Greetings, fellow cake fans! This is from the Better Late Than Never Department….

A little over three years ago, I made my first (and only) wedding cake, which was the subject of a brief forum discussion here. I promised to post pictures when I got them from the photographer. She was pretty busy, so it took a while… and then it was the holidays… and then… and then… and then… well, I have a short attention span at the best of times, and you know how it is.

In short, I forgot about it.

Cut to a week or so ago.

I was flipping through one of my copies of The Cake Bible (yep, I have two of them) and realized… my all-time favorite cookbook is 25 years old this year. Cool. So I decided to write a blog post about it. With a bunch of cake pictures, of course. Including that wedding cake.

At which point I remembered that I never got around to posting them here. And so, at long last… here they are.

This cake was a real labor of love for me, and I was deeply honored to be asked to make it—the bride is a very dear friend of our family. I’ve been baking since I was a small child, and over the years I have made a LOT of cake for a lot of special occasions. Never a wedding cake, though, and certainly never cake for 250 people at once.

Even so, I was perfectly comfortable agreeing to do it without any hesitation whatsoever. Undoubtedly because it never once occurred me to how monumental a task it would be just to PLAN a cake on this scale, let alone make it.

I don’t think I truly comprehended until after it was all over how risky this actually was, and how easily it could have turned into a disaster. Several years later, I still haven’t decided if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. The cake (all three flavors of it!) was delicious - and the bride was beyond delighted - so I suppose by every measure that counts, it was a success.

Looking back on it now with the benefit of hindsight, I think I must have been crazy to take on such a thing. Crazy or not, I know one thing FOR SURE:  that it would never have been possible without The Cake Bible. Because all those pages and pages of Rose’s incredible charts and calculations absolutely saved my life. For which I am SO grateful. 

Drop dead gorgeous!

Thank you, Charles! I was pleased (and SO relieved!) with the way it turned out. Plus it was a wonderful opportunity to finally learn how to use gumpaste. Making the flowers was a thoroughly delightful, surprisingly meditative, experience - definitely one of my most favorite creative projects ever.

Agree with CT, 100% !

Stunning, absolutely stunning!  Your execution is impeccable, but the design- breathtaking!  So glad you posted, what a pleasure to see it.

I remember when I first started baking cakes, I thought that making a wedding cake was really no more work than making three layer cakes- how foolish and wrong I was, as I later learned. 

Ha ha! Thanks for the nice comment, Julie, and wow… you are SO right!

While I was assembling the cake at the reception hall… at the last possible second… fretting myself into a panic… as guests were starting to arrive… EVERY SINGLE ONE of whom (all strangers to me) apparently under the delusional impression that I would LOVE engaging in conversation… while trying to arrange those incredibly fragile flowers… and wishing with all my heart that the chattiest of said guests would take her “delightful” hyperactive child someplace else (like Mars, for example) before he manages to shatter ALL of them….

... that’s the point where it occurred to me that the only reason wedding cake (of the large, tiered variety) exists AT ALL is because it is simply not possible for anyone making one for the very first time to have any concept of what they’re REALLY getting into… until it’s over.

For which we can all say, THANK GOODNESS! Because the world would be a much less marvelous place without all its delicious, beautiful, inspiring, wonderfully enthralling wedding cakes.

Absolutely beautiful! It is a work of art!

The cake breathtakingly beautiful…...and the flowers, just gorgeous!

Wow that looks perfect!

That is beautiful. Very nicely done. Square cakes are more difficult to cover fondant than round.

That is a beautiful cake.  And, such beautiful flowers.  Very stunning - one could never tell you were doing for first time.  That is good writing on your blog too.  And, compliments to the photographer - great photos.  Thank you for sharing!!

Lovely cake and lovely pics, both here and on your blog, Laurie! We should all take pics of our TCB copies and give a prize to the one in the worst, most used condition(betting I could win this one)! Your cake(s) were as pretty as a Tiffany box.

The wedding cake is beautiful and so are the cakes on your blog.  I think the flowers are superb!

Gorgeous cake!!!  I just love that color of blue.  Like a tiffany box.

Your hydrangeas are beautiful, very delicate.

That is one beautiful cake, Laurie! The fact that this was your fist wedding cake and done at such a large scale to serve 250 makes it even more impressive. I love all the little details with the flowers, beads and other work you incorporated. Great job!

K Nelson - 07 March 2013 07:43 PM

Lovely cake and lovely pics, both here and on your blog, Laurie! We should all take pics of our TCB copies and give a prize to the one in the worst, most used condition(betting I could win this one)! Your cake(s) were as pretty as a Tiffany box.

I have taken my TCB pretty much apart…and put pages and sections in page protectors.  Going now to put in three-ring binder.