My Second Wedding Cake

Baking the first wedding cake was an incredibly challenging and stressful msadventure but despite that, it went well and I learned so many invaluable lessons. I'm not saying that the second cake went without issue, but it went much more smoothly than the first, lemme tell you! And, thank goodness for that, because this cake was for my dear friend Laura.

I'm not arrogant enough in my novice wedding cake standing to assume I know all the ins and outs, but I will share a few knowledge nuggets to hopefully make your first wedding cake a smashing success.

Lesson #1: However much time you think you will need, tack on an extra day if at all possible. Life has this way of throwing you spectacularly-timed curve balls that will stress you out immensely if you let them interfere with your plan.

Lesson #2: If you're making home made marshmallow fondant like I did, dust your surface with cornstarch instead of icing/confectioner's sugar, as sugar makes your fondant a little too dry. That means when you cover your cake, the edges will crack slightly and not look as great as you'd like.

Lesson #3: If you're deciding to use a recipe that is unfamiliar to you, do a test bake WELL in advance. That will give you time to taste it to ensure that the recipe yields the taste, texture, colour, etc. that you were aiming for.

Lesson #4: Document, document, document! Take photos along the way, and make notes in your recipe books for things that you learn while baking, or adjustments that you make to the recipe. Trust me, you'll want this info later.

Lesson #5: Italian Meringue Buttercream is a real pain in the patoot, but it's SOOO worth the aggravation of learning how to do it correctly. You may think it has flopped, but if you keep throwing butter into it, it will come together and me the most amazing buttercream you've ever had. Personally, I have found that carton egg whites do not work for this recipe, so I only use fresh cracked whites, but others have claimed to use carton whites with success. All I know is, I have wasted dozens of eggs and several pounds of butter trying to master this IMBC, and will never use carton eggs for IMBC again.

Lesson #6: Be diligent about getting your stuff back! Even if your cake drum/pillars/stand/etc. are labeled, the kitchen is a bustling organism geared toward efficiency and will throw out things that aren't claimed by the end of the night.


Now for the cake!

A friend of the bride--a librarian by trade and thus a huge owl lover--gifted her a custom wedding cake topper from Etsy. It's made of Cloud Clay and weighs practically nothing, and was an amazingly cute topper for a whimsical yet elegant design.

Gum Paste Letters

With this spare few minutes I have at work, I thought I'd post the results of my cupcake blitz this weekend. My friend Monica referred a friend of hers to me, who wanted cupcakes made for a pre-wedding party. His only request was "Maybe a good flavour (not chocolate) with G & B's or something on them?"

That's when my brain kicked into creative overdrive. G and B? Gold and Blue! Lucky for me, blue was one of the wedding colours. What flavour would go with gold and blue? Why, Lemon and Blueberry, of course!

I had some Wilton Pre-Made gum paste on hand from the Gum Paste course that I've enrolled in but has been canceled twice (*shakes fist in the air*), so I dyed some gold and blue, and added some cocoa to the gum paste to make a truer black. Using the Fox Run Mini Alphabet cutters I picked up from Golda's Kitchen, my helpers and I cut out Bs and Gs, and little triangles to make bow ties. Then the letters were painted with a little vodka (some for us, some for the letters!) to make the sparkles stick.

Voila!

A HUGE thank you to Laura and Victoria--fellow Pavlov's Dogs--for the extra hands. These gals earned the heck out of their brunch of Blueberry Cream Cheese Bread Pudding and Mimosas!

My First Wedding Cake!

I really should have done this months ago, but with all the renos and selling the house I just couldn't.

However, I managed to post the few photos I was able to take, and here they are! Sorry for the poor photo quality; I was unable to locate my SLR amidst the renovation rubble, and all I had was my point and shoot camera that didn't handle the dim lighting in the venue very well.

Top Tier: White Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Italian Meringue Buttercream
Middle Tier: Vanilla Cake moistened with Maple Ice Wine syrup, with Maple IMBC
Bottom Tier: Dutch Chocolate cake moistened with Raspberry syrup, with Fresh Raspberry IMBC

All covered with home-made marshmallow fondant, and topped with a LEGO cake topper that I made for the Engineer newlyweds!

I'm baaaAAAAaaack....

The house has been renovated, and has even been sold. I have my life back, and more importantly, my kitchen!

As soon as I find the energy, I will start baking again. First though, I need to update this blog to include a major accomplishment; my first wedding cake.

It's been a long road folks. Hope I haven't lost too many of you along the way.

Early Radiohead + Baking = WIN!

Cup Size

Courtesy of ILoveDoodle.

Ms. Adventures in Renovating

The Manfella™ and I are renovating the house for sale. I've spent weeks with a torn-up disorganized labyrinthine kitchen (I'm pretty sure I had to ask the Minotaur to pass me the brown sugar this morning), and there really isn't any room anywhere to bake. Nor would I want to, unless sawdust muffins are your thing.

Don't get me wrong, I'm totes concerned with your bowel movements and regularity (Gassy? Gassy? Is it gas? It's gas, isn't it?), but not to the point where I'd feed you baked goods covered in splinters.

The bad news? I can't bake. Anything. For a while. This makes me a sad Keanu.


The badder news? I have my first wedding cake coming up near the end of February. HOLY. FLAMING. SHITBALLS.


Um yeah. See that look in her eye? That right there ^ is stark-raving renovation-induced MADNESS wrapped in a frilly yellow apron (hey man, just because you're bat-shit crazy doesn't mean you can't look PRETTY). Chuck Norris wouldn't dare piss this woman off, because she looks like she's about to eat a mountain lion for breakfast. Me? I only have a slight eye twitch right now. Talk to me about my breakfast choices in FEBRUARY.

So, for the time being, not so much with the blog updates. Things might get a little ghost-towny 'round these parts. When I get my house back you can bet your sweet patoot I'll be baking LIKE A BOSS.