My First Wedding Cake

A good friend of mine (and my trainer in the mission field) asked me to make her wedding cake.  She was a BRAVE bride considering I had only recently finished my cake classes and I have only ever made one other cake with fondant.  I accepted the challenge with excitment and a little nervousness.  The bride provided me with a picture of a cake that was similar to what she wanted and we changed the colors to fit her wedding colors.  2 weeks before the wedding I made several cakes, trying several different recipes, attempting to find the perfect one (dense enough to be stacked but moist enough to be yummy).  I finally found the perfect concoction and spent the week before the wedding making LOTS of cakes.  On the day of the reception Brad and I went into total cake mode (poor Chelsea was completely neglected while we worked on this cake).  We spent the entire day covering the cakes with fondant, stacking them and decorating them.  I will admit that I could not have completed this cake without my wonderful husband!  What a trooper.  He helped me every step of the way and I am soooo grateful.  Then came the hardest part...transporting the cake.  The reception site was about an hour a way and then we hit major traffic.  I was holding this probably 30 lb cake on my very pregnant lap in the back of our van for nearly 2 hours.  By the time we got to the reception the fondant had started to crack on several different places on the cake.  I could not wait to drop the sucker off! 

The whole experience was definitely a learning experience for me.  I learned several things that I would do differently next time and I learned that I have a lot left to learn.   In the end I feel like it was a very amature job and I have a long way to go before I reach "professional" level, BUT the bride seemed to be very pleased with her wedding cake and I guess that's really all that matters.  Thank goodness for the flowers that covered so many of the flaws and travel cracks!  I am so grateful for the opportunity I had to do this and use my new talent.  I appreciate my friend's willingness to trust me (thanks Tiff!) and look forward to learning more and to trying again.  Cake details:  3 tier cake (14", 12" & 8").  Yellow cake with chocolate mouse filling and chocolate buttercream icing.  Covered in white fondant.  Bottom tier had pink polka dots, middle tier had a pink ribbon around the middle and a smaller orange ribbon and bow in the middle of the pink one, and the top tier had orange polka dots.  Top of cake had an arrangement of orange and pink flowers.  Here are some pics of the "masterpiece".

This is a shot of the cake before all the flowers were added

And this is the FINISHED product...with all the flowers.  The flowers add so much I think!

Happy Bride = Happy Cake Maker!