Clever Cake Studio

This is the first wedding cake I’ve done.  These are obviously daunting because of how important everything is - there are around 150 guests and a tight deadline.  This cake had to travel to another city an hour or so away, so it needed to be structurally sound.  Like with any cake I’ve ever done, there were many lessons in it for me and things I now know to do differently.

The bottom tier is lemon cake with a creamy lemon curd filling.  The second is german chocolate cake with coconut pecan filling, which from the bride’s post-wedding review sounded like it was the crowd favorite.  The top two tiers are vanilla cake with banana creme filling.

This was also my very first attempt at sugarpaste flowers, which are time-consuming but rather wonderful to do. I have a lot of respect for the artists who can make amazingly intricate and realistic sugar flowers.

I have a few progress photos to show how to smooth buttercream.  Basically, after the crumb coat, then the final, thicker base layer, stick it in the fridge to cool for a half hour.  Then, you go and fill a mug with hot water.  Take a spatula knife, dip it in, then tap off excess.  With a very light touch, brush the flat of the knife upwards, just skimming the buttercream.  You’ll feel the buttercream go slick and you can smooth a small area this way, dipping the knife regularly.  You may get a lot of moisture, so make sure to tap off excess water from the knife and make sure you have enough time to let it sit to dry off if there’s too much.

I built up some frosting at the top to support the flowers.

Then, once it’s ready, I wrapped real deep blue ribbon around the base of each tier - no tape is needed, as the frosting clings to the ribbon just fine.  This gave it a nice look, though fondant is a better choice if you can roll and cut it precisely.  It just makes the cake cutting easier.  Once the ribbon is on, I started one the pearl border, and the dots.  Then, arrange the flowers on top.

Some lessons:  If the cake is going to be traveling, then opt for fondant-covered instead of buttercream.  I like to do just buttercream whenever possible - not that it’s the slightest bit easier, but most people don’t like eating fondant.  However, fondant would have been sturdier and held up better to the vibrations of a road trip.  There was a bit of settling, so the buttercream walls weren’t as smooth and flat.

I also would pick a larger base board.  This one was two inches bigger in diameter than the bottom tier, but I’d like to have more space to grip so it would be easier to pick up.  Little details like that - lesson learned.

Still, I was told that it was tasty and the bride was satisfied, so it’s a success.  Next time I’ll know even better.

This was for a friend’s baby girl, who just turned 1.  It’s covered in fondant, with cut-out dots and a pearl border.  The teddy bear and the alphabet blocks are also fondant, hand-painted.  Next time I think I’ll dye the fondant for the bear instead of painting - it gave a neat old-leather-bear look, but not quite the pastel thing I had in mind.

The front side of the blocks have her initials and “1″ for her level score.  The cupcake’s candle, by the way, is this really neat oil candle that actually burns a pink flame!

Here are a couple shots of the cute birthday girl checking out her cupcake.  The cupcake was a low-fat, low-sugar recipe with cream cheese and fruit yogurt frosting, chosen by her mom for her.