Look Mom & Dad! My Very First Wedding Cake!

Look Mom and Dad!

My Very First Wedding Cake!!!

For many, many moons friends and co-workers have been asking me if I "do" wedding cakes. Having never worked with fondant, with the excuse that it tastes like 'poodely oodely', I have always answered no. A couple of weeks ago, another friend told me about a couple that planned to marry & again asked me if I "do" wedding cakes. Again, I answered 'no.' But for some reason it really bothered me. Why DON'T I do wedding cakes?

The answer after 1/2 a second of deep soul searching... BECAUSE I'M-A SCURRED!!!!

Fondant is scary. It's so nasty tasting. It's the real 'white devil.'

But for some reason, I got it into my britches that I needed to change that. NO FEAR!! And thus... my very first wedding cake was born. It's not for anyone so I was free to make mistakes! It's been a painful, painful birth and yet my rather large baby wedding cake has been the light of my life!

**************IMPORTANT SIDENOTE*************

I actually HAVE done a wedding cake. My very first (and most important) wedding cake was for my two, dear friends Lisa & Robert. Here they are:

Awwww.... :)

I love them. :) They are both Wiccan and their wedding was one of the most beautiful ceremonies I've ever attended. It was renaissance/foresty-themed and they asked me to do a red velvet "magical-ish storybook cake... a la 'Lord of the Rings.'" And here she is:

So in NO WAY do I demean that experience because the ceremony was so moving and I was so incredibly honored to be asked to do their cake-- It meant the world to me. But in regard to 'wedding-y' standard fondant cakes, this was not it. It was made of buttercream frosting. I know! The sacrilege! ;)

******************SIDENOTE DONE*********************

So where were we? Ahhh, yes. I decided to grow a pair and make a wedding cake with FUN-DON'T-- err, I mean fondant. :)

To make this practice cake as successful as possible, I decided I would homemake the fondant. Homemake? Is that a word? It is now... ahem... with a marshmallow fondant recipe from Peg W.

It looked good? It's basically just melted marshmallows & powdered sugar kneaded together? That sounds delicious! How bad can THAT be? Answer: BAD. By itself, it's still pretty nasty. I know, right? How is that possible!?? BUT! It's MUCH, MUCH, MUCH better than any other fondant I've tasted. So, you go, Peg W.!!!! :)

So, ladies and germs... without much further ado... Here is my VERY LARGE baby. This picture is taken "Hallmark" style (you know those greeting cards with the kissing toddlers in wedding get-ups & and a single red rose?):

My very first wedding cake. I'm very, very proud.



And like any proud parent, I am going to show you 8 zillion pictures of her...





Here she is!







This was soooo funny. We put her on the table & she just sat there with this crazy "Do I have to take ANOTHER picture?" expression. SO CUTE!


















My 'followers' (that sounds so creepy to me) on Facebook have been very, very kind. Here are some of their comments:


"Wow"


"Wow. This is beautiful!"


"Holy Moses, this is gorgeous!"


"Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!"


"So impressed"


"Wow, Mandi! You are so talented!"



"Bleep, bleep, expletive, expletive, bleep!" (That was my roommate, Tim).




Granted, I'm very proud of this cake. But like Usher, I have a sad, sad confession to make.



She's ALL lipstick & rouge, folks.





Cause this here wedding cake?
She got a booty.
*GASP!*



Or a hunchback. It's a toss up.

The "Leaning Tower of Wedding Cake!" if you will.


She's like a little hunched over 'snowperson.'

"Booty, booty, booty, booty rockin' everywhere!" ;)

But I learned a TON. Like lesson one:

Watch the youtube fondant tutorial video BEFORE you start. ;)

And to celebrate I had some friends over to help me eat this thing.

I ripped out the flowers like a dainty southern belle.

"I do-ugh declay-ugh!" RRRRRIIIIP.

Purty. :)

And I began to make the world's biggest mess.

Karen didn't care. She was all, "I'm eating this red velvet cake & flower corpses can't stop me!"

Here is my friend Jon! I kept taking pictures of him because I couldn't stop my darned camera from taking fuzzy pictures. I kept shaking it & saying, "Darned camera!"

My friend Seamus (beautiful wife Candy missing- wah!) and his two gorgeous little twin peanuts.

I call this picture: "DIE, FONDANT, DIE!!"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOM."

"Wow, this fondant gets shtuck in the gumsh."

I know, Miss. I know.

"Why did you do this to me, Aunt Mandi!!?? WHY???"

(I was worried there was going to be some serious barfage).

My roomie, Kelli, giving me the "spoon-bird" because heaven forbid she lets me TAKE HER PICTURE EVER.

That one? I sway-uh!!!

I was kinda hoping Miss Rylie would smear some red velvet cake into Aunt Kelli's hat after the "spoon-bird" incident but alas.... She just plopped it on her head & decided to look cute.

Those girls have soooo much to learn.

*sigh*

The girls with their daddy, Seamus (aka: The Sea-meister).

Then they decided to dance on Aunt Mandi's nasty carpet.

Right next to the garbage can full of empty champagne bottles.

Here's Jon again. And my friend Cherie! Cherie & I did the Mayor's Marathon in Alaska together last June. She's an awesome, awesome lady.

But for this occasion, I'm making them 'the married couple.'

This cake has to be for SOMEBODY people!!!

None of these people ate nearly enough.

Chocolate amaretto cake with a chocolate filling & chocolate cream cheese frosting. And guess what? Marshmallow fondant isn't nearly as bad once it's melded itself onto frosting! Who knew!?

It melds to fondant like toxic chemicals eating itself through a brick wall.

And then we had visitors from the apartments next to ours. And they took up where the party left off. They were mucho thrilled!

P.S. Martha Stewart's wedding coconut cake recipe? DRY. I watched it in the oven & everything, even brushed it with sugar water. Hmm... I'm beginning to think Martha hates me.

With the flower corpses and a cereal bowl, I made this. Just call me MacGyver!

?

It makes me happy every day I see it!

Pretty, pretty!

May Jon & Cherie live happily ever after. ;)