Although I do specialize in fondant cakes, there’s something about a buttercream covered dessert that feels soft and romantic.
When done well, a buttercream has a light and smooth texture to it. Creamy but not overly sweet, allowing the flavours of the cake below it to punch through and mix in your mouth in a perfect balance.
Whether texturized with a palette knife, patterned with a cake comb or scraped to reveal the cake underneath, the decorating opportunities are endless with this finish.
My timelines with regard to this blog are not always met. In fact, this post is over a year coming. But my nephew’s first year anniversary (even that is not on time as it was a few weeks ago lol) seemed like a great time to create the blog post for his wedding cake.
Is this my favourite cake I’ve ever done? Well, it’s hard to beat the cakes you make for family. Because in addition to meeting a theme or vision from a family member, they always have a little extra love in them. And if size is anything to go by, this one had a LOT more love than most!
In reality this 5-tiered cake creation was actually a 6-tiered cake with one double barrelled tier. (A double barrel is really two cakes in one, separated by a cake board and dowelling.) It had 3 separate flavours; chocolate, chocolate-oreo-vanilla, and lavender-lemon, and each tier was a different height, adding to the drama.
Two separate cascades of handcrafted sugar flowers took 12 hours to make, with the cake being a total of 43 hours, and a South Africa Protea was included as a nod to the bride’s roots. An edible gold monogram lay on the 2nd tier, with a gold edged set of fondant ruffles on the bottom.
Were the couple happy with the end result? Well, I may have welled up as my sweet nephew choked up while looking my way to say thank you, prompting his beautiful bride to comment “What Kyle means is, we love the cake”. I love you too buddy 🙂
Happy Anniversary Kyle and Michelle! Wishing you God’s richest blessings and many, many more years ahead.
Back in February (you remember February right? It was that time where you could go to malls and museums, and didn’t worry about how often you needed the bathroom …. yeah THAT February!) I was asked to do a Cake tutorial at the Illuminate women’s conference here in Victoria.
About 250 women would be attending and my session was titled ‘How to Hack a Supermarket Cake’. “PERFECT!” I said. After all, this was right in my wheelhouse. I love teaching, I love women and I love to laugh with friends. The bigger the crowd, the better. A perfect environment for an extroverted Cake-lover.
“And how much time do I have?” I asked with anticipation.
“Ten minutes.”
GULP.
I clearly looked surprised because immediately “Well, we can probably give you Fifteen” was extended and like a free offer of unlimited toilet paper I TOOK IT!
So, for those of you who have been asking, here is the full session.
Full Disclosure:
This is not suitable if you a) are attached to perfectionism; b) don’t like to laugh; c) can’t ‘listen quickly’ because it was done – VERY. FAST.
