This is my first post, so I apologize for showing off before replying to anyone else’s post.

This is the wedding cake I made for my brother’s wedding yesterday (Saturday, May 29). It’s the Grand Marnier Wedding Cake in Heavenly Cakes, filled with the ganache included in that recipe but finished with white chocolate mousseline buttercream because my sister-in-law wanted the white surface. I’ve always loved the Grand Marnier bundt cake and knew immediately that I would make this recipe for the wedding. It’s a wonderful recipe, and the syrup makes it so moist and fresh-tasting.

I decided to do Swiss dots in black, set off by a black ribbon with white dots on it, and then I finished it with gumpaste poppies that I purchased from Etsy (I didn’t have enough free time to make them myself). I must admit that I took the basic design from an image I found while googling, so I can’t take credit for the design, and I’d love to know if any of you are responsible for it, so please tell me so I can give credit where credit’s due.

One of the pictures I’ve included is me using a pattern I made on graph paper so that the Swiss dots would be perfectly aligned. I drew the pattern I wanted on the graph paper, then turned that paper over, placed parchment over it, and stuck a toothpick through both layers. Then, I wrapped the parchment on the cake and stuck the toothpicks through the holes, then used tweezers to place the sugar balls onto the cake.

This is my first wedding cake, so you’ll see many mistakes, but I was happy that it looked like what I had in my head as I planned the cake.

Thanks for looking.

Wow Shawna! (I’‘m assuming that’s your name lol)
Let me be the first to say how amzing your cake looks. I see no mistakes and love the color combination. I would love to see the inside of the cake, a slice of it .....Shirin

Unfortunately, I don’t have an “inside” shot because I ran away once it was being cut! The caterers insisted on cutting it themselves, and they butchered it, so I just had to leave the room! It had a pretty thick frosting dam before the ganache filling started, and each tier had four layers.

Funny story: After the wedding, I was transporting the top tier to my parents’ freezer for safekeeping, and I put it down on the backseat for a moment as we packed up the wedding presents. I told everyone, “OK, the cake is in the backseat: remember!” But, unfortunately, in order to put more presents in the trunk, someone pressed the button that released the back of the seat, and it slammed down and squished it! Then, I ran back over and pushed it back up, and my stepdad pressed the button AGAIN and the seat crashed down on the cake AGAIN. I had to laugh.

What a beautiful cake! I love how clean and elegant it looks. I bet your brother and new sister-in-law loved it!!

What an amazing cake!  I like the idea of using the graph paper/parchment paper for placing the dots on there.  I hope people took the time to appreciate the perfect placement of those dots! 

I’m glad you have such a sense of humour, i would have cried if that happened to my cake!  It looks beautiful, by the way, I can’t see any mistakes.

A beautiful, beautiful cake!

Your poor cake reminds me of that line in the movie Harvey (spoken by the great Josephine Hull), “Every young girl has something sweet about her.  And a man takes that sweetness and look what he does with it!”

That’s waht I thought of immediately when I heard of the caterers butchering it and the car seat squishing it ... twice!

Poor little slapstick cake!

Gorgeous job, and I know it was delicious!!

Yes, gorgeous cake!  Your brother and his beatiful bride must have been thrilled. 

Thanks so much for describing the process of placing the dots, they look perfect (and being black, any little mistake would have shown). 

Oh my, the caterers, the backseat… yikes!  I agree, you have a great sense of humor to be able to laugh after all that work.

Shawna, your cake is gorgeous! What a great idea to make a grid of the dots.  I also love that gum paste flowers can be ordered, and I’m going to check out the website right now.  Somehow, I can’t imagine myself ever having the time to make all those beautiful decorations.

Rosetheoes, that’s a great quote!

BakerJD, the name of the person on Etsy who made the gumpaste flowers for me is called “SweetDejavu” on Etsy. She got them to me in exactly 10 days, and none of them were broken. She ships them so carefully that they all survived the mail system.

Shawna - what a wonderful cake! Perfect frosting, perfect alignment of the dots - I admire you! And I can fully relate to the story with the caterers butchering the cake, when I made one last year the people from the hotel insisted on carrying the cake to the table where it was displayed, rather than finding a little cart, and almost lost the two top layers in the process.

I had to post about your wedding cake.  It is so beautiful and very elegant.  the colors are gorgeous together.  You did a wonderful job.

What an amazing cake. It’s beautiful!

Very nice, and perfect looking to me, Shawna.

What a remarkable cake you have created. I love the color scheme and the way you have put it together. The dots would have blown me away - graphed yet! And the gorgeous poppies - thanks for that resource. Etsy does have many interesting things. Laughed at your slap-stick happenings, and glad to hear you did too. That’s life, I guess. lol

Lovely cake!