It’s done

Wow.  Never thought you could learn so much from your first wedding cake.  It’s now 2AM and the kitchen is finally cleaned up from the mess that was my kitchen:

Notice the now almost empty 20 pound bucket of spackle, er, rolled fondant on the island.

In total, it probably took me about 20 solid hours to complete this project.  I’ve picked up on some useful tips to save me probably at least 5 hours should I ever be hired for a wedding cake again.   I’m just hoping that I’ll have the energy to dance at the wedding!

Here are images from the construction, I wanted to do a time lapse but we didn’t have the right equipment for it.  I will add the top tier when I get there (you can see it in the background of the last picture):

Yes, building this even came to a point where I had to use a hammer.  And no, the cake isn’t as hard as concrete.

Each tier sits on a cardboard plate, supported with wooden dowels that my husband whittled down to size.  The design is based on one the bride gave me, inspired by the traditional henna for Indian weddings.  It feeds about 220 not including the top tier, which I have the responsibility of collecting post-wedding to store for the happy couple when they return from their honeymoon.

Flavor combinations: Top & 3rd tier – chocolate Kahlua cake with chocolate buttercream; 2nd tier – vanilla cake with strawberry jam filling and vanilla buttercream icing; 4th tier – vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream.

Meltdown 1: Covering the larger tiers with fondant and taking 3 hours to figure out how to avoid completely cracking the edges.  I happened to have just enough so that I didn’t have to panic when I had to throw a few pounds of fondant away because it cracked.  Shortening and slight chilling pre-fondant helped.

Meltdown 2: Colliding with husband and dropping half the soaking syrup onto one of the tiers.  Luckily the cake held its shape and should just be very moist.

Next obstacle: Delivery in a 4-door sedan two hours away.  Wish me luck!