Wedding Cake

This post is a bit heavy on words.  Too busy for photos! 

As my closest friends & family will tell you, I don't cook or bake much.  I do know how.  I'm not even bad at it.  It just doesn't appeal.  I enjoy eating if someone else fixes the food, otherwise I don't care.

So when I arrived in Florida, I found it terribly ironic that my friend announced we would be baking the cake.  She was using a recipe from The Silver Palate Cookbook.  And we had to make some measurement modifications.  The recipe was for 2 - 9" round pans and we were using 8", 12", & 16" square pans.  While baking may be a foreign language, math is not. 

 

When I finished my calculations I told my friend I needed to call my mother!  Noooo, she wailed.  (my mom can make me crazed).  Yessss, encouraged the groom - he is fascinated by mother-child interactions and wanted to see mine.  Lucky for everyone I know what kinds of things to ask my mom's advice.  Baking cakes is one of them.

What the bride and groom noticed is that she took charge of the conversation and  interrupted me quite a lot.  What I noticed (since she always takes charge and interrupts) is that she confirmed I had gotten the calculations right. 

 

We baked 2 - 12" cakes & 12 - 8" square cakes (the 16" pan wouldn't fit in the oven and the #@%& dog ate part of a layer).  The bride put apricot jam between the layers of each tier, then frosted them with lemon zested buttercream frosting. 

 

Next we fondanted the 3 tiers.

The groom rolled the fondant out.  We both gently laid it over the layers and I discovered it was an art project!  I was in my element.

The tiers all fit in the small bar refrigerator.

Baking/Frosting took us two full days.

The day of the wedding, I went over to the restaurant where we were having the reception.  The groom had a photo of what he wanted.  He & I decorated the cake with flowers which coordinated with the table decorations made by the an amazing flower arranger!

The finished cake.

The bride & groom cut the first piece.

It was delicious!