The Wedding Cake Chronicle - Part 6

Get ready, it's going to be a long day.  Started at 10am this morning.  Leveled, torted and crumb coated the 12", 10" and 8" squares.  Didn't get to the 14" because I forgot to buy cake boards big enough. 

Tried to clean up the bows with shortening but the first one started to crack so I decided to wait.

Stacked the dummy cake I iced yesterday.  I used long wooden skewers to hold the two tiers together.  Not sure if I'm happy with it but we'll see if I have time to redo. 

It's about 1pm and I'm off to the store to pick up some larger cake boards so I can work on the 14".

OK, break time is over.  Had lunch, bought cake boards, and did some cleaning up in the kitchen. 

It's 3pm and time to start with the 14".  Torted and crumb coating done.  For future reference, consider not splitting cakes over 12" just stack two 2" layers.  They are too large and fragile to handle at 1" thick!

Sorry I don't have photos for today, I was behind, stressed, and completely forgot to take photos!

I start icing the cakes.  Based on the dummy cake I previously did I decided to make the icing fairly thin.  Big mistake! 
I spend the next 6 hours...yes i said 6 hours... (with a 1 hour break for dinner) making icing batches and icing the 4 cakes and remaining dummy cake.  I was just trying to get it too perfect.  The OCD in me is making my life miserable! 

I finally realize that once the icing crusts it's best to just leave it alone.  I decide it is a good as I am going to be able get it and move on to stacking. 

Doug was gracious enough to help me stack the cakes.  He has a great eye for centering the cake plates.  For those that don't know, this involves using 4 pillars for each tier, measuring, inserting them in the cake and using a plastic separator plate with feet that fits into the pillars.  The next tier is then placed on the plastic plate.  I try to find the two best sides of each tier and arrange them on the same side of the stacked cake.  I think this cake will definitely have a back side.  It took about 1 hour to stack the cakes.  I also stack the second dummy cake.

It's 10 pm and honestly, now comes the fun part.  The decorating is when the cake starts to come together.  This is when I get into a zone and really don't mind what time it is. But.....

At this point I'm thinking this cake looks like crap!  I refuse to take a photo.  Although I should have to show you how not to freak out at this point.  It WILL get better.

I fill in the gaps between the plates with icing, roll out some fondant and add a 1" strip of purple fondant around the bottom of each tier.  Looks better already!

Next comes the tails of the ribbons.  I roll out some more fondant, cut 2.5" wide strips and place them on the corners of the cakes flowing down the sides.  I wish the cake was fondant so I could place some paper towels under the strips to create more "flowing" but I do the best I can.  Wow, that was pretty close, I only have a small amount of fondant left!

I use shortening to clean up the bows.  They will go on at the venue. 

That's it! 

It doesn't seem like it should have taken that long but it's now 1:22am.  I'm going to bed.  Oh my, my feet and back are so sore!

Good night!