CAKE OF THE MONTH - AUGUST 2004
Chris and Michelle's Wedding Cake
This is a 5-tiered cake covered with buttercream icing.
Flavors are Kahlua fudge with Bavarian cream filling, White cake with
strawberry filling and Pink Champagne with strawberry filling. The borders
were piped with tip 140 and accented with strands of pearls. Tip 16 scrolls
decorated the sides of each tier. White Stargazer lilies, greenery and
navy/silver bows adorned the top of each tier. The cake was designed to serve
225 guests.
This cake travelled about 250 miles to Arrowwood Resort in
Okoboji, Iowa. I drove my brother's truck with the AC on full for the 5-hour
trip.
I began the trip in a thunderstorm and
it rained down for the first 4 hours of the trip. The last hour the sun
appeared and the temperature rose from 66 degrees to the upper 80's with high
humidity. I travelled a few miles of gravel roads and there were several
miles of bumpy, rough highways and, of course, the truck gives you a rougher
ride than a car.
To carry the cakes, I levelled the backseat using bath
towels, throw rugs and blankets. I placed a board on top and covered with two
blankets and a layer of matress foam. The tiers in cake boxes were then
placed on top of the foam. The two remaining tiers were placed on the floor
on top of two layers of matress foam. Other precautions I took were using a
buttercream recipe with one half cup corn starch in the recipe, stacking each
tier bottom to bottom instead of the usual top layer being bottom side up.
This made for a closer fit of the two layers. I crumbcoated with a stiff
buttercream. The day before the trip, I put all tiers in the refrigerator
with the temperature turned up so that they would be throughly chilled for the
trip. The cakes arrived at the destination in perfect condition. Not even
one air bubble appeared on any of the tiers to my great and happy surprise. I
had taken a bucket of icing, spatulas, bags and tips expecting some repair
work to be necessary.
The cake was set up in the reception hall by 2 o'clock.
When I returned to the hall following the wedding at 6 o'clock, I examined
each tier to find them still intact and no air bubbles. A stressful trip and
expectations had ended with a happy ending!!!
