What I've Been Up To...Wedding Cake

I got roped into doing a wedding cake for a daughter of a friend. She was asking around if anyone knew anyone who did cakes and a couple people shot my name out there and told her I might be up for the challenge (how do I ever get myself into these things?). Honestly, I was flattered and I hesitantly but happily agreed and said I'd give it a try.

The bride had her cake all planned out and told me what she wanted. White cake, strawberry filling, butter cream frosting and blue snowflakes. Simple enough right? NOT!
First off she wanted a triangle cake. NO ONE carries triangle cake pans! At least not that I could find, so I had to rig up my own using my rectangle ones. And the snowflakes?.....Well, lets just say this was a chore too. She didn't want just cute snowflakes piped onto the cake. She wanted them 3-D!

At first I tried piping snowflakes out of royal icing and letting those dry to use as decoration but they just shattered when I picked them up. So I had to come up with SOMETHING that was sturdy and that could last more than 24 hours on a cookie sheet (that's another story you'll read about below).

I decided to try gum paste and luckily found a friend who owned a set of snowflake cookie cutters! WHEW! Who would have thought snowflake cutters were seasonal merchandise? Right, yeah I know now. So, those were rolled, cut, and then painted with luster dust so they'd be all shimmery, purdy and ready for me to layer them when they dried. Gladly that was my first victory...well for a couple hours anyway. I learned really quickly that 2 year olds cannot, and I repeat CANNOT be trusted. I also learned that setting my cakes on the counter to cool was a bad choice too. I'll just say that I make LOTS of cakes and a few different batches of snowflakes.

Enter the great invention of baby gates!!!.......

Whew! After the kitchen was blocked off I got things done. Good thing too! I was running out of time. I layered the cakes, added the strawberry filling, added cake supports for the second tier, and frosted away. I think the scariest part was putting the second tier on after it was frosted too! But I did manage it.

The cake sat in the fridge overnight since 3-4 hours was all my pregnant legs and feet could take. Then, the next day a second coat of frosting to cover up the crumb layer and the fun really began. I added the blue border and the long awaited snowflakes. Ta DAH! It was done! And after two days of sitting, there were no sags or sinking I was relieved.

I was very pleased with how it turned out. What do you think?