My Daughter's wedding
by Colleen Charles
(Clark Lake, MI)
Wedding Cake for my daughter Andrea
SweetCakes and CheeseCakes
We began to plan this cake at about 4 months before her wedding August 25th She wanted a Calla Lily theme (her wedding flowers) and the colors were royal blue and white. We went back and forth with several themes and she finally found one she liked and that I liked since I was making it!
It was a very simple cake, 12, 9, 6 with cakes surrounding the bottom. It was covered in white fondant and had Calla Lily bouquets on top and on the surrounding cakes.
Cake Flavors
Her flavors were not hard to decide-Strawberry Berry on the bottom(my recipe), Buttermilk Chocolate (your recipe of course), Vanilla Bean (Buddy Cake Boss recipe).
The seven, 8 inch surrounding cakes, were all different flavors to please everyone in the family. Lemon with Raspberry filling, Vanilla Bean, White Almond Sour Cream, Buttermilk chocolate with Peanut Butter Mousse and another with Cream filling, Red Velvet with Cream Cheese filling and a Strawberry layer Buttermilk Chocolate layer mixed with Cream filling. I had enough batter from the larger cakes for a smaller layer each so I thought what the heck, Strawberry and Chocolate go great together and they did!!
The Groom's Tuxedo Cake was your
Chocolate Stout Cake made with Double Chocolate Stout and Mackinaw Island Fudge Stout with whipped Ganache filling and Chocolate Ganache poured over it all. The lapels, shirt and buttons were made out of candy clay.
The Adornments
I started the Calla Lily bouquets on each of the cakes about 4 weeks ahead. I made 65 Calla Lilies out of gumpaste and 65 stamens. The stamens were out of yellow fondant and I rolled them in yellow colored sugar crystals on them. It was a tedious job and I learned as I went.
I bought Wilton formers, another brand and also used pointed drinking cups. Out of the 3, the Wilton ones were nice, but small, the cup ones were larger and a different shape. I don't like things to look all the same so I went with the flow.
Both of them needed to dry well before putting them together and I used tylose glue and a paintbrush. I hung some upside down but I found the best way was to cut a hole in the
top of the cup (they are a triangle shape and got them at the water store, 5oz) and sit the whole lily in upright. I found some of the ones I hung upside down had a little yellow drip from the stamens from the glue.
Putting the Bouquets together
I laid the lilies out on the table and wanted 5 to a group so I mixed and matched sizes and then used florists tape to wire them together. I added blue and white ribbons, small bows and later decided to add some blue flowers. The topper for the cake I made larger and added some glitz and a feather. She was wearing a feather with her veil and it made the topper! I made 13 small bouquets and 1 large topper.
TIP: I put a triangle shaped piece of parchment paper under each bouquet when I placed them on the cake so they wouldn’t get soggy; worked like a charm.
Icing on the cakes
I used Italian Meringue Buttercream for all of the cakes except the Grooms cake; used a Dark Chocolate Ganache. I added edible pearls to her cakes and edible glitter at the end.
Wedding Cake fest!
The caterers had a large cart waiting for me when we brought the cakes and they were standing around watching me put it together on the table.
They were hoping for a cake tower they said lol Told them sorry, just a bunch of cakes...They all asked for a piece of cake and I received many compliments from all of the staff. The events planner asked for my business information.
There were about 115 people at the wedding and I had a line at the cake table when I started taking the cake apart. I used the
Cake Stackers system, so taking it apart was a breeze.
I brought a few to-go containers (which I’ve learned is great advertisement when people ask to take home more cake). Matter of fact the Minister came up to me when he and his wife were leaving and told me ‘I go to a lot of weddings and never eat cake because it is so blahhh. I had 2 pieces of yours and can I take one home!!” There wasn’t a crumb left and I had one piece to bring home for me…….
