Wedding Cake Challenge

I've often said that I have creative ADD.  It all started with sewing with my grandmother when I was little, then drawing and watercolor in highschool, then scrapbooking and card making, cake decorating, jewelry making, acyrlic painting, and collage.  While this may seem like a progression, it's actually compounded.  I never realize how bad it had gotten until I was asked to make a wedding cake for my cousin.

I haven't made a cake in a couple of years, so I had to dig out all of my tools and supplies.  I mean literally dig.  My 10 x 11 studio/home office houses all of my hobby supplies along with my coupon collection and business books (I'm also an accountant).  So, out came the paint and paper scraps and the rolly cart with all my beads and wire.  Then, I had to push aside the fabric scraps and collection of "I-can-do-something-with-this" items.  Finally, I found my cart of cake decorating supplies, fondant, and icing sugar.

Now, time to make the cake.  I actually had the cakes baked by Publix.  This was going to be a monster 4-tier cake, and I didn't have the right pans to make every tier.  The bride and groom left all of the planning to the groom's mother, my first cousin.  So, I had complete freedom on the cake design.  I wanted it to be elegant but simple.  I found an awesome technique on I am Baker for a rose cake.  This is the simplest technique imaginable and it was just the wow-factor my cake needed.

The 6" tiers were alternating chocolate cake with raspberry mousse filling and white cake with lemon curd filling.  All of the layers were iced with homemade buttercream.  The bottom and third layers were covered with fondant with a fondant belt embellishment. 

It's obviously not a professional job, but everyone thought it was beautiful and delicious.  I'm on a gluten-free/ sugar-free diet, so I didn't actually get a piece.  My wonderful husband was so great to help me with the fondant, delivery, and set-up.  But, strongly urged me to never do a cake this size again :).  I will say that if you decorate cakes or want to learn, check out Sweet Wise.  They have awesome technique videos on YouTube and you can order online from their store.  I'm lucky to live about 45 minutes from them and have taken several of their classes.  One thing that I cannot live without is The Mat which the owners actually invented.

Now, time to go put everything in my studio back in its place.