Though I personally prefer pie.
I appreciated Kelly's comment, "A wedding pie could be the beginning of a glorious new trend in weddings." I agree, but somehow I didn't think the bride would see it that way. Truthfully, I did seriously consider it for a few dark moments on Thursday night.
I rolled that fondant until my arms felt like they had been slalom waterskiing. I went back for more fondant...three times. No, it was not homemade. No, it is not as easy as it looks on the box. And no, the "Easy- Glide Smoother" is not magic. The only instruction in two wedding cake books for square cakes was this: "Rounds are easy to cover with fondant. But what about other geometric shaped cakes? On squares or hearts, pull the corner flaps gently out and downward, then smooth to avoid creases." Oooohhh. Just pull gently out and downward and then smooth to avoid creases. Why didn't I think of that?
I remember RIM thinking (when my brother asked me to make the cake), "I ought to take a few classes this fall and just get really comfortable with fondant." You know, try not to "just fake it" again. Um, yeah. That would have been good. Then real life intervened and CIM pretended that everything "would be fine," "I'll figure it out later," "How hard can it be?" etc.
I made my sister Rachel's cake a few years ago, and I've decided I must be a "one-cake wonder" because though I do remember powdered sugar covering every surface of my house, I do not remember the angst and despair, nor the struggle against the very laws of nature: gravity and conservation of matter.
Amy came to my rescue.
And she brought back-up too. (Thank you Cyndee.)
They were like the cavalry riding in on Friday night. It took all four of us (my husband was roped into the project as well) to lift the bottom layer of fondant (28 inches square!) onto the the cake.
This cake is brought to you by "Friends Who Fondant."
I think Amy was a bit distressed at the final result, but I was, by that time, reduced to accepting anything remotely resembling a cake (delusions of "good enough"). I added the satin ribbon around the bottom of each layer to hide most of the flaws and a bit of pearl dust (razzle dazzle) to the tops. It wasn't exactly like the picture the bride had given me four months before...but as Amy pointed out, the "campaign for real beauty" applies to cakes as well and surely the picture must have been "airbrushed." Yes, surely.
So my short and illustrious career as a wedding cake decorator has come to an end. Almost as soon as it began. A pity, really, as it's the only serious exercise I've had in six months.
