WeddSplosion V: The Cake’s Last Stand

So by now you’ve seen the frosting, the cake, and the construction.  Now it’s time to get down with the final cake!

The morning of the wedding I awoke bright and early (alright, Adam woke up with a phone call at 10am), with only a few items left on my to-do list.  I’d made a final batch of frosting the night before, and that morning I’d planned on using part of it to frost the last 6″ layer, and to take the rest with me to Adam and Emily’s for touch ups and emergencies.  I had plenty of time – everything was good to go.

Except that when I whipped the refrigerated frosting back up, it didn’t turn out quite right.  It looked fairly frosting-like, but somehow it turned out almost slimy, with a shiny look and gross consistency.  I tried to use it at first, not realizing how weird it was, but eventually had to give up since it wouldn’t even adhere to the cake.  So at 11am, 30 minutes before I was supposed to leave with the cake, I found myself instead whipping up a fresh batch of frosting.

My father showed up at 11:30, but had to wait around while I spent the next 45 minutes making new frosting and finishing up the 6″ cake.  Luckily for me things went swimmingly (how often does that happen, right?).  While waiting, he sharpened up the end of a dowel for me to hold the bottom two layers together.  Multitasking!

Once I got everything squared away, we boxed up the cakes and put them securely into his CRV.  Transporting cakes from one place to another can be pretty nerve wracking, but as long as you take your time and don’t insist on taking corners at 60 miles an hour, your cakes should be just fine.  I put each layer of mine into a regular cardboard cake box (the type you can find at any craft store) after leaving them in the fridge long enough for the frosting to solidify (that way it wouldn’t rub off in the box).  Again, things went excellently!

 

Unfortunately, while Michael’s had a perfectly sized 10×10″ box, the largest box they had was only 14×19″ and didn’t perfectly hold the 14″ cake (the cake was 14″, but it was sitting on a 16″ circle – blast!).  Luckily it fit well enough so the lid could be taped gently down over top of it so no fuzz or dog hair would get inside.  Science!

We arrived successfully at Adam and Emily’s and the assembly and decoration began.

I started by removing the cakes from their boxes.  Luckily when you’ve only spent $1.50 on a cardboard cake box, you don’t really have any qualms about tearing it apart to remove its delicate innards.

Next came the stacking, as seen in my previous “How to Tier a Cake” post.  I won’t elaborate too heavily, except to say that gosh-darnit, it was pretty easy. 😀  Here’s a picture of the sharpened and cut-down dowel before we skewered the cake with it.  Thanks, Dad!

After the cake was successfully situated and the seams between the layers sufficiently hidden by frosting, the decoration began.  Emily had purchased some lovely edible sugar buttons made from real button molds that we were going to put all over the cake for a final bit of flair.  Unfortunately these sugary decorations cost, so we weren’t able to procure too many of them, but 100 (50 sugar, 50 chocolate) treated us quite well and added just enough to the cake to give it a little extra panache (yes.  Panache).  Emily helped me figure out how to arrange them, since she is the designer, not me (whew).

When that was done, Vasili (the best man) and I moved the cake into their fridge, which they had kindly cleared out to save the cake from melting before the cutting.  Alright, Vasili did most of the moving, but I was an excellent supervisor.  Nothing says encouragement like “I love you Vasili, but if you drop the wedding cake, I’ll kill you.”

After that was done…well…the only thing left to do was filch frosting (along with everyone else) and help out in any other way I could.  And once that was all wrapped up, there wasn’t much left for me to do but go home and wait for the wedding itself.

The wedding was, naturally, a terrific event, and I’m very pleased to say that the cake did nothing but enhance it for everyone (not to toot my own horn, or anything).  Compliments abounded, and there was plenty of cake leftover; nobody went home without a piece unless they didn’t want one (meaning they were either diabetic, or a dirty cake-hating communist).

Would I do this again?  Well, as one woman put it, I’d do this “for love, not money.”  If another friend of mine came to me and asked if I would mind baking a wedding cake (or a cake for another super-special occasion), I’d jump on it without hesitation.  It’s fun to do with and for friends and I was thrilled to be able to contribute so successfully a piece of their wedding day (and save them some money!).  It meant a lot to me that Adam and Emily trusted me enough to do this for them, and I was more than happy to show them my friendship through food (since that’s how I usually roll, anyway).  Emily wrote a super-sweet blog post about her thoughts on the subject, and if you want you can read them here (and see more pictures!).  I certainly learned a lot, feel closer to my friends, and have grown quite a bit as a baker.  Or at least, my confidence has. 😀

And that’s it for WeddSplosion!  Hope you had as much fun reading about it as I did going through the whole process!

For the entire WedSplosion saga, read here:

• WeddSplosion: Prologue
• WeddSplosion: The First Tasting
• WeddSplosion II: Return of the Cakes
• WeddSplosion III: The Cake of Doom
• WeddSplosion IV: The Final tasting