Wedding Cake Update

Ahhhh! The groom wanted to double the size of the cake. Now he's expecting 75 people and he wants to freeze the top tier of the cake for the one year anniversary. Well, I must say that put a little pressure on me. So at first, I lost the word *no*. I was going along with the idea but totally stressing. What happen to my safety net? What if the cake slides all apart? With 75 people watching!
But first, can I tell you about an awesome blogger. Glamah16 from Coco Cooks was there to calm my nerves. She gave me her e-mail and her phone # in case I needed to ask questions. She was right there answering e-mails as quick as I was sending them off. She said "You can do this"
Thank you Glamah. You Rock!
Back to this cake thing. The next day, the groom and I talked again. I had come to my senses. I told him I would do the larger cake but I was just a home baker. Don't expect a professional looking cake. I can do pretty, but it is homemade!
Plus, I didn't have the larger cake pans, or cake boards. And the ingredients had doubled and he had to buy me some butter and sugar.
OR: We can go back to the original cake plan, (smaller cake) using the top tier (no frozen cake on the anniversary)and get a sheet cake for a grooms cake.
That's exactly the plan now! Stress relief!
That day I baked a test cake, twice. I took a doctored up cake mix recipe for chocolate cake and switched in vanilla. You know, vanilla cake mix and vanilla pudding mix. It called for sour cream and extra eggs, oil and water. Sounded simple! Not so simple!
The first time I thought maybe I left out the water or something and made it again. It just did not work. Here's a picture I took for your amusement. Eggy middle all stacked up there to show you some real texture. really bad texture. So I switched recipes. I went with a Wilton Butter Cake recipe. I made a small cake with the white chocolate filling and I got 12 cupcakes.
The cupcakes were frosted and accessorized and went to some lucky taste testers. I actually tried some fondant on the cake. I frosted it and then applied my rolled fondant. Even the hubby was in the kitchen helping getting in on the fondant action. I didn't have enough of the fondant to cover the whole cake but it was a test cake so I tested. It was getting late so all this was done with the cake at room temp. One of the tips Courtney gave me was to freeze the layers. They were alot easier to work with. I could see what she meant the next morning when the cake was completely chilled. Much more manageable.

Here is a picture of the little cake. Not fully dressed for the Ball but she's working it. I put a dowel in the middle for stability. And as embarrassing as it is, here is a rear picture of my test cake. Remember, I knew I didn't have enough fondant to cover. I was just playing! It looks half naked but tasted oh so good!. (insert snicker) The cupcakes and the piece of cake in the top picture look good. Right?

Here's a few things I've learned.
1. Fondant doesn't get hard on the cake. It marries with the frosting and becomes one. (I didn't know)
2. Freeze cake layers. So much easier to work
3. Flowers are so easy to cut out of fondant and dries hard. And they are adorable!

So the actual wedding cake you ask. I have the bottom tier in the freezer and I'm making the top tier right now. Tomorrow they will be cut, filled, and crumb coated and back in the fridge for more chilling. After my root canal.



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