Planning Another Wedding Cake

Sketching and planning the cake.

My friend and fellow Wednesday Community Meal volunteer Jeff is getting married later this month and I have the privilege of making the wedding cake.

He and his fiance are so nice and very easy going. I'm going to make a four-tiered cake and a two layer 14-inch cake and decorate them with fresh flowers. This past Tuesday, I put in my order for the flowers (roses, dahlias and mums) at my neighborhood florist.

Last month, the couple chose a few cake flavors to taste and decided upon pumpkin cake filled with dark chocolate ganache and cream cheese frosting. I teased Jeff that pumpkin was more suited for a Fall wedding but he said, "I don't care. We like pumpkin."

Jeff's right. The bride and groom should get what they want and I have to admit, the combination of cinnamon spiced pumpkin and dark chocolate was pretty great and the pumpkin made the cake super moist. Jeff did agree that the extra 14-inch cake should be vanilla raspberry as another option.

My mission is to please the bride and groom.

Wedding Week

I'm making a wedding cake for a reception this coming Saturday so this week has been busy busy busy.

Making a wedding cake means more than just baking a cake and adding frosting. Presentation matters a lot and it takes time and careful consideration.

Without giving away too much about the design (I want Nathan to be surprised), here are a few snapshots of what I've been up to so far this week.

Monday: Making the cake decorations. Here, I'm getting ready to cut blue birds out of tinted sugar cookie dough.

Tuesday: Shopping for cake ingredients. This was what my cart looked like even before I hit the butter department.

Tuesday Night: Adding muslin fabric and ribbon to 16-inch wooden rounds that will act as cake bases. I'm making a four-tiered wedding cake and three additional two layer 14-inch cakes so I had to make four cake bases.

Wednesday: Making the fresh strawberry filling for the cake.