Familly wedding cakes

               

              The big cake for Sami's wedding

Oh how I delight in the challenge of cake making. I'm not talking your run of the mill afternoon tea sponge, I'm refering to the cakes that mark the big occasions. Weddings, birthdays, holidays and more. I've been privileged enough to make three wedding cakes, two of which were for my sisters' weddings.

First was for my sister Tessa's medieval theme wedding in 2004. My sister Asher and I made a castle cake complete with turrets, flags, creeping ivy and brick textures. It was the first time I'd ever delved into cake decorating and my first sugar induced cake high. We were lucky that Tess was such a relaxed bride who wasn't too fussed about the cake to start with so she gave us carte blanche, but nevertheless it got rave reveiws and inspired me to start my hobby.

I think we were lucky castles are supposed to be rustic...

Skip to 2008 and Ashi alone was this time given the task of wedding cake making by big sister Sami (the wedding was bang in the middle of me handing in honours thesis and final talk plus I was bridesmaid) So Ashi is actually a chef and therefore amazing at baking and made the three tiered cake and an army of little cakes with lots of time to spare for decorating...she just forgot to learn how to make the flowers...thankfully I'd been practicing for a few years and could help her out.

The 'evil army of the night' of cakes

Together we piped 300 violets for the tops of the little cakes in one afternoon. Getting a perfect icing surface on those little cakes was another story but the horde was finished with days to spare...then came the big cake. So as I mentioned I was in the middle of a chemistry honours freakout and trying to handcraft icing roses that just would not stick together was the last straw. Oh the fond memories of me sitting in Ashi's kitchen, night before the wedding swearing my head off at these flowers as they fell apart and refused to dry. Poor Ashi was quite horrified but my maniacal yelling and screaming... skip to the wedding day and  I am in my bridesmaid dress pinning and piping these roses to the cake...but it got done and looked great. We kept the top tier and Sami is just now eating it to celebrate the birth of her daughter.

hooray for cake!