Wedding Cake!

I am so glad that's over.  Remind me, the next time someone asks me to do a party cake, not to do it in someone else's kitchen in another state.

The experience was not altogether bad.  I learned that I can bake five layer cakes in four hours.  It took another four or so to ice them the next day.  I adjusted to the oven and appliances very quickly.  The groom very generously got out everything I needed the evening before, so I wouldn't have to hunt.  He was surprised how much I didn't need because it was in the box.

Emma the cat hated me.  Her favorite spot is the kitchen window, and here I was invading her personal space.  I'm surprised she didn't draw blood, since she swatted at me half the time I washed my hands.  We ended up storing the un-iced cakes in the car overnight so she couldn't get into them.

Really, the only thing I didn't like about their kitchen was lack of freezer space.  One of the kids moved around enough in the fridge to chill one cake at a time, but there was zero freezer space.  This was only a problem when I got to the red cake and accidentally made a soft batch of frosting.  Even after making it firmer, most slid off in the car on the way to the hotel and I had to re-pipe about 2/3 of the rosettes.  That's why I brought my decorating supplies and a bag of frosting with me.

Oh, other learning experience is that a 3-pack of shortening is 3 cups, not 6.  I was thinking it was the same as a pound of butter.  I also miscounted the powdered sugar.  Fortunately, the groom was headed to the store and I just gave him some money to tack on my groceries.  He got back just as I had used the scrapings to fill his Groom's Cake.  I wasn't all that short, and now he has ingredients for his own cakes.  I exactly estimated the first box of cake flour to run out half a cup short of cake #4.  Yay me.

I miss Wal-Mart.  It may be evil in some communities, but the ingredients sure were cheap.  The first trip was only $37, and round two of frosting ingredients was barely $10.  I'm not a brand snob.  Hens lay eggs and butter comes from cows.  The only brand name item I bought was the cake flour, because there are only two brands.  I have never encountered a generic version of it.  Oh, and the lemon curd was Bonne Maman because that was the only kind on the shelf.  Not as good as mine, but zero time or effort.

I was the only person in the hotel prep kitchen the morning of the wedding, so I spread out to fix the cakes.  After having three square feet to mix icing and frost in the apartment, it felt really good.  When it came time to set up, the hotel provided a central cake stand.  I flipped over two cake pans and covered them with cloth to support the side cakes, and the Groom's cake was table-height on the other side.  When the extra bridesmaid bouquet was placed in front, I realized it exactly matched the design on the cakes.  The whole time we were wrapping the bouquets in ribbon, I never noticed.

Everyone said they liked the freshness of the cakes.  Sure, because they'd never been in the freezer like they were supposed to.  Also, they were only two days old instead of the usual 5-8 when you order them from a bakery.  The bride and groom forgot to save the 6" lemon for their anniversary cake and ate it the next day.  There wasn't any room for it in the freezer anyway.  I'm not going back next year to make them another one.

Recipes and Techniques Used to Make the Cakes
Vanilla Chiffon Cake
Lemon Layer Cake
Strawberry Cake (sub blackberries)
Buttercream Frosting
Spider/Mummy Cake
Strawberry Rosette Cake