Another Wedding

My friends, Nerel and Diamant, got married yesterday. They asked me to make the wedding cake and do the desserts. It was my second wedding gig and fortunately, went off without a hitch. Most of the things I made were recipes that I have done before. I made this Flourless Chocolate Cake in little bite sized cups. I make these Vanilla Bean Cupcakes, but without the Nutella filling because they were mini ones. And I tried a new recipe for mini Lemon Cupcakes and the actual wedding cake. This lemon poundcake recipe was so delicious. In fact, Nerel told everyone a couple of times how yummy it is and encouraged them all to dig in to the wedding cake, which would have been great except that the wedding cake was just a little cake for them to cut and the actual dessert were the cupcakes. Three people asked me for my business card. It is really too bad that I have no desire to bake full time as a profession because all of these weddings, baby showers, and birthdays lead to some serious networking and word of mouth advertising. But as it is, I plan on just sticking to friends and the occasional friend of a friend.

Here is the recipe:

Lemon Pound Cake

Ingredients:

2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 1/2 cups sugar

4 extra-large eggs, at room temperature

1/3 cup grated lemon zest (4 large lemons)

3 cups flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. kosher salt

1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tsp. vanilla

3/4 cup buttermilk, at room temperature

Frosting:

1 cup Crisco shortening

1/2 cup butter

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. lemon extract

1/2 cup milk

2 lb. powdered sugar

1/8 tsp. of salt

1 tsp. meringue powder

Directions:
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two pans, and line the bottoms with parchment paper.
Cream butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment for about 5 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Mixing at medium speed, add eggs, one at a time, and lemon zest.
Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. In another bowl, combine lemon juice, buttermilk and vanilla. Add flour and buttermilk mixtures alternately to butter and sugar mixture, beginning and ending with flour. Divide batter evenly between pans, smooth tops, and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until a cake tester comes out clean.

Frosting:

Cream shortening and butter until creamy. Add vanilla, extract and milk. Add salt and meringue powder. Add powdered sugar one cup at a time until all ingredients have been thoroughly mixed together and the icing is creamy.

Diamant asked for the cake to be decorated with succulents which I think looks so unique and pretty. I didn't get any close up pictures of the mini desserts, but they were cute. Oh well, here is the cake and the dessert table. 

The wedding itself was beautiful. Diamant is incredibly crafty and everything down to the tiniest detail was thoughtful and gorgeous. It was also so fun to see how a community of friends can come together and combine their talents and connections to contribute to a pretty great party. I love my community! 

I think the best moment though, was during the first dance. It was a slow song, and Nerel and Diamant were dancing for the first time as husband and wife, it was so romantic. Until... 2 year old Keaton (son of my friends, Trevor and Kelly) stripped off all of his clothes and streaked through the dance floor. It was the funniest moment! And someone even got it on camera. (Censored for our viewers) 

All in all, it was a great day. Congrats again to Nerel and Diamant!