A Sweet Life Cakery

I recently had the opportunity to make a wedding cake for Tara & Ganett's wedding.  The only thing is I am in Florida and they are in Minnesota.  Tara is a cousin so I had to volunteer to make the cake when I heard she was getting hitched.  Little did I know what was involved in taking a cake from Florida and flying with it to another state.  I'm sure I'm not the first and certainly not the last to do this but the key is to really plan well.

As the months and weeks got closer to the wedding date, I made a list of every item I thought I needed to take with me to create the cake.  First and foremost I had to know what type of cake, filling and what the outside was going to be iced with.  I layed out every item as if I were going to create the cake and make sure I didn't forget one thing....but of course I forgot a thing or two.

The week before the wedding, I baked all the cakes and froze them solid.  I thought about doing the outside in buttercream but that was not going to work because the mixer I was using in MN was smaller than I am accustomed to which meant I would have to make it in multiple batches.  There was no way to guarantee the color would be uniform.  So, fondant was my choice for the outside of the cake.

I made a point to have some items shipped from my supplier to MN before I got there.  The package arrived the same day I did.  I had half the cake packed in an insulated box and the rest went with me on the airplane as my carry-on.  Thank GOD the security guy had a sense of humor as I explained I had a wedding cake to make in Minnesota.  I told him he could pass it through the x-ray machine but if it came out on the other side with a bite missing I knew it was him who did it.  He just laughed and let me go through.  On to the airplane we went and it was tucked with care under the seat in front of me.

Our flight from Florida to Atlanta was fine but we had to change planes and got a little lost in the concourse.  All along I had the cakes in my tote which were starting to thaw so I was a little worried.  We made it to the connecting flight just in time and back under the seat the cakes went.

Finally, we arrived at MSP (Minneapolis/St. Paul) and the cakes made it through baggage claim and the cakes in the tote made it in one piece ((((sigh of relief)))))!!!  Off we went to the van rental and drove to our destination in the Andover/Ham Lake area.  I was pooped by this point but still had lots to do.

First thing Thursday morning at 5:00 a.m. I was up coloring 20 lbs. of fondant a jewel tone green.  It took me a good hour or more to do all of the batch and make it uniform.  After I had to make 4 batches of buttercream in a 4.5 qt mixer. and mousse to fill the cakes.  I started icing the cakes and chilling them all but realized we were going to run out of fridge space.  I iced and froze the largest cake and would take it out the next day early to work on it.  I was up until about midnight and finally had to call it a night as I could not keep my eyes open.

Friday morning about 4:00 a.m. I woke up to take the cakes out and get cranking on them.  As luck would have it, a cold front came through which meant the garage was so cold it was like a walk-in fridge.  My lovely cousin's husband, Chris set up a table for me to line up the cakes since it was nice and cold out.  While everyone was buzzing around getting ready for the wedding, I was feverishly working on the scroll work on the cake.  Finally by about 2:00 p.m. the cake was done and ready to be delivered to the country club.  The cake weighed a ton but with a helping hand from Chris, we were able to bring it into the reception room and get it set up.

I flew back to the house to clean up and get dolled up for the wedding and made it back just in time to take pictures with the family and enjoy the rest of the trip.  The cake came out beautiful with the help of my wonderful sister Sarah who is a florist.  She added the flowers were just really completed the entire look of the cake.

This is Tara & Ganett's cake: