakery in Mountain Brook, Ala., displays the three-tier multi-flavor topsy-turvy birthday cake he showed Hoover resident Ricky DeFilippo how to make, fulfilling one of Ricky's wishes for his ninth birthday.
Many Mountain Brook and surrounding neighborhood residents know the Magic Muffins bakery for its reasonably priced, quality baked goods and great customer service.
What most of us likely didn’t know is that among owner & baker Glenn Weaver’s ovens, baking pans and multi-colored butter cream frosting is a sprinkling of philanthropy.
When Hoover resident Ricky DeFilippo was asked by his dad what he wanted to do for his ninth birthday, Ricky had three birthday wishes.
He started out with the expected “a party with my classmates at Air Walk,” followed by the not-so-expected-but-anticipated “an H2 Hummer stretch limo ride with my classmates” and ending with the unexpected “I want to bake and decorate my own three-tier multi-flavor topsy-turvy birthday cake.”
You may be able to guess what TV series was the motivation behind this last birthday wish.
Dad, having been baking since the age of 4 with his grandmother, was confident they could bake the twelve cakes consisting of five different flavors in three sizes to build the topsy-turvy birthday cake his son desired. However, decorating wasn’t among dad’s skill sets. After some discussion, Ricky’s final wish was abandoned, and a trip to Magic Muffins ensued to purchase Ricky’s birthday cake.
At Magic Muffins, Glenn was shown the picture of the birthday cake, and the order was placed. Dad, living life with the philosophy “there’s no harm in asking” said, “Glenn, I was wondering ...” and explained Ricky’s birthday wish.
Glenn without hesitation agreed to spend more than three hours of his busy Saturday morning providing one-on-one mentoring to Ricky in the art of cake design planning, use of decorating dyes and tools, and cake decorating techniques. Glenn’s philanthropy was the highlight of Ricky’s “last birthday in single digits,” as he referred to it, and will most certainly be a lifelong fond memory.
With all the not-so-pleasant news we are exposed to daily, it’s comforting during this start of the 2015 holiday season to have the reassurance that acts of spontaneous human kindness still exist today here within our communities. Thank you, Glenn, and happy holidays to everyone.
Rick DeFilippo
Hoover
