Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Tiers of joy

The most dangerous food is wedding cake. James Thurber.

By the end of this post, you will be forced to concede that this title is a clever one.
Yes, you will.

So, what exactly does it take to make a four-layer wedding cake, twelve hundred miles from home?

1. Five pounds of butter
2. Four dozen eggs.
3. A can of cherry pie filling.

4. Three chocolate cake mixes.

5. Half a gallon of heavy whipping cream.
6. Five pounds of flour.
7. A large amount of cocoa powder, baking chocolate, and chocolate chips.

8. Buttermilk.
9. Four pounds of sugar.

10. The well-stocked kitchen of a new friend.

12. Ten pounds of powdered sugar.

13. Some Dove Promises, lovingly shaved and applied to the bride and groom's layer. By the bride.

14. Ten hours.
15. Two more friends to shave and apply chocolate to the 12" layer. (Thank you to Shauna and Pam from my poor, cramping hands.)

16. A rag-curled princess to watch over the proceedings.

17. And a cousin of the bride to apply flowers to the assembled cake.

As the bride walked past the cake, she waved her royal hand and pronounced that it needed a big flower on top.
The task was duly accomplished, in a surprising way, which will have to be published later as I missed the photo.

The suspense is killing you, I know.


EDIT: I cropped this out of one of the official wedding photos, so it's not very good resolution. The flower on top is an ornamental kale, with a couple of roses.
Probably the only wedding cake to ever be topped with kale.
Sam's purple was gorgeous.
And one of the less unflattering photos of moi and spouse.


7 comments:

  1. Should have had you around when my youngest got married! Hers had a distinctive tower of pisa tilt to it...btw, she went to school at Le Cordon Bleu and presumably knows how to do this stuff. I think you are enormously brave and talented to do this wonderful thing in the kitchen where you have no clue where things are and what can/can't be used. I stand all AMAZED!! Bravo for you Sue!!! Jeff kinda reminds me of Wade, it's almost like they were separated at birth or something....

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  2. What an amazing job you did on the cake. Wedding cakes are hard and you worry about it being perfect for the wedded couple. Way to go, Sue. I am in awe of you:)

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  3. That's a great picture of you and spouse! And the cake looks fancy AND yummy.

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  4. The cake looks great - and really yummy too!
    You are right - the title of this post is brilliant!

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  5. Looks beautiful and delicious! I'm impressed!

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  6. "Less unflattering" ... now that's a phrase to adopt as we age gracefully.

    I love purple. My wedding was purple.

    The cake looks scrumptious.

    I have heard the word "kale" every day this new year. Long story but in a nutshell, my daughter Audrey is on a kale-eating binge.

    I'm going to buy some today, for the first time ever. It won't end up on a cake but in a large pan, wilting in some EVOO with a sprinkle of sea salt, and a generous splash of red wine vinegar at the end. I plan to consume it with a pork sirloin.

    The suspense is kale-ing me.

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  7. nooooo! please don't tell me that you caught my one and ONLY bridezilla moment on camera about the bow :(
    i can't thank you enough for all the hours you put into our wedding cake, sue. it was gorgeous and delicious :) i'm tempted to thaw out our frozen top piece and eat it right now..

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