The Cake part II

With only two hits to the snooze button, it was 5:42 AM when I stumbled into the kitchen. I left the windows open to my house thinking the cakes could “keep cool” as they traveled in and out of the fridge as I frosted them the next morning. But, being early fall, this proved to be a horrible idea. At 66 degrees in my house, there was no way the icing was ever going to reach it’s “initial volume” as the recipe promises it will after letting it warm to room temperature. They probably never guessed that someone's room would be 66 degrees! So, with very clumpy icing (remember all that fanfare I promised, yeah, not happening with over 2 lbs of butter in it in a cold room). So, I turned on the heat (for the first time this season, pee-u) and the oven just to get things cookin’. Fortunately I picked the sheet cake to fill and frost first, so no one was really going to see the clumpy frosting. Besides I had to do a crumb coat – that would use up all the flop icing, right? Well, a lot of it. I decided I better whip up a fresh batch to do the final coat. When that one behaved about the same, I started to panic that everyone would think I lied about this “beautiful” icing. I stopped the mixer and proceeded with crumb coating on the 14 and 10 inch cakes. About 40 minutes later when I was about to run out of icing, I flipped back on that mixer and hoped for the best. It’s finally about 70 on the thermostat and with periodic openig and closing of the oven door, my kitchen must be at least 75. Hah, the frosting is finally looking like the regal stuff I know it can be! Hallelujah!

I had told Hubby the night before that I wanted to be in the car and ready to go at 9:00 AM, since I said I would deliver the cake at 10:30. Well, I think we both knew that was never going to happen, when he was still in bed at 9:05 and the cakes were barely iced. I decided I would stack the three layers before I left the house (you’ll see why this could prove fatal for the cake in a moment) and attach the gardenias when we got there. Hubby couldn’t believe that was plan after he proceeded to shake vigorously the car of mine that needs new struts! He thought for sure we would get a cake-filled trunk by just the end of our driveway! So fortunately I had picked up a long dowel from the hardware store the day before after reading of some who had used one to protect the cake from sliding over. I ran up to my make-up bag and got the only pencil sharpener I knew I could easily locate (the dowel was the perfect diameter). After making a nice sharp point and cutting it to size with my bread knife, I shoved that dowel straight down through the three cakes and their cardboard dividers. Wait don’t forget the other cake! Almost did. Alright it’s finally 11:11 AM and we are leaving the house.

The first 15 minutes was about the most nerve-wracking of the next 78-minute drive to Elk Grove. You see, we live at the bottom of a 2.5 mile steep, bumpy, barely-paved road and then about 400 feet down an even bumpier dirt road. So at the top of that hill, we both hopped out of the car to check on everything (lots of hopping in this blog!). All there--and in one piece, phew. The rest of the ride proved pretty uneventful except that even with all the pulling over to let cars pass, we still beat Google maps estimated drive time to the location by 2 minutes. Who does those calculations anyway?!

When we arrived I quickly stuck the gardenias in the cake 

and fixed a few cracks it had suffered on the way down – nothing major. The we stashed it in the fridge

where it got it's first completed photo and we hopped in the car and went to my mother-in-laws to get ourselves ready. The worst critic was Hubby who wondered why it was not smooth and how it didn’t look very professional. (Remember this isn't fondant). Well, what can I say, I cried. But after his mom saw the picture, he put him in his place. lol

Shortly before the wedding they put the cake on the cake table with all the decoration. I really didn’t think it looked so bad now and Hubby finally agreed. Just before the wedding I heard that the bride had just seen the cake. She loved it! I knew this is all that mattered and I could now relax.

After they cut the cake,

the bride and groom wrangled me over and told everyone that I made it “from scratch”.  I got lots of compliments, not on the look (which is fine with me), but on the taste. I even had two pieces myself, why not, I think I earned an extra slice. Good thing for that extra sheet cake (I put the sole "handmade"gardenia on it.)

I’m pretty sure my mother-in law took the last four pieces home after the wedding and Hubby said to her, “You’d better since she won’t be doing that again!” What does he know! Anyone need a cake?