The Wedding Cake: Part 1

Ah, young love. And what better way to celebrate... than with cake? A wedding cake!

Congratulations to Jess and Eric! This past Saturday I witnessed, Jessica - a fellow design nerd and friend who I met through university - walk down the aisle and be wed to her longtime sweetheart, Eric. It was the sweetest wedding that perfectly complimented the couple themselves. To top it all off, I had the honour of making their wedding cake in celebration of their big day! It was my first time making a wedding cake, and I was thrilled to have the chance to put my cake-making skills into real world (wedding) action.


It was a collaborative project, with Winnie (a mutual design friend) art directing her talented aunt to make the gorgeous bird wedding toppers, and myself making the cake. Needlesstosay, this cake would not have been able to happen without the HUGE help I got from some very key people: my dad (shopper of groceries), James (personal assistant, cake transporter, and skilled dowel-cutter), and my mom (the ultimate cleaner-upper who saved the kitchen from becoming a complete minefield). Thank you all so much! Thanks also to Susie and Andrew Yang for letting me store the cake at their beautiful new home, so we would've have to circle back and forth commuting.

So was it hard? Yes. Was it time-consuming? Yes. Was it fun? Yes. Would I do it all over again? Definitely, yes!



The inspiration for the cake came from Jess' custom made wedding invite, which she, of course, made herself. For those of you who don't know, Jess is a mega-super talented, detail-orientated, crazy hard working designer who seems to be able to churn out jaw-dropping, meticulous designs on very little sleep. She has won numerous awards from Adobe and Applied Arts, and rightly so. I've always been amazed and inspired by both her work and her work ethic, and often like to shamelessly promote her amazing skills, since she is too modest to do so herself. :)




Isn't her invite gorgeous? From the perfect hand-lettering to the cute bird motifs, it was so creative and so very "Jess". Her theme was appropriately based on the verse Ecclesiastes 3:1-7, "A Time for Everything", as she and Eric had met through church and had been dating for a long, long time, since early high school. For more amazing Jess work, visit her portfolio site here: http://www.jessatwork.com/

The couple had requested a green tea flavoured cake, which was perfect, seeing as their wedding colours were light pastel green and yellow. Based on the details of her invite, I sketched up plans for a two-tier wedding cake that would alternate layers of green tea and vanilla cake, with a cream cheese filling and a vanilla buttercream exterior.



So, that was uh, the initial plan. Did it follow through? Nope. Not exactly. It was my first time creating a tiered cake and I would be lying if I said that I knew what I was getting myself into. Did it turn all right in the end? Thankfully, yes. Perfect? No way. But it tasted awesome and was so well-recieved at the reception, and by Jess and Eric that I was practically beaming the whole night away. That being said, I learned a few key things along the way...



Lesson learned #1: Plan, plan, plan. Holy moly, I can now never underestimate the importance and critical value of planning and preparing in advance. My usual spontaneous, impromptu cake-making self took a hard hit when I hit a few planning potholes. Note to self: Take considerably more time beforehand to figure out exactly what I need, when to get it all, when to bake, how to transport, where to store, and so on, to prevent last-minute freak-outs, anxiety attacks, and under eye-baggage.



Lessons learned #2: Make a test cake. Um, so although this sounds like a no-brainer, I am guilty as charged. One of the main issues I had with the cake was the frosting. The issue was that I needed a buttercream that would taste good (not too sweet), pipe well, and be able to sit at room temperature for at least half a day. My attempt to make a swiss meringue buttercream a few days prior did not go over well at all, so I settled for a cooked milk-and-flour buttercream instead that I made on the night before, thinking it would work fine. This also refused to cooperate and left me with a watery mess and unsightly air pockets. *pulls hair out*. Lucky for me, I managed to fix my consistency issues by mixing together the buttercream frosting with the cream cheese one.




Lesson learned #3: Do your research. So who knew that cardboard cake rounds could cause so much grief? You see, the base of the cake tiers are supported by cardboard rounds that sit on wooden dowels inserted into the cake. I somehow either managed to buy rounds that were too big, or did not put enough frosting on the sides of the cake to match the size. I also got very, very confused with the top tier, ended up making the wrong cake size, and had the base poking out from the bottom. To top it all off, the cardboard was too thick to be able to pierce with the central dowel! Baaahhhhhhh... Well, somehow I managed to fix all the issues, but next time, I will just do my research before hand and buy the proper cardboard rounds!

The cake making process took place over a span of two days, as decorations would be piped on site at the reception hall. It was a long day of baking, stacking, icing, and doweling, and I went to bed that night exhausted yet happy.