I knew I would need to do a few practice rounds of cake making and throughout the early summer I arrived at various potlucks with different varieties of vanilla cake in one hand or lemon in the other. I found very willing tastetesters available to give helpful feedback. Here are a few of my first trial cakes:
Several things went wrong with my first cakes; runny icing, cracking fondant, nearly burnt edges, but with each cake I learned more about what to or not to do.
I knew I'd need to make larger cakes for the final wedding cake and be able to support them into a three tier formation. This had me a bit nervous. I studied how to insert dowel rods so that the cakes were able to support the weight of the fondant iced cakes. I was making a three-tiered square cake with each layer measuring, 12", 9" and 6". I learned that cake making calls for a bit of structural engineering skill as well as culinary artistry.
My kitchen and dining room were transformed into a cake building stage during the last week of July 2009 before the August 1st wedding. This also happened to be the week of 100+ temperatures, which helped to keep the fondant pliable and me running outside to run my hair under a hose to cool down every half hour.
Nonetheless, I built the cakes at the wedding site and with the addition of several purple orchids,
they had a lovely wedding cake. And how did the cake taste? Well, I know many came back for seconds.
If you know of someone who needs an inexpensive cake this summer or fall, I am available to make cakes at rates cheaper than your average bakery because I'm still working to improve my cake baking skills. To discuss pricing on your particular wedding cake, please email at the contact info. on this site. I am able to do fondant or butter cream frosted cakes. We can discuss the possibility of decorations including fondant sculpture designs, icing designs, flowers, ribbon or cake toppers.
