Drudgery, Drama, and Dessert: The blog you have all been waiting for... THE WEDDING CAKE

Today was Dave and Ellie's wedding. It was absolutely beautiful. The weather couldn't have been more perfect. I was a bit worried about it being hot since it was about thirty minutes inland and the weather channel was predicting mid-80's. Fortunately, it was in the low 70's and very comfortable. Their colors were variances of greens, beiges, and golds... very Fall-like. They got married in a beautiful park under a HUGE tree and there were leaves all over the ground. It couldn't have felt Fallier. (yes, I just made up a word, when you have your own blog, you can do that)

Anyway, as you know, I made the wedding cake for their big day. It was my first wedding cake and I was very nervous about it. I mean, when I really think about it, a wedding cake is simply a few normal cakes that you put on top of each other, no big deal. But I guess the fact that it is a WEDDING and the fact that I have never done one before put a bit of pressure on. I really didn't want to screw up! Especially since I offered to make the cake for them, I would have hated if that was the one flop among an otherwise magical day.

I am happy to say that it turned out perfectly! It came together to be just what Dave and Ellie asked for and exactly how I pictured it in my mind. I made the leaves out of gum-paste, which is like sweet, edible, play dough that hardens when it dries. The colors of the leaves turned out to be really complimentary to the wedding colors. I gave the cake some vertical texture on the sides because when we were looking at inspiration pictures, Dave and Ellie really liked that look. I used a slice of a tree trunk as the base for the cake because it gave it a rustic look and fit in perfectly with the feel of the wedding.

Anyway, enough description of the cake, I will just show you the pictures:

Here are the gum-paste leaves before they were scattered on the cake. These were definitely the most time consuming part of the cake. I probably spent 7-8 hours in total making them. I love how they turned out though, very natural!

There were only 18 pieces left which was great! A lot of times, there is a LOT of leftover cake and I was a little worried that there would be a lot of waste.

There were two flavors, chocolate with raspberry mousse filling and red velvet with cream cheese filling. Both turned out well and both were a big hit! All in all, my first wedding cake experience was great! I am so glad I was able to give this to Dave and Ellie and SO glad that it turned out well. YAY!