The Wedding Cake Chronicle - Part 5

So it's Thursday and it's time to get cracking on this to do list.  I'm actually a little (OK a lot) behind where I'd like to be at this point.  But even after a long day at work I'm feeling energized.

I finished all my baking tonight, two 10" vanilla cakes and two 8" strawberry cakes.  Another 3 hours of baking time.   

I also finished bows, which really only consisted of figuring out how I was going to join the two halves together.  Many time the bows lay flat on top of the cake and there is no need to tie them together, but this design calls for the bows to sit vertically on the corner of the cake.  I decide to use a strip of fondant that is wrapped 1.5 times around the center of the bow and glue everything together.

You can see how much the color faded when the fondant dried, the center ties are a little darker because they aren't dry yet.  Once they are dry I will rub them with some shortening to remove the powdered sugar and any small imperfections on the surfaces.  I set them in front of a fan for the night.

Again I attempted to ice a dummy cake.  This one actually turned out OK.  But it took a long time for me to figure out how best to use the decorating comb to get clean lines in the icing.  And I had to realize that EVERY line was NOT going to be perfect.  I hate being a perfectionist!

Tomorrow is crunch time but I'm feeling OK and very glad that I took a vacation day for Friday.  Time to get a good night's sleep.