I love the idea of weddings, two people madly in love and starting a new life together. And what better way to celebrate that new life then with cake? Two colleagues got married in the last few weeks and asked if I wanted to make their wedding cake, I felt very honored as an amateur baker to be part of their special day.
The first cake was for Amy, she wanted a simple two tier cake with red and white roses. It was a bit of a rushed job as I only had two days to make it, I almost lost it when the second chocolate layer of the cake broke in two as I was crumb coating it. In a fit of frustration, I crumbled the whole lot and threw them to the monkeys to enjoy.
After cooling off in the bedroom for half an hour (aircon in living room was not working) with a tall cold glass of coke and getting sympathy hugs from the cats, it was time to start again. Many many hours later, in the early hours of the night, I finally made a cake I was very proud of.
Love the combination of red and white base with red and white roses! So beautiful.
The second cake was a bit more ambitious. I decided to try and do a three tier cake and since the bride wanted a pink and white theme, I thought it would be nice if I made alternating layers of strawberry and vanilla cake. On the first day, I baked 6 layers of cake and 17 cupcakes but every layer turned out beautifully. No split layers here!
The first tier is about 6 inches in diameter, the second 8 inches and the bottom layer 10 inches. On the second day, after the layers had completely cooled, I covered the whole thing is vanilla butter cream and sandwiched each layer with strawberry jam and cream.
I was feeling quite happy at this point with the progress I had made until a last minute family function was sprung on me. Family comes first so I steeled myself for a very late night to finish the cake in time as I had to send it to the bride’s house the next day.
It was almost 10pm by the time I arrived home and I thought I would get everything done quickly. Not true 
I made my fondant five hours earlier thinking I would save time later that night but when I rolled it out and covered the cake, it was far too dry and kept cracking in the edges. I kneaded the fondant with yet more shortening but it didn’t help! In the end I threw away the 2 kilos of fondant and made a new batch. The freshly made fondant was a lot more cooperative and I covered the biggest cake easily!
I still find it quite hard to get a sharp defined edge around the cake, must do a bit of research on this.
3 am, all three cakes covered and stacked! I had to get Pete to do the ribbons for me as by now, my hands were shaking a bit too much. Now came my favourite bit, to place the sugar roses delicately on the cake.
Some more pictures of my very first three tier cake 
4am and finally crashed into bed, satisfied. Pete however, bleary-eyed and itching after I covered the bed in a layer of icing sugar…. was not.
