CAKEAPOTAMUS

Saturday, June 11, 2011

A wedding full of pretty

I had the privilege of making the cake for Friend Paige's wedding. Here's how it went down:

First, I ordered a bunch of roses. Actually five bunches of roses. It was pretty cool... they came from Ecuador, and they cleared customs, got to Fed Ex, and were delivered to me all in the same day

125 roses hydrating after their long trip to Alabama 

Next, I baked. Assemble the tools!


I didn't take any pictures of the cakes before I iced and stacked them. I thought about it, but then... see, this wasn't just any old wedding cake. This wedding cake was supposed to have a secret inside. Thus, it had two crumb coats and then the texture coat of icing. So here it is, iced and stacked:


I love this icing technique. The cake is actually off-white... a pretty ivory color. I'm not sure how well this picture shows the color.

Meanwhile, in the dining room...


The kids were doing "science projects".


Good times. Anyway, remember those roses? I removed the guard petals and trimmed the stems. You know how, on The Addams Family, Morticia would cut the roses and leave the thorny stems in the vase? I felt like Morticia. Huge stems going into the trash... After they hydrated, they were looking pretty:


Pretty dangerous! You know that little pouch of flower elixer of life powder attached to the stems? In my research for this cake (this being the first time I've used fresh flowers on a cake), I found out that those pouches can contain formaldehyde! Ew. Not to mention the who-knows-whats that you'd find on the stems from their upbringing in Ecuador. Decidedly unhealthy. So I used the age-old cake decorator method of dipping the stems in chocolate to make them safe to stick into the cake:


There were a lot of stems.


Happily, when I went to deliver the cake, it was only 91 degrees outside. (By the time the wedding started, my car thermometer said 98 degrees. I swear, summer in the south is The Hardest Thing.) Then it was time to set it up and add the flowers:


I think there are around 115 roses on this cake.


Check out that pretty stand the bride found!


The room.


The flowers up close.


Check out that beautiful bride in the background! 

Moving on... before I knew it, it was time to cut the cake.


Told 'ya she was beautiful.

OK, here's the secret part: This wedding wasn't just about creating a marriage... it was about creating a family. The bride and groom asked me to color their cake so they could announce to the wedding guests all at once whether they are expecting a boy or a girl.

When the first piece was cut and everyone saw the color, there was a very loud, happy sound. 


As you can see, the bride was tickled pink.


And now they get to start their happily ever after. <3

Wait, I forgot two funny stories!

#1: When we were in the planning phase, I asked Paige if I could "accidentally" leave a smudge of blue food coloring on the cake drum to throw people off. She said yes :) I think only one person saw it- a kid at the wedding who tried to convince her mom that the cake was blue inside.

#2: When Paige and Shawn cut the cake and everybody saw it was pink, it's a girl!, not everyone was happy. Two little boys behind me were extremely disappointed. But, they consoled themselves with the knowledge that "a cake can't know what baby you'll have".

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