If you believe in prayer...

If you pray, you know that sometimes prayers aren't answered in exactly the way you plan. Such was the case last weekend when I was finishing up on a wedding cake. This was a 3-tier 6, 10, and 14 inch cake. The top tier and the bottom tier were done. The only decorations on the middle tier were a swagged ribbon and large bow. I had originally planned to use SugarVeil to make these with, but for some reason (probably because it was so cold in the kitchen), the SugarVeil was not setting up as quickly as I hoped. Finally, I said a prayer that basically asked that the SugarVeil set up quickly so that I could finish the cake. I waited as long as I could, tried finishing up on the decorations, and I was just not happy with the way they were turning out as the SugarVeil was still not set up as well as it should have been. Next idea... make the ribbon and bow from fondant... too limp. Last resort, make the ribbon and bow with part gumpaste and part fondant for added stiffness. I rolled the ribbon out and placed it on the cake with a little water, then cut out the bow and tails and put them in a plastic container to put on the cake after the tiers were set up. Final result... so much nicer than I would have ever expected. So you see, the answer to the prayer was that the SugarVeil did not set up, but I was forced to use my creativity for something that turned out much better. I later said a prayer of gratitude for the help I had received.

Experimenting with SugarVeil...

Today I delivered a wedding cake all done in chocolate fondant (which I love by the way), and SugarVeil ribbons and bows. I'm still learning allot about SugarVeil. I really like this product, but it can be a little tricky to use. Some things I learned this time around are...

1. Always make extra SugarVeil for your project...just in case you need it.

2. If you're making bows, make extra as a backup.

3. When SugarVeil dries completely, it is very, very fragile.

4. I need to get a larger air-tight container to store my set SugarVeil pieces, so I don't need to make so many seams in my ribbons.

5. I did not use wafer paper to make my bows; I will try using it next time to give the bows more stability. 

Cinderella Wedding Cake

Yesterday, I catered a wedding for 150 at the Air Force Academy Milazzo Center. As part of that, I designed a wedding cake for 230, complete with a brunette Cinderella and Prince Charming cake topper and a glass slipper that we positioned on the bottom tier. The cake was done in fondant with the square tiers "quilted" and scroll work on the round tiers done in my Hershey's special dark "black" buttercream. Not only does it taste great, but it does not bleed on the icing or fondant underneath. Before discovering the special dark cocoa, I would have never even considered using black frosting on a wedding cake. The cake flavors were banana split, chocolate mint with chocolate mint mousse filling, lemon with cream cheese and fresh strawberries, and German chocolate with coconut pecan filling. The catered items included cream cheese chicken over rice, buttered green beans with almonds, homemade dinner rolls, Caesar salad, and a strawberry topiary tree. My friend, Nancy did a terrific job of completing the tree with the 300 doubled-dipped strawberries. It was huge hit with the guests!

Delivering cakes in the rain...

Yesterday we catered a wedding reception for a friend of ours. It was supposed to be an outdoors reception, but, as we know, the weather here in Colorado Springs can be very unpredictable. So, at the last moment, it was decided to bring the reception inside the house. Diane has a very lovely large home, so it wasn't the end of the world, even though she had planned some beautiful decorations for outside. So anyway, we were late getting everything set up since it was a last minute decision. Everything turned out fine, except delivering cakes in the rain is not fun, and because it was raining when Bruce was bringing the cake in, the beautiful finish on the fondant was marred slightly by the rain drops. The cake was still very nice and, of course, tasted wonderful. We used a beautiful orchid spray on the top tier, and it was placed on a mirror and my newly purchased silver cake plateau, which was perfect for this type of cake design. The bride and groom chose some wonderful flavor combinations. . . chocolate mint with chocolate mint mousse, chocolate with peanut butter mousse, and fudge marble with cream cheese. The picture actually makes the cake look smaller than it was. . . the bottom tier was a 14 inch square and the cake plateau was 22 inches in diameter.

Cakes and Pets

While my children were young, they did not have dogs or cats as pets. Instead, we had goldfish and, our favorite, turtles. There was a reason for that...dog and cat hairs do not combine well with cakes, especially wedding cakes. When I got too busy for all of the orders I was getting, I went looking for someone I could refer my customers to. So I found this one lady, went over to meet her, to check out her work and her home, and decided that she was a safe bet as a referral. To my horror, the first customer I referred her to for a wedding cake (a friend) called after the wedding and asked me not to refer any more customers to her as they had cat hairs in the wedding cake. I apologized profusely, but at that point, there was nothing I could do. I had not seen any cats when I went to check her out. Needless to say, I did not refer this lady, or anyone else, to anyone ever again. I just told them I was too busy.

Another time, a customer picked up a full sheet cake the night before to take to work in the morning. It was, of course, in a box. She put the box on the kitchen counter. That night, her cat decided to climb up and sit on the box, which destroyed the cake. She called me up in tears the next morning. I told her to bring the cake over and I would repair it as much as I could. Of course, it was not the same cake as I had given her the night before.

My latest run in with a pet was the wedding cake delivery I had last Saturday. The family had a pit bull. First of all, I was met at the table by this dog, and had to ask that someone take him outside while I was setting up the cake. Then I was informed that the dog would be inside (where the cake was set up) while everyone was at the ceremony. I did not know whether the cake would survive the pit bull or not. I just made sure that I took a picture of the cake before leaving, and I let them know that I was not responsible for anything that happened to the cake after I left. I'm not sure what they did to protect the cake, but apparently, it survived as the bride said she was happy with the cake. By the way, this was an interesting cake...check out the picture. The "black" fondant strips were made with the special dark ccocoa, and the red strips were airbrushed so that the back of the strips were still white where they touched the cake. The top had large silver dragees, which I found out have been the scrutiny of law suits. So I had the customer sign a release form before I left the delivery site.