How do you make years of hardship, arrests, and near homelessness easy to swallow?
Make it into a delectable cake!!!
That's what NBA star Caron Butler did ... or had done for him ... getting surprised for his 36th birthday with a cake made to look like a copy of his 1st book 'Tuff Juice.'
The cake was made by Bree's Cakes ... an L.A. based bakery business that has catered to big celebs like DeMar DeRozan and The Game.
We spoke with Bree herself who tells us Caron's cake cost about $350 -- not bad -- and took over 6 hours to make.