Brace yourself. This is a long entry!
Today I am excited to say that Deanna and Jason got married. The fall weather felt more like summer. We had sunshine and 22 degrees with a bit of a breeze. The couple looked amazing and so in love. It was truly a blessing to be a part of their wedding day.
But this cake.. whew.... did it ever stress me out. Not because D and J wanted anything too extravagant or because they were demanding in anyway shape or form but because it was a crazy week where everything just seemed to go wrong. Some weeks I think He tests us more than others and this week was challenge to say the least. From the first cakes out of the pan, overfilled just enough to make them tricky to get out of the pan, but thankfully not enough to make a mess of my oven, I had a feeling this wasn't going to go smoothly. The middle tier was a mess and I had to glue it together with icing. Every layer had at least one cake that stuck to the pan, which rarely happens to me!!
Round 1. Deanna had mentioned that she doesn't really like fondant and the cake she wanted I discovered was actually covered in white modelling chocolate. Perfect. So out I went and bought a very large quantity of white chocolate and armed with my corn syrup and several blogs of advice I went about making my modelling chocolate. Now I've made it before, but usually with melting candy and not actual chocolate. Candy coating is much much much more forgiving. I spent a good deal of time tempering my chocolate but in my usual rush to do things as fast as I can I didn't wait for it to cool enough before adding the syrup. As a result the chocolate hemorrhaged oil all over my stove top where I like to knead things... So back to the craft store I went and bought a ton of white chocolate melting wafers.
Round 2 of Sandy vs. the modelling chocolate I won. I iced the cake and began putting the modelling chocolate on with 4" wide stripes. They didn't want to stick.... But I figured I could mash them on there good enough and moved on to the decorating.... The image Deanna showed me was an elegant white cake with abstract chocolate brown streaks on it and brown chocolate roses. I tried to paint on the streaks and it really looked as if one of my kids got into the chocolate and covered the cake in... um... poop....
After a mild panic attack (okay major panic attack) I peeled off all the white chocolate, flipped it over and reapplied some to the smallest tier. Yup. You could still see the streaks. So I peeled it off again and silently screamed in my head as I threw out 5 lbs of chocolate. This was at 11pm on Wednesday night.
Round 3. Thursday morning after very little sleep I got up early and baked 8 dozen cupcakes for different orders and set about icing them knowing I would have time to make icing for half of them (one order) before taking the smalls to school. This was when my mixer decided to give up on me... IN THE MIDDLE OF MAKING ICING. That's when I cried. It's also when my boss called to see if I could pick up extra shifts. I think I may have scared her a little. I don't normally freak out like that; sorry about that Karen!
Round 4. Smalls dropped at school, 4 dozen cupcakes deposited at customer's house, a Starbucks down the hatch and a very speedy drive into the city for a new mixer (She is hot pink. I named her Barbie!) and yet another trip to the craft store for MORE chocolate I was home and feeling rather sick that this just wasn't going to happen for me at ALL.
Round 5. I finally win. The key to getting the chocolate to stick was smaller stripes. Deanna thankfully let me let me abandon the streaks for which I was going to need a dough roller for and the result was the prettiest cake I think I have ever made. It is a 3 tier chocolate and vanilla cake covered in over 5lbs of chocolate, (which I would like to point out weighs as much as some of my friends' babies at birth...) accented with hot pink and brown roses and pretty ribbon. I bet by now those of you who were not at the wedding would like to see this cake yes? Here it is!
That is thankfully the end of this story! From what I could observe as I cut the cake up for the happy couple everyone enjoyed the cake. It isn't often that I get to see the cake being eaten or actually cut the cake up so I enjoyed serving the cake for a change. I do hope that D and J actually got to eat some today. I think they were a little busy....
Deanna and Jason I wish you a lifetime of happiness, thank you for letting me be a part of today!
And now I have a week off to prep for a crazy 3 cake week! I can't tell you everything coming up because some are surprises but I hope you have a fabulous few weeks!
Valley Girl (happy but exhausted)
