The Wedding Cake

Normally around this time, I would be blogging about some cool Daring Bakers thing I made, but I didn't have time this month since I was kind of busy trying not to get engulfed by frosting. So if you're interested in this month's challenge, I'll redirect you to Hannah's blog. Go say hi, she's nice.

Anyway, wedding cake. I can't believe I did it. I'm honestly still kind of in shock. But you know what? I feel like I can conquer the world know. At least the baking world. I made a cake for one of the most important days of someone's life and it wasn't a disaster. In fact, people liked it. Really liked it. Sorry if I'm bragging. Getting a big head over one's achievements is unbecoming. I would love to show you some pictures if you would care to look! 

 

Some action shots my mom took. Thanks, mom! I'm looking kinda haggard at this point. If you're wondering what I'm doing, I was measuring a wooden dowel that I proceeded to saw down to size, then stick in the cake for structural stability.

Piping a border around the top layer of cake. Or at least, posing so it looks like I am. I'm sure my face would have been much more scrunched up and hideous if I was actually in the act of piping. The cake is sitting on a cake circle, which is on a non-slip shelf liner, which is on a pizza stone, which is on a turntable. Innovation!

The mostly decorated cake hanging out in the fridge. I'm freaking out at this point because I'm afraid some catastrophe could occur before the wedding, leaving me cakeless.

But it didn't! It survived! Hooray! I spent the twenty minute car ride in the backseat, hunched protectively over the cake. I should probably mention that the cake itself was vanilla with raspberry buttercream in the top layer, vanilla pastry cream in the middle, and chocolate ganache in the bottom. Yum.

The end. I'm so glad I now have this experience under my belt. If any of you are thinking of making a wedding cake and don't know where to start, I would highly recommend Heather's tutorial. It really helped me get a grasp of portion sizes, correct timelines, and other techniques.

350 Cupcakes

The masses have been getting antsy with my lack of posting. I apologize. This has been a weird summer for blogging. I came into it all inspired and motivated from my time abroad, only to find that I just...didn't have time for everything I had hoped to accomplish. Blogging got pushed to the side as I spent most of my weekdays working, too tired to blog by the time I got home. And my weekend baking aspirations had to be put on hold; instead I spent that time being shuttled back and forth from the Mayo Clinic (family health issues, I won't go into details). Now the summer is almost over and my posting level is at all all time low. Honestly? It scares me. I don't want the drudgeries of everyday life sucking out my will to bake and write. When life simply becomes a routine, it's time to stop and reassess. 

I won't say that I haven't accomplished anything. Some of you may know that two weekends ago I made 350 cupcakes for a wedding. It was one of the most fulfilling (and yeah, stressful) things I have ever done. I'm still a little in shock that I did it all by myself without any major disasters. The kitchen was coated in a fine layer of sugar for a few days after, but that was easily remedied. Would you like to see some pictures of my work? 

After all the cupcakes were made. Oy vey.

I am so happy that nothing collapsed, melted or got crushed on the car ride over or in the heat!

Looking much calmer than how I felt. Kind of a fake smile though.

So there you go. Keep your eyes open for more wedding cake, and more posts in general (I hope) in the future.