Wedding Cake: Andrea Montgomery

Happy Sunday!  If you’ve been following my blog, you know that I made my cousin’s wedding cake yesterday and drove it to Indiana (about a four hour drive from Nashville). 

I built a contraption to keep the cake cool on the drive so it didn’t fall.  This was important because as the butter in the cake gets warm, the cake becomes very soft and can slowly slump.  Usually this isn’t a problem because by the time the cake gets really warm, it’s time to cut it.  But since I was going to be driving for four hours on top of the usual time during the ceremony and reception, I needed to keep the cake cold on the drive.  You can see last week’s post for exact details of my invention. 

I am very happy to report that it worked beautifully!!  The cake was still in perfect condition when we got to the venue.

The ceremony and reception were at the beautiful Granary in New Harmony Indiana.  The town was so charming and the location itself was one of the most attractive wedding venues I’ve ever seen.  My cousin’s theme was butterflies, which fit perfectly with the natural character of the Granary.

The cake was to be an ivory background with lace clusters cascading down the tiers.  We later changed the lace design from the original inspiration in my sketch to match the lace on the bodice of her dress.

After all the cakes were baked, the first step in the decorating process was to cover each tier with ivory fondant.  The fondant is rolled out fairy thin, 

Then carefully laid over the tier and slowly smoothed down the sides.  This is probably the trickiest step for me.  You have work carefully to avoid puckers in the fondant.

Once all the tiers are covered, they are ready to be stacked.  Like all cake decorators, I use wooden dowels inserted into the cake to support it.  That way each tier is resting on the dowels, not on the actual cake below.  I then push a larger dowel through the middle to keep the cakes from sliding around.

Here it is with all three tiers before it decorated. 

I piped the design in magenta colored royal icing, and used a paint brush to drag in the icing a little bit to create a lacier look.  This makes a really neat textured look.  I have used it several times before, but never with a colored icing.  I have always done it with white or ivory on a similar background.  I really liked the affect with a dramatic color.

The design had to be piped on all three tiers.  Each is slightly different and highlights a different floral arrangement from her dress.

After the cake was decorated, we loaded it up in the van using my cake cooler.  I was a nervous wreck the whole time!  But, we checked it once halfway there, the dry ice seemed to be doing its job so I relaxed....but just a little bit. :)

Once we got the reception, I added some butterflies to complete the design and tie it in with her theme. 

All in all, it was a very successful adventure.  I was so happy with the cake and with my invention.  And the wedding was sooo beautiful.  Events like this are why I love what I do!