Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Michael and Sarah, sittin’ in a tree…


k-i-s-s-i-n-g. First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes…

Oh…. sorry. I guess I gotta give the poor kids a chance, they just got MARRIED! Wooo hooo!


And I finally decorated a cake! The first one, in, what? 6 months?

Hubby’s nephew and his fiancé (no, not hubby's fiancé, lol) were married this summer in Washington. Those of us that didn’t attend the wedding had a chance to celebrate with them when they visited last month.


Their wedding cake was teal with white chocolate seashells. I first considered some other type of beach cake but wasn’t really feeling it for some reason. But I kept the same cake color, although a lighter and slightly more bluish shade. I opted to go with hand-made sugar tulip decorations, because their “save the date” cards included a picture of them in a field of red tulips (aww).


This was my first attempt at tulips and I really enjoyed making them. There’s something about making flowers by hand... it's so rewarding. There’s this moment, after you’ve made however many less-than-perfect ones (I think about 10 in this case), that you get it right and they actually start to look like the intended flower. (The not so perfect ones take their places on the back-side of the cake.)


The “S” monogram was made from gumpaste, like the flowers, but I made the "M" out of candy clay. I’m starting to like candy clay more and more, it stays workable longer… it’s more forgiving than gumpaste which sets up hard so quickly.


Here’s the “M” monogram being made. I first started with a computer printout of the monogram cut to the size and style I wanted. I laid it on my rolled out candy clay and traced around it with a small pastry-wheel type tool.


Then I used my Exacto knife to make progressively deeper cuts, working my way eventually to the bottom of the candy clay. Then I cut and peeled away the excess. Once finished it was time to let the monogram dry. I let it sit overnight and then turned it over in the morning. Every so often I flipped it over to dry on the other side.


Finally, I attached skewers to the back side with melted chocolate. The skewers were eventually stuck into the cake. I also used a toothpick to reinforce the skinny, middle part of the letter since it seemed the most vulnerable to breakage. Hopefully you can see that here in a picture of the back side.


Anyway, I'm so happy for Mike and Sarah, two very special people (I keep wanting to call them “kids” LOL). Don't they look fantastic?


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