A very special day

I was very honored to be a part of a really wonderful wedding recently. I love weddings anyway, but this was so much fun. The day was really all about the couple, their family and friends and the love that they had for each other. It was very personal and the guests were having a whale of a time. Being on an incredible property in the beautiful Rancho Santa Fe area didnt hurt either!
Here I am with the cake!




















The details were totally adorable, like these little succulent place cards/favors.







Delicious barbecue was served, and it reminded me of a recent NYT article about the backyard bbq being totally where its at these days
I also made my first proper wedding cake! As an amateur I got to really enjoy the process, have fun with the couple, go through lots of tastings and iterations of designs and come to what I hope was a great conclusion on their special day. I recently bought Martha Stewarts book on weddings, and her advice to try making the entire cake for a practice run is a good idea. I found a very nice girl who wanted a birthday cake, so it was good to try a 3 tier cake.







I definitely pushed my boundaries, doing a square cake was a little tricky, but I'm glad they insisted as it came out super cute.













I helped out with some goodies for their out of town guests, they were treated to a home made recycled bag containing some water, fruit, chocolate chip cookies, caramels and fruit and nut bars. As per the bride's wishes I managed to find some biodegradable bags for the snacks from clearbags.






On the wedding day itself, I brought a big jar of caramels, three types of cupcakes, and a square 3 tier wedding cake, which the couple asked to be off center.

The cake was carrot cake on the bottom and 'almond joy' on the top two tiers, a delicious fudge chocolate cake, filled with a layer of coconut mixed with cream cheese frosting, and a layer of chocolate ganache with almonds. mmmm! The cake was covered in fondant and decorated with the couples colors of choice, and topped with their hand made likeness, very cute.


I also made 3 flavors of cupcakes, 'sexy vegan' from Vegan Cupcakes takes over the world, banana choc chip with caramel and cream cheese frosting, and a lovely light 'berrylicious' cupcake with berry buttercream.













The cakes looked wonderful on the table, and the guests all seemed very excited! So my first wedding experience was a fantastic one!


For any other amateurs thinking of trying this kind of thing, I'd recommend giving yourself plenty of time, if you're planning on doing a tiered cake, make sure to have all the cakes ready and crumb coated at least the night before and thoroughly chilled before you cover in fondant. Cardboard isnt strong enough as a base, use poster board or something similar(and food safe) between the layers and use a proper dowel (available from michaels) for support.