After more than 30 years with one organization a person deserves a party with a really special cake. I have to give you just a little background to this story and this cake. You see our esteemed County Extension Director, Everett Davis, decided to retire from the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service. Now he didn't want a party, and well we (I believe there were three of us) did our best to twist his arm and he finally relented. What he didn't expect is that there would be almost 200 of his clients, friends, coworkers, and family who would show up to celebrate his incredible career. 
Of course knowing Everett like I do (I have been his 4-H agent for the last eight years), I knew there were many things that could be on the cake. He has a crops background, sold tractors, was in the Navy. He loves to play golf, travel, and fish. He is a long time church member, member of the fair board, and loves N. C. State University and his family. Try getting all of that on a cake and come up with a saying that fit the fun yet bittersweet occasion was tough. Not to mention the cake had to be big enough for a growing guest list in the hundredsSo we started with a basic golden butter cake. To make the amount of servings we needed it had to be two tiers. However to allow for decorating the square cakes were stacked in a manner that allowed me to decorate the top tier and the corners of the bottom tier. We picked some of his favorite things to decorate the cake. 
One corner had a farm scene complete with tractor and a North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service sign (marketing even as he headed to retirement).
One corner had a golfer, since I heard through the grape vine that one of his gifts would be a year's membership to a local golf course. 
One corner had a fishing scene since that is something he talked about frequently and was looking forward to doing with family members. 
The last corner had an airplane to represent the travel he enjoyed and the tours he was getting ready to put together as his retirement career as a tour coordinator. On top it was decided we should say Bon Voyage, since he was sailing on to the next adventure. The cake was not the only feature, I made candies in the shape of the N. C. State University Block S logo. This decorated the side of the cake and we also had a plate of them for people to enjoy. All in all the cake was a hit. I promise after cutting it I did not bring any back home with me and Everett seemed pleased with the entire event, which was a proper send off for the man who lead us all these years.
