Karly's Wedding Cake

I ask myself every time I make one of these, why I put myself through the stress. My Mom asks me the same question, and always adds that this cake should be the last one we do! It 's been said ever since the original cakes I made with my friend Jen. I never seem to say no those friends who've had their hearts set on me making their wedding cake since seeing pics of those original ones. I know, not surprising knowing me, but still...

Usually my blog posts of my wedding cake making involve all of the drama which accompanies the existing drama and stress already present when taking on this certain task. I don't know if it was because it was a Saturday wedding, or if it was because it was my roommate's cake, or if I'm just getting better at it (not), but this one seemed to go off without much drama. At least no major drama to report. It is a long process, and it has been a very long week, but I thought I would give you all the "in process" pics, thanks to a suggestion by Shameonyou21.

Lemon Cake, Raspberry Filling, Cream Cheese Frosting

From This

To This

Must border the edges so the filling doesn't ooze out into the frosting on the outside.

All filled, and all stacked. I usually only do two layers, but they were thin so I made another one!

I believe this is the 2nd coat of frosting, before they are all smoothed out.

TA DAH! I made Idyllic Ideas have her flower lady do the tops of the cakes. No Belnaps, or Mommy doing arrangements last minute!

My Mom asked the flower lady once we set up the cakes on their stands, how the arrangements were going to look. She freaked out and said "The arrangement are over there, and I'LL get to it in a minute. As if we were going to try and do it ourselves there! PA-LEEZE!

I monogrammed some ribbon that is along the bottom of the layers, at the request of the bride, with the words:

"Karly & Rob"

"March 6, 2010"

"Draper Utah Temple"

The cake server was a high heel, which is SO Idyllic Ideas!

There you have it. The only real drama that happened was the middles of the cakes kept sinking with under ten minutes to bake it the oven. One of the big layers got over cooked when we tried increasing the oven temperature to compensate for the sinking middles. I ended up remaking some of the layers that were too sunken, and the big layer that got over baked. In the process we decided the layers were just a bit too thin, so I made another layer of each size to go along with the re-makes.

That's pretty good drama for a wedding cake if you ask me! I think some kids poked one, and the ribbon slid down a tiny bit on a couple of layers. The whole night at the reception, I kept going over to the cakes and trying to play with the ribbon, or smooth some parts, or whatever, and my other roommate Nat Nat, had to physically grab my arm a couple of times and yell at me to just leave it alone. I can't help myself. I guess I notice the imperfections more than others might! Even though I don't claim to be, nor ever will claim to be an experienced or awesome cake decorator, I think it turned out alright.

I had made a small sample cake for Idyllic and Fiance to try since I'd never really made a lemon cake before. I didn't want to mess with cake flour as some of the recipes online suggested, and others just didn't seem to be anything more than a yellow cake with a lemon filling. I found one in my Mom's Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook that was a triple layer cake. It wasn't very lemony because of the lemon filling and lemon frosting, I am sure, so we doubled the zest for the main batch and hoped it would be enough without having to worry about having too much liquid. We sampled one of the sunken layers to make sure it was actually edible, and also to make sure it tasted a little more like lemon than before, and OH! MY! I think I've found a new favorite!!! You can find the recipe here, but remember to double the zest if you are just making the cake by itself!

Cake Anyone?

About a month ago a friend asked me to make her wedding cake. I didn't even know she was dating anyone, not to mention engaged! I couldn't really lie to her and say I didn't know how to make cakes, since she was good friends with the two girls for whom I made those first cakes. CRAP!

There's been nothing but drama surrounding this particular cake. All during the cooking process, the stupid cakes were having issues coming out of the pans. Even though I sprayed the crap outta them with pam, greased the snot outta them on the remakes with crisco, and then both greased AND sprayed on the re-remakes. Stupid 6 inchers hated my guts all week!!!

Day of the wedding, things are finally going pretty smooth. I decide to pull out the cake stand provided me by the bride, to make sure I knew how the thing actually worked. That's when things went downhill very quickly! Assembly was really easy. Almost self explanatory. I pull out the clear plastic "glass" looking plates the cake layers are supposed to sit on while on the stand. The freaking 8" piece is MISSING!!!

After my assistant, ran all over town looking for another stand to buy, we settled on some round mirrors, which actually worked out great, cause I think they look better and they aren't cheap plastic!

My floral arrangements were courtesy of my Mammy, Sissy, and B-I-L Tay Tay! Tay Tay and EK would make FABULOUS florists doncha think???!!! Belnap Bundles of Flowers or something dumb like that!!!

I was under the impression that Shelly ordered arrangements from the local grocery store, not just individually bundled flowers. The Bride was not having any flowers of any kind at her reception, so Shelly offered to buy these for the tops cause the Bride also couldn't decide on what she wanted on top besides NOTHING! Specialty orders have to be at least two weeks in advance, so this is what the florist had in stock. The blue flowers are actually just painted baby's breath, not little cute unknown name flowers!

Anyway, here are the pics. Don't adjust your screen, the bride's colors are actually the primary colors of red, yellow, blue. Turned out better than the image I had in my head. Maybe it's the Mammy/Belnap magical floral arrangements that did the trick!

MMM Cake!

For Idyllic Ideas' birthday, I ordered her something that she'd been drooling over for a while, but never actually ordered. I was struggling with an idea, and also running out of time (even though I had tons of notice) so I came up with a brilliant plan...

Introducing one of the coolest new toys to enter my household since...well...ever! Is it a cookie? Is it cake? It's both! It is the Cookie Cake Pan!!!

According to the recipe on the box, this is what you will look like when it is all done:

It will work with any type of cake though. We made a lemon pound cake with raspberry cream cheese frosting on the inside. Idyllic did a great job while I was half sprawled out on the couch with ice on my head, and face due to my concussion and sore jaw. Next time I decide it would be fun to see what it would be like to be a brick wall, and get bull dozed over, will someone remind me it WASN'T that much fun!

I will have to get Idyllic Ideas to email me the finished product, but this is what it looks like coming right out of the pan.

Hooray for cookies. cakes, and now best of all, COOKIE CAKES!!! I think this little movie could also apply for my new friends the cookie cakes. Don't you?!

CHOCOLATE, CHOCOLATE, CHOCOLATE

As promised...CAKE #2

The preperations:


Let's Just say that Ganache (the chocolate drizzle)=EVILNESS! Turns out chocolate and flowers like each other!!!


50CentJen is playing with the tops white I ganache!


Its all starting to come together:


More FLOWERY TOPS!!! There are little chocolate curls around the flowers as well. I told you, Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate!!!


At the reception all put together: (the purple things in the background are not my doing b.t.w.)


The white thing on the table in front of the cakes is a white veil with mouse ears. Then of course is the main cake topper of Mickey and Minney which is sitting on the 2nd biggest layer because it was way too big for the very top layer.


So the low down on this. This was fun up until the ganache. When made according to the recipe, it is VERY runny, and had ZERO contrast to the other frosting. We spent an hour messing with the consistency, and trying to get more of a contrast between the frosting, and the ganache.

We ended up with twice as much more chocolate, and it was thicker, but still not where we needed it to be. We had to mix the frosting into the ganache to thicken it up to where we could at least drizzle it over the sides. The drizzles were forced down the sides with a squirt bottle, in strategic locations.

An hour after we were supposed to have the cake at the reception, we finally made it, despite a few attempts on all our parts to drop them on the way over. I almost dropped the top layer right in front of the bride!!!

Then Captain Obvious, (as I have affectionately re-named my mother) pointed out to me on the way in, after one of the most frustrating hours of my life, I was late. I needed to plan better. NOT the thing to say when I am likely to shove the cake I am holding, right into your face!!! That would have gone over well right in front of the bride right? So instead, I almost just drop the thing on the ground. I probably would have sat down on the ground, possibly said a few choice words, then burst into tears!!!

The same applies to this one as it did to the last. Rip on it, admire it, laugh at it, tell me it sucked, or that it wasn't that bad, I don't care. It is over and done with, and since I do not have a cake in my hand, nor are you standing right next to me, I think your opinions will be duley noted no matter how good or bad! (That applies to you too SHAMEONYOU!)

Cake #1

I have officially been deemed a pastry chef by a couple of my friends, Chocoball, and her life-long friend Angister. Back in December/January, I got a phone call from these two asking me if I was a pastry chef.

I replied that I wasn't really, but then inquired as to why the scary question!

They then said they were hoping I could/would make their wedding cakes for them in a few months.

Very hestitant, I agreed to the task. I reminded them that their cakes would be my first, and that I would require the help of a friend who makes wedding cakes a lot for friends, family, etc.

They assured me of their confidence in my abilities, and that they would still love it if I could do this for them. I agreed, and the stress bagan!

Thanks to 50Cent-Jen for all the help, and for the use of your abilities, advice, and most importantly, for the use of your equipment!!!

These pics are all of Angster's cake! Chocoball's cake will be appearing in two weeks, and believe me when I tell you, it will be quite the cake!!!


The difference a stupid border makes!


Angister's cake-topper was a crystal Mt. Timpanogos LDS Temple


The finished product as delivered to the reception center.
(Bottom & top layer were chocolate cake, with chocolate mousee filling. The two middle layers were white cake. The middle-bottom layer had a raspberry puree with whole raspberry bits for the filling, and the middle-top layer had the raspberry puree/raspberry bit filling along with some of the chocolate mousse filling on the top of that).

Despite the not-so-warm welcome from the stupid owner of the reception center, we thought everything turned out very well. The happy couple was happy with the results, both the look, and the taste (at least to my face which is what really matters); some of the guests' comments were nice...even when they didn't know I made it; and the bride's parents thought it was great too (they were the one's who paid me for it so that makes a big huge difference)!

Feel free to critique it, compliment it, rip on it, whatever. I was happy considering this was my very first attempt at this gig!!!