Despite many MANY years spent as a professional Cake Designer, there are still the occasional orders that throw me into a state of panic. These are always the ones that come in for people that I love. I wanted everything to be perfect for my dear friend Andrea and her Husband, Dave.
I have known Andrea for 16 years now (I’m just taking that number in…) and wrote about how special my University family are to me in a Monday post a couple of weeks ago. Though we have all grown and changed an awful lot since we were 19/20 years old – as you would hope! – what has not changed is Andrea’s love of all things classic, deco, and elegant.
My first design of the cake took in every aspect of the Wedding design.
The blush pink tones of the day, accented with metallic gold, a geometric design, and the lace of the Wedding dress itself created a busy and ‘asymmetrical’ cake. This is often my tactic for ‘sketch one’ – I throw absolutely every idea discussed in consultation at the paper to see how things sit together.
Couples come to me with a lot of ideas. I take everything in and throwing everything at one design often provides some clarity on what design aspects work together and which ones are not needed.
It was decided that the extra lace on the bottom tier was probably a little too much and the geometric design had, over the course of planning, become more of a circular pattern. For my second sketch, I copied the geometric design from the invitation that I had been sent!
We were good to go. I loved the subtle ombre idea to add interest and the plain backgrounds allowing the flowers to take centre stage.
As you know, I do love to make sugar roses! Mine are big and blousey and for Andrea’s cake, I made them also with a graduating strength of colour, with stronger petals in the centre working out to paler ones on the edges to complement the ombre on the cake tiers.
The bespoke ‘fan design’ geometry was hand-piped and then hand-painted with a metallic gold paint. This same paint was used to paint the top tier, the single metallic tier giving the cake a modern twist that suited the Bride perfectly.
It’s rare that my hands shake when setting up a cake – I’m 10 years into this job and I’m pretty confident by now – but this cake came so loaded with love and excitement on my friend’s big day that I could not calm my nerves. I had to shoo family members out of the room!
Thankfully, everything came together beautifully, everyone said ‘I do’ in the right places, and the cake was cut amongst fits of giggles on this happiest of days.
I’m still buzzing from the day and looking forward to the next time that I get to bake for one of my besties. I’ve been promised a little while before I’ll be called on, time enough for my hands to stop shaking but I’ll be ready and willing and baking at a moment’s notice.
Stay gorgeous!
Cxx
