I did it... Made my first wedding cake. I was so honored when my cousin Jackie and her fiance Steve asked me to make their cake. It was in the summer on the day we had a picnic for my Grandmom's 92 birthday. That day was my very first cake wreck... The cake fell over when I rounded the off ramp of the turnpike. Despite seeing the cake wreckage Jackie and Steve had confidence in my abilities... We discussed a few different designs but settled on the snowflake theme a few weeks before. A really touching detail of the wedding was that Grandmom crocheted snowflake ornaments that were hung on a Christmas tree outside the reception hall that served as our table cards. It was a really unique way to deliver the seating assignments and the wedding favor.
Below are details of the cake assembly.
The secret is out... Well I never have kept it a secret... I use box cake mixes!! I add applesauce and egg whites to make them a little healthier and to change the taste a little bit. I admit it. I like to decorate and not bake so this gets me to the point that I have something to decorate...
Used lots of eggs...
Made 11 cakes...
7 batches of icing...
Here are the various snowflake cutters I ordered and decorations I used on the cake. I wasn't sure how big I was going to make the snowflakes so I bought a bunch of different ones to try out. I ended up liking one of the sets most and used it for the majority of the snowflakes.
I used a Styrofoam dummy at the bottom of the cake. My oven can't bake a cake this large... I had to glue it to the base... Apparently certain glues eat away Styrofoam- Who knew? I ended up using double sided tape and white Elmer's glue. It totally worked... Here is the evidence of the eating away of the Styrofoam...
The base of the cake with wooden dowels to hold up the cake...
A test run of what it would look like... Yup- it is leaning...
Onto making Snowflakes... Used fondant and different colored sprinkles and accents to make each snowflake unique... I had fun cutting each snowflake in different way and adding the decorations. This was the most relaxing part of making the cake.
Snowflakes drying
O.K. the cake is ready for transport... These are all of the tools I took with me to the venue...
The top of the cake
The bottom of the cake... I transported the cake in three pieces and assembled it on site.
Here it is all finished. It took about an hour on site to assemble and decorate. It was leaning a little bit but other then that I was really really pleased with the way it turned out. Jackie cried when she saw the cake and that was reward enough for me! I had a great time making this cake. I'm not sure I'll be making many more wedding cakes- it is a little stressful- but I really wanted to do something special for Jackie and her family. They mean the world to me and it was an honor to make their cake.
One of my favorite snowflakes...
The beautiful Bride and Handsome Groom...
