The Debut (& Grand Finale) in Detail . . .

The promised photo docu-drama from beginning to end:

More cake batter than I have ever made at one time in my entire life. I made triple chocolate fudge cake with chocolate fudge filling and buttercream icing.

Getting ready to go in the oven--eeeeek!

They actually turned out, what do you know?!?

I made the base of the cake out of rice crispies (instead of styrofoam) and oh.my.goodness. It took 6 bags of marshmallows, 4 boxes of rice crispies, 1 1/2 lbs. of butter and 6 teaspoons of my precious Madagascar vanilla. I had no idea. Next time I'll probably just use the styrofoam, but at least the rice crispies were edible!

All wrapped and ready for the next phase.

I cut and filled the cakes with chocolate fudge filling.

Icing the cake with butter & vanilla buttercream. Well, it was supposed to be butter and vanilla buttercream, but I accidently added a nice little lemony zest and wasn't about to throw away all that icing. It actually tasted great and the next batch that went over the rice crispies really was the requested butter and vanilla buttercream. :)

Icing the rice crispies, and no, I did not really lick the spatula!

Then Anita (the main reason why the cake looks good) came over the night before the wedding and helped make my icing smooth and roll out the fondant.

Hooray, thank you Anita!!!! Now they are covered in fondant and just waiting to make the 1+ hour drive to the reception the next morning.

I never had such a nerve-racking ride. I was quite glad Heaven answered my pleas and the cakes were all intact when we got there.

We set the cakes and stuff out and were ready to go. We left for the wedding and then came back to decorate the cake for the reception afterwards.

When we came back I put in the dowels, stacked the cakes and added the brown satin ribbon along the bottom of each cake.

Then I added her sculpture along with a couple of thinner ribbons that matched the bridesmaid's dresses running across the top.

It's ready to go out onto the table and put on the rose petals in her wedding colors! Miss J said I look "freaky" in this picture, sorry. :)

Side view of the masterpiece.

Other side view (don't mind the iron and ironing board for the tablecloths).

So, with Heaven's (and Anita's) help, we had ourselves a nice little wedding cake. :) Whew!

Fondant Attempt #2

The almost finished product:

So, remember how I vowed never to use fondant again? Well, time has a way of helping me forget pain and suffering, and I tried Ashlee's fondant recipe so I could practice. (Ashlee is the amazingly talented owner of the Bitter Sweet Cake Shop in Texas). I had never made my own and wanted to try it out. Thanks Ashlee, I really wish you were here! :) I have come to the conclusion, once again, that this cake making, baking, cleaning up, frosting making, cleaning up, fondanting, cleaning up, decorating, and cleaning up, etc . . . is not my cup of tea (herbal of course). It takes SO long and it doesn't even look good yet! I guess practice makes perfect, but sheesh getting to the practicing part takes for-ever. This little 6 inch & 8 inch cake project took 2 days. There is a reason--besides the minor detail about "lack of talent"--that I will never ever EVER be in the cake decorating business. :) To top it all off, the reason I was practicing with the fondant is because I told my cousin that I would make her wedding cake for next weekend; what on earth was I thinking?!

My assistant Miss J took the first 3 pictures because my hands were otherwise occupied.

Yummy Strawberry Cake--Course II Final

Never Again!

While I was attempting my first fondant cake (without reading the directions I might add), I vowed never to do it again. After class and realizing a few things I did wrong,
I just might attempt it again when I get a chance.

My first fondant rose being held by one of my favorite assistants.

See, it had the potential to be cute, but alas, no time.

Look quick Melissa, before I delete it so no else sees the hideousity!!

So, the flowers I ended up making for the cake were daisies, roses, pansies, apple blossoms, and violets. Then I added some more chrysanthemums (minus the ones I dropped and broke!), leaves, 2 colorflow birds and a colorflow butterfly.

My blank canvas eagerly awaiting its art. :)

Ta-da!

And another shot closer up.

Don't forget that this little basket weave was a first attempt (and so was the border). Next time I'll go a little slower and hopefully it won't look like a 50 year old dilapidated farm fence.A couple of pictures from the back of the cake.

I can't believe I really make these just to get cut up and eaten! That's why I have to take (and bore everybody except my parents with) so many pictures.

One painful slice out, many more to go. :)

And one last photo of my beautiful fresh spring bouquet before we ate it. And actually, with my newly acquired frosting recipe (thanks sister B), it tasted quite delicious.