Short Notice Wedding Cake

One of my friend's mother got engaged and decided to get married quickly.  She had to plan her whole wedding in a month and didn't contact me until two weeks before the wedding!  Now, I normally wouldn't take a wedding cake order with that little notice, but since it was a friend I decided to do it for her.  It was a challenge getting all the details taken care of in a week, since I needed a week to work on the cake and its details.  She wanted the really delicate gum paste roses that I make.  Each of those roses takes 12-15 minutes to make start to finish, so I spent days working on them.  Thankfully my friend, Brenda was an absolute lifesaver and spent 3 half days helping me make roses and decorate the cakes.  I couldn't have done it without her!  She wanted my Luscious Lemon Cake.  Her fiance wanted to be able to take the top tier home for their first anniversary.  So, we decided to do 6, 10 and 14 inch tiers to achieve the look she wanted.  I did the bottom and top tiers with my Lemon Creme Filling and the middle tier with Raspberry Filling.  She also wanted a Groom's Cake.  So, I did a Classic Yellow Cake with a Dark Chocolate Ganache Filling and a Dark Chocolate Buttercream Frosting.  I decorated both the cakes with a similar pattern in the buttercream to help tie them together.  The wedding cake had a beautiful spray of white roses down it.  My friend's mom is so sweet.  She called and left a message for me after the reception gushing about how much she loved the cake, how much her husband loved his cake, and how they surpassed her expectations!

To Make a Wedding Cake

Our friend wanted a chocolate wedding cake.  We went with four layer cakes--Dark Chocolate Fudge Cake.  The fillings we used were White Chocolate Creme, Chocolate Ganache, and Fresh Raspberry Filling.  Lori made the four layers of cake for the bottom tier--square 16 x 16.  She also made the Fresh Raspberry Filling.  I made the four layers for the 12 x 12 and 8 x 8 tiers of the cake.  I also made the White Chocolate Creme filling, the Chocolate Ganache filling and the Chocolate Buttercream for the crumb coat.

I had frozen my layers so they would be easier to work with and less crumby.  Here they are still wrapped in plastic wrap.

Leveling the largest of the cakes, the 16 x 16.  The parchment paper is a huge help in moving these large layers of cake, not to mention how much easier it makes getting the cakes out of the pans.  I had to get an extra large cake leveler for this job!

I made seven batches of Chocolate Buttercream Frosting to crumb coat this cake.

The first layer of filling was the Chocolate Ganache.  This is the second layer of filling--our White Chocolate Creme.

The top layer of filling--our Fresh Raspberry Filling.  Delicious!

The three layers all crumb coated in Chocolate Buttercream Frosting.

Top tier covered in Chocolate Fondant.

I put these signs in all my car windows.  People were nice enough to give me a good berth, even though I was driving slow!

Putting the dowels in for tiering.

Putting the big dowel down the middle to keep the cake stable.

Tada!  The finished product!  The fresh berries really gave the chocolate a punch!  I looked gorgeous and tasted delicious!  We got LOTS of compliments on how tasty our cake was.  Most wedding cakes don't taste very good, but we endeavor to make ours delectable!

Wedding Cake Run-Through

We were starting to feel a little stressed as the time counted down to our friend's wedding.  We decided to attempt our first tiered cake.  We used a similar design to the one the bride had requested.  We did a small two tier chocolate cake.  The top tier was a 6 inch and the bottom tier was a 10 inch.  We decided to make the top tier with just a Chocolate Buttercream Frosting, and the bottom tier we covered in Chocolate Fondant.  We took the cake to a church potluck and it was a big hit.  People loved the cake and the combination of fresh raspberries and chocolate is always very tasty.  We were also testing the fresh raspberries to make sure they would hold up to sitting on the cake for several hours.  The berries held up great, so we were much less stressed about using them on the actual wedding cake.

Up To My Elbows in Marshmallows!

Anyone who uses fondant knows that its not cheap!  I had heard some people saying that you can make your own fondant out of marshmallows.  So, I bought big bags of marshmallows and confectioners' sugar and commenced attempting to make fondant.  You have to melt the marshmallows until they turn into a very sticky fluff.  Then you have to grease down your counter very well, put a huge pile of confectioners' sugar on the counter and make a well in it.  Then you pour the melted marshmallow into the well.  I colored the melted marshmallows first because I figured that would be easier than trying to add color after it was made.  I greased up my hands, too.  The marshmallow was so sticky it was really hard to knead.  I had to knead it for probably about half an hour to get all the confectioners' sugar worked into it and get it to the right consistency.  It was a lot of work and once the mixture got stiffer it took a lot of elbow grease to keep kneading it.  I ended up using it on a birthday cake for my mother-in-law.  I worked OK, but it didn't have as smooth a look as store bought fondant.  It does have a better taste than most store bought fondants.  I decorated the cake with white fondant polka dots and a white fondant/gum paste bow.