Consultation to Cake~ Part Three, The Big Day!

Finally the big day arrives, and I have to say, as nervous as brides are on their wedding day, their cake maker won't be feeling much better! The cake is such a big part of the day and so many couples have a clear idea of their dream cake that the worry that they won't like it is huge! The other problem with cakes is that so much can go wrong! One wrong step on the way into the venue, one obstacle that you don't notice underfoot and, well, crash. *shudder* I actually don't even want to think about it!

We assemble our cakes, in part if not in total on site, so that we can achieve the best possible finish and avoid any breakages on the way there.

Beth and Graeme's cake arrived safely and I tracked down the cake table and commandeered a nearby table to lay out all of the different bits on. Beth and some of her friends and family met me at the car, so they saw the cake in pieces. Luckily, they were so bowled over by the flowers that they weren't too shocked by the cakes (they don't look that pretty un-stacked and with dowel holes in them!)

Before I go on (and forget), many thanks to Brett Symes for his fabulous photographs.

There were some left over flowers which I popped into a nearby jam jar to tie in with the rest of the room. It fitted the rustic theme of the wedding perfectly and as you can see from the photographs, a fabulous day was had by all! The minions were a little personalised surprise gift to each of the bridal party from Beth and Graeme. I love the photo of the men with their cakes!

I hope this has given you a bit of an insight into the amount of work that goes in to a wedding cake. I love every part of the process, but it's not easy!

Thanks to Beth and Graeme, their family and friends, plus of course Brett for the photos (check out his website- amazing!)

Consultation to Cake- Part Two

I know, it's been a while, sorry! I was waiting for the official photographs and well, then it was Christmas and that just got in the way, etc etc. Enough excuses!

After the initial consultation and sketches, we go away and sketch the final design (always open to artistic interpretation- if it looks rubbish when I start making it, I'll tweak it until it looks right). Once the bride and groom have approved the watercolour sketch, we make a start on any early preparation. In this case, Gail started work on lots of flowers, based on the pictures Beth had provided us with.

The flowers were about four solid days work, but the final result was definitely worth it!

We always make more than we think we'll need, because invariably there's a gap that needs filling that you didn't expect.

As the wedding day gets closer, we bake, fill, crumb coat and finally ice and dowel the cakes before packing them in boxes ready to assemble at the venue.

So with the boot full and a box of 'kit' ready to go (spares, royal icing, scissors, pritt stick etc), it's finally time to set up the cake.

See Part 3 for the official wedding photos!