Last weekend I made a wedding cake for a friend. It was the biggest project I had ever attempted and it went really well. Here is the end result. It was three tiers, the bottom layer was 12" square, the middle was 9", the top was 6". The cake was a white cake, soaked in a marsala and rum syrup. The filling was chocolate-coffee ganache. The frosting was a mascarpone cream cheese - very stressful on a 90 degree day! The hottest it has been here all year. Yipes. But it was great - I had frozen the layers after they were frosted - they thawed out between delivery and cutting (nearly 5 hours), and the cake was still cool! Here is the cake, with fresh flowers as the primary decoration.
Here is the middle layer, all filled and ready to get its crumb coat.
Here is the small top layer, with its crumb coat on and chilling for its second layer of icing.
The mocha filling - this is a 2:1 ratio (by weight) of heavy cream and bittersweet chocolate, with instant espresso powder providing the coffee kick. The coffee and bittersweet chocolate ended up being too bitter, so I did add a little confectioners sugar when I was whipping it.
Many many pounds of cream cheese mascarpone frosting - rum and vanilla flavor in here too.
This is the 12" bottom layer - I used chocolate to fill layers 1 and 3 - the middle layer got all cream cheese frosting, which ended up being a really nice balance. Each layer of cake was soaked with the marsala rum syrup. The florist left hydrangeas and roses for decoration, and I used flower spikes to hold the flowers in place and keep them fresh.
+-+smaller.jpg)
7 comments:
Oh, my gosh how exquisite. I am so beyond impressed especially with the hot weather. I would have melted with the cake. Just beautiful Lisa, I am so happy all went well. The bride and groom must have just been thrilled. I tried to send you an email three times and it got erased, will try again today.
B.R.A.V.O.!!!!! What a gigantic accomplishment! It is beautiful, classic and I love the shape. Were you stressed? I think I would have been crapping my pants right up until the last minute - I mean, that's some serious pressure. Well done!!! :)
Oh yeah, stressed doesn't begin to cover it, but in a way that I love. I pretended to be all cool about it but inside I was on a caffeine-fueled adrenalin rush, practically hyperventilating, but telling myself to just breathe and act like you've been there before. The melting thing scared me the most - after I got it set up I found the photographer and said, you might want to take a picture of this RIGHT NOW. But it held up until cutting anyway. . . :)
Entirely impressive - you make it look easy but I'm sure it was so time consuming. The end result is just gorgeous.
This is my first visit - adding you to my reader... love to look at what I can't do :)
I love tiramisu! I'd be willing to get married just so I can have at this cake :)
Giz - nice to meet you, thanks for stopping by! I was pretty easy if you break it down to like 100 different steps! :)
adventures - omg, don't do anything rash just for the cake! Still, it could be worth it . . . .
Thanks for this bblog post
Post a Comment