Wedding cake ... really?

Every now and then, I will get a request for a very unconventional wedding cake. This cake request was from Kayli and Nathan from Denver. Their wedding was on a Sunday, so since I don't work or deliver on Sundays, Kayli came with 3 of her bridesmaids to pick up the cake. Kayli and Nathan met with me several months ago, and described what they had in mind, and I had cake samples for them to taste. I then had my son, Tom (Disney animator), draw a sketch for me to get a rough idea of what I could design for the cake. The request was a bolder or mountainside with grassy patches and a hammock on top, with the bride and groom. Also, they wanted some succulents on the cake because they really like them. So, here are a few pictures to show the progress of the cake.

 Rough sketch for cake idea.

 Stacked and filled 12, 10, and 8 inch layer cakes with support dowels. In the freezer to chill.

 Carved and shaped cake with crumb coat. Back in freezer to chill.

Final coat of buttercream, and back in freezer to chill before adding modeling chocolate.

 Finished cake. I used crushed edible rocks for the gravel on the trail, and touched up color with petal dust mixed with Everclear.

 Trees and figurines were molded from modeling chocolate, with the bride's dress  and hammock from Flexfrost, edible icing sheets.

Succulents were made from gumpaste. 

It's always a challenge and takes longer than anticipated to do a new design. But the bride and groom were happy with the results, so I'm good with that. 

The word that cake decorators hate the most...

Well, I guess hate is a pretty strong word... how about really dislike... the word is CONGRATULATIONS. Why do I not like this word? It is because it has 15 letters to write, cut out, press out, mold, or whatever, and then try to get the placement just right.  And that takes a lot of time. Combine it with "Congratulations on your Retirement" and then it's really fun. 

Look at all of the wording on this cake!

Have you ever had one of those days where everything seems to go wrong that can go wrong? Well, I had one of those days last Saturday... what was supposed to be an easy cake turned into a nightmare. I had designed a cake similar to this before that turned out perfect. First of all, my edible ink printer quit working and so I needed to repair it to get it working properly. I didn't get it working in time, so had to cut out emblems and everything by hand. I could have used my Zing electronic cutter, but didn't think I'd have time for that either. Then I tried combining two different kinds of fondant to make a camo background for the cake, and the different color pieces split when I decided to cover the cake with it... what? Oh, by the way, I found a new fondant that I love to work with. Dream Fondant by Choco-pan is wonderful to roll out and cover your cakes without any tearing or "elephant skin." So then, because I spent too much time trying to fix the printer, I didn't have time to cut out the letters for the cake, so did the writing in free-hand cursive. Granted, my cake writing is pretty good, but this particular cake would have looked better with a different type of lettering. I ended up giving the customer a discount and told her that it wasn't my best work. It looked like an amateur's cake, and I AM NOT AN AMATEUR, I AM A PROFESSIONAL. At least I knew the cake would taste great.  Ok, I will now get off my soapbox...

This is how the cake should have looked. 

So, I learned several lessons - yes, I'm still learning - from this whole experience. #1 - always print out my images the night before, in case the printer needs servicing. #2 - prepare the lettering ahead of time, so you are not trying to get it done the last minute. #3 - Don't combine different kinds of fondant when making a camo background for an Army cake. 

I got online on Saturday night and ordered some tools to make my cake decorating life a little easier... Marvelous Molds has come out with a new line of molds called Flexabets. I had some of these already, but the one I really needed and ordered was "Congratulations." The Flexabets are a bit tricky to learn how to use correctly, but when you do, will save you a lot of time. 

The other thing I ordered was a steamer to clean my edible ink printer print head when it gets clogged. I ordered this from Icing Images. I love the quality products that I get from Icing Images. Hopefully, this will make maintaining my printer a little easier and quicker. 

And no, I did not take a picture of the cake that I was not happy with... didn't want any of those memories.