Wedding Cake

This week I posted a wedding cake.

Not about a wedding cake, an actual wedding cake.

My eldest nephew (j) is getting married to another (j) - My family is full of J’s, 6 at last count. It’s a very small wedding, just 6 guests, and squeezed in between exams and work, and they weren’t going to have any cake. That just isn’t right.

So, I made one.

Initially, knowing it had to be posted to them, I was just going to do a simple small round. But that’s all it was, simple and small. Unimpressive. I have had these amazing 3 tiered cake tins for ages and not gotten around to using them, but wait a minute! Don’t you think these look like wedding cakes? And then they can be stacked on top of the other cake too!
So I did it.

Now, please don’t look too closely as it’s been a long time since I covered a cake. I turned to my trusty Planet Cake cookbook for some answers.

I decided to go with a chocolate mud cake. They’re dense and yummy and keep well. They also just happen to be my nephew’s favourite. I started off with a layer of dark 70% Lindt chocolate ganache made with lactose free cream, with a splash of cherry wine for kick. (j) was very sensitive to lactose when younger, so why take any chances on ruining the big day? This layer gives stability and evenness to the finished product. The ganache needs to set, and then be smoothed into the shape you want.

Next step was to cover the cake with fondant icing. I started off by rolling the icing to the right size then smoothing it over the cake for an even coating. This turned out to be much harder to do on the layered cake than I expected! Maybe it’s a good thing that I’m the sort to commit to something before I have the chance to think it through completely! So.... back to my philosophy of “fake it till you make it”, my little babies received another coat. Obviously my reasoning to place 2 layers of fondant was merely to reinforce the structural integrity of the actual cake. Nothing at all to do with the fact that the first layer was just a little bit wonky. Really!

The colours of the wedding were blue, white and yellow. Blue cake, not really. White cake, didn’t show up the stencilling much. Butter colour, perfect. I tinted the icing with Wiltons gel which adds very little moisture. You just keep kneading it in until the right tint is achieved. Then I pressed on my stencil for the lovely daisy effect and let it all set.

Final step, was to pipe my royal icing rows around the cake. Again, this had absolutely nothing to do with covering up any imperfections at all. It was for decoration purposes only. Really.
Add on my cute roses, and voila! Done. If I didn’t have to post this I would probably decorate more ornately, but the more projections the more chance of breakages. Those roses were cemented on!

Post Office

The guy at the counter was watching me. Awkward moment. His jaw literally dropped when he saw what I was trying to do.
I decided that posting the cake in 2 pieces was probably a better option as the top layer may come unglued during transport. Armed with a box, a soft blanket, and some air pockets from the post office, I proceeded to stuff that little sucker so tight that it wasn’t going to budge. Trusting in lots and lots of tape, a small box and the reliability of Australia Post, I forked over my $38 for overnight express and prayed hard.

But noooo, not that simple

The internal post boxes had already been emptied.

No problem, the outside boxes wouldn’t be emptied until later.

My box was too big.

Of course it was.

The only option was to sit 2 hours outside, in the cold, in the dark, and wait for the actual van to arrive and hand it over personally. So I did. It had better be worth it.

Guess what? 16 hours later and cake arrived with no problems! Not a petal chipped, not a thing bruised or bent or broken! Thank you for Prayers and Australia Post!

The wedding was a wonderful day for the bride and groom, the sun shone, my sister was skyped in from the other side of the world to watch the ceremony- talk about high tech! The highlight of course, was the fantastic, awesome wedding cake!

So Readers, what is the weirdest item you have posted or received in the mail?