Wedding Cake

This is an 8" square cake for the bottom tier and a 6" square tier for the top.

The bottom tier is a  Chocolate Pound Cake. It is made up of 3 layers with chocolate buttercream frosting in between each layer.  The outer layer of frosting is vanilla buttercream frosting so that it wouldn't show through the white fondant.  I used a pound cake due to the height and to give it extra stability.  I had never made a chocolate pound cake before, but I have to say....it was DELICIOUS!!

The top layer is Devil's Food Cake (3 layers) with the same frosting as the bottom tier.  

Both tiers were 4 inches tall.

This is a picture of the top tier with the cake topper.  I made this topper based on the photograph I had been given.  At first, I wasn't sure how I was going to make this, but did some research on jewelry with wire/beads.  This topper consists of 3 wire/bead "flowers" that I arranged and wired together.  I also added some wire strings with beads.

 

I learned quite a bit making this topper and it was definitely a fun experience.  I guess I can add this form of artwork to my resume as well now.

I also got to make royal icing for the first time with this cake.  This is what I made the black dots out of.  First, I made measurements and marked the cake with an edible pen writer where the dots needed to be.  Then I just went back and added the dots with the royal icing.  They turned out really well.

The cake was finished off with some turquoise ribbon around the bottom of the tiers to match the bride/groom's colors.  This is the finished result on display at the wedding reception.

My first wedding cake...

I never thought I would actually do a wedding cake...been kind of caught up in the birthday cake thing I guess.  My friend Brooke asked me to help out with her sister's cake, so of course how could I refuse?  A chance to try something new! 

The idea for this cake was nothing like how it turned out.  It was supposed to be just frosting with some decorative waves/lines on the sides and flowers on each level.

After a couple hours trying to achieve the right look, we made a group decision to go with fondant.  Brooke rushed off to the store before it closed and managed to get fondant ingredients just in time.  Brooke prepared the fondant while I covered the layers and in two hours time we had done both cakes and cleaned up the evidence (as documented by this picture). 





By this time, the frosting had gotten a little warm so it was difficult to get it perfectly shaped.  I had to put it in the fridge overnight and reshape in the morning.  I can't say this was my most perfect fondant as I did have some wrinkles around the back of the large tier and the tall cake.  I probably could have worked them out, but we decided not to spend more time on it (it was already 1am) since they were going to be covered with flowers.  In the end, Brooke and her family decided to wrap some pretty ribbon around the bases, pin them together with boutonniere pins and place the flowers on the tops only.  I really like how it turned out though....very clean and simple, but elegant at the same time.  I can now say I've done a wedding cake and add that to my resume.  I would love to take on some more cakes just like this and learn even more techniques/styles for wedding cakes.        

The tiered cake was made from Rice Krispie treats.  We used a small glass bowl in the top tier and formed the treat around the bowl.  It created a nice spot to place the flowers on the top.  Being that it was a Rice Krispie treat cake, it would have been hard to poke the flowers in otherwise.  The small cake, which was for the bride/groom is made out of vanilla cake with vanilla frosting.  The flowers were inserted right into the fondant to hold them in place.