Creating the impossible (Part 1)

The number one question that I get asked while decorating is "Have you ever seen that cake show?" My reply is generally "I haven't seen it in a few years, but Yes" When I was addicted to TV I used to watch "Ace of Cakes" all the time! It's a great show and it's so much fun to see what they can make out of fondant. Most people don't see what is involved in making these massive projects, things like weight distribution, icing type, and imagination.

When I get a customer who wants a huge cake I ask them to imagine the impossible, then draw me a picture and bring it in. The blue wedding cake pictured below is an example of a cake where I asked the customer to use their imagination.

The Blue wedding cake was created with six wooden dowels for the base and another four dowels for the middle. They are used to help prevent the layers of cake from smashing the one below. The cake weighed in at just under 60 pounds, with nine layers of filling and 22 pounds of icing.

Originally this customer wanted fondant icing, which is an icing that gets rolled out and put on the cake like a blanket. I have about 1 total hour of experience using fondant icing and I was prepared to give it a try, but the extensive cost turned the customer from the idea. We decided to stick with a fresh buttercream crumb coat, as well as a buttercream final coat. If you've ever worked with buttercream you will know that it's easy to smooth if you have patience haha. From start to finish.. the exterior of this cake took me 2 and a half hours to get the smooth exterior that you come to expect from a beautiful cake.

The final detail work included the lace design as well as the airbrushed stargazer lilies. The lace design was difficult at first, but once you started a pattern it became that much easier. The lilies needed to match the colors used in the wedding, so I used a Hawiian Ocean blue on only half of the lilies and left the others white to give some contrast.

Overall the cake took about six hours to create, and about one full hour to discuss the flavors and icing with the customer. This cake is my "halo" that I could probably use to get me into any cake shop across the country. In the next few months i'm gonna be giving that theory a try, so wish me luck :D

Creating the Yankee Stadium halo cake...

To Be Continued