The cake! The cake! The Halloween Cake!

Don't you love the cake table?  To the left is the back up sheet cake/groom's cake with the Batman logo on it. The groom is a huge comics book fan.  To the right is the skull punch bowl.  Rock on.

I just loved this wedding and reception. Everything about it was tongue in cheek and very fun, very much a showing of the bride and grooms' personalities. Although I don't know Lucas at all, I've worked with Jessica a couple of years now and have always liked her. She's loud and fun--two of my favorite things in the whole world. Oh, and she cusses like a sailor.  We're twin souls when it comes to that.  So the two of us in a unit together is like painting the walls blue.  But dammit, we're fun!

The wedding was held miles out in the middle of farming country, north of Springfield. The last 30 minutes of the drive was on dirt road with small washes over creeks and on lanes so narrow the branches of the trees intertwined overhead.  Once to the farm, the house and staging area for the wedding sit on a hill so that the view was of the sunset on the hills all around.  The reception was held in a pole barn out behind the house with a tent for the food.  It truly was one of the most creative, spirited, and warm fuzzy home weddings I've ever been to.

My favorite part of the cake was the roses. I've worked gumpaste roses for a couple of years now but this batch was one of my best. I really enjoyed doing these and how they came out.

This whole project started when I went into work one night. Jessica was talking about how untraditional her wedding would be: the weekend before Halloween with a Halloween theme, tons of gargoyles, walking down the aisle to head-banger music, having black in her wedding dress and dressing her groom in a red tux and the ushers in purple tuxes....what's not to love? Then she uttered the statement that captured my little cake decorating heart "I don't know where I'm going to find a baker who will make a black fondant wedding cake..."  Oh. Be still my heart.  Pick me.  I volunteered on the spot. I thought for a minute and said "You know what kind of cake has to be inside it, right?"  She replied, "I'm hoping you're going to say red velvet."  Yes, indeedy.  Red velvet cake inside the black fondant with purple polka dots and blood red roses.  Again, what's not to love?

For more pictures of the actual wedding and bride and groom, click here:  JESSICA

For pictures of the step by step process of the making the cake, click below.

And so it began with this table full of cake a few weeks ago. I knew I had to bake and freeze ahead of time or I'd be an insane person by the time the wedding week came along. As I've bitched and moaned about over the last week it's been a little nuts around here. You know how it is when you say "yes" to certain things, all things you want to do or places you want to go or people you want to do things for or things you HAVE to do, and then suddenly you realize that all of those commitments are for the same week?  Yup. That was my week last week.  First I had ACLS training for work which was the single most stressful thing I've done since state boards and the final school program exams, then Gene's birthday was this past week.  Luckily for me he's not high maintenance but still, ya kind of want your spouse to have a good birthday, you know?  And then there was the cake decorating day following by working a twelve hour overnight shift, followed by a few hours of bad sleep and up and on to the wedding over an hour's drive away--on dirt roads.  I wasn't so worried about the cake itself but I was tenseness personified worrying the roses would vibrate apart. Luckily for all of us, they stayed intact.

The decorating day began with Gene pouring himself a cup of coffee and getting the hell out of my way.  Smart boy, that one.  See how blurry this pic was? That's how I was seeing the world at that point. 

Notice the cakes lined up still in their tupperware on the stove to the left and my kitchenaid mixer that I'm finally about five minutes from burning out the motor on to the right on the cabinet.  The marshmallow fondant almost did it in.  I'm hoping to baby it through another year or two but it's given great service for the last fifteen so when it finally gives up the ghost I'll write it a requiem with affection.

To make the marshmallow fondant, you microwave 16 ounces of miniature marshmallows and 2 Tbsp of water together until melted down. I do it in 2 minute increments on 80% power until I can stir the whole thing into a homogenous ooze with a spatula.

That mixture is added to 2 lbs of sifted powdered sugar along with 1 Tbsp vanilla and a tsp of butter flavoring if you have it. I didn't so I didn't use it. To make my black fondant, no way was I going to hand knead the coloring in so I also added a full ounce of black paste food coloring to each of the two batches of fondant I made.

If the cake layers need to be leveled, do so with a long-bladed bread knife.

Next came a large bowl of fluffy all butter decorator buttercream sandwiched in between the layers and as a healthy crumb coat.

And then let the black fondant be rolled out!  As Gene helped me cover the layers we both remarked that it felt like and looked like leather.  We loved the way it looked even with just that simple adornment.  As a matter of fact, someday I'm going to make a cake for myself and it's going to be in the black "leather" fondant with a herringbone black/white ribbon trim and the same red roses I made for Jessica.  I loved the way the layers looked.

Next came the purple. I admit that although I like the purple on the finished cake for Jessica's wedding, I personally would have loved to leave it off had the cake been for me.  But don't get me wrong. I liked the purple, although looking at the pics now I wish I'd made more stripes so they were closer together or all polka dots. The striped layer doesn't thrill me although the color in that context works for me.  But personally, like I said, I'll be remaking this design at some point catered just for me and my personal taste.  Red, black, and white can never go wrong. I'll show the finished cake again in a second.

Here's a visual recap of the roses.  First I roll up the end of a florist's wire to seat the tear dropped shape of the middle of the rose.  After a day or so of drying, each drop gets one petal wrapped around and more drying.

Then a couple more petas are added and a couple of days of drying...and on and on...

After the final petals are attached and dried for a few days, I make the calyx's and attach...and what?  Oh yeah, and dry, of course.

So from there, it was all carted to Richland, over an hour's journey away to the groom's parents' farm where the wedding was held at sunset and all the guests were dressed in costumes. Rock on!

Comments

[MyKitchenInHalfCups]

Even when you show picture by picture how it's done, I still don't see how you do it!
Fantastic Glenna! Rock on!

[Katie]

What a fun cake! The whole wedding sounds like it was a hoot - the best way to get married!

[Laurie]

I love it!! Man, thats the coolest cake, very goth. Very Halloween. You did a fantastic job!

[megan]

Rock on! You did a fabulous job. You had me impressed with the crumb coat. I'm Wowed with the whole thing!

[Jenny]

What great work! And I need to write down the marshmallow fondant recipe as it seems much tastier than the fondant I bought premade from Wilton.

[DaviMack]

Truly awesome cakes!

Whatever you do, don't think that your Kitchenaid is burned out if it breaks. Unless it's the Professional model, it's got at least one Teflon / silicon / plastic gear in its drive system, so if anything breaks or wears out, it can be easily repaired. (Or so I'm told).

[Alice Q. Foodie]

Well it looks gorgeous - but I wouldn't want to see the guests' teeth after eating it! :-) Great job on the roses!!

[sher]

Those roses are perfect! Collette couldn't have done them any better! :):) Or Duff.

[Glenna]

Thanks, y'all. I really love your reaction. That was one of the most fun cakes I've ever done.

David--good advice. I talked to Gene and he said he'll take it in to an appliance repair shop he knows of and see if they can fix it. It's really grinding right now but I don't want to give it up and go replace it at $300+.

[Rchel]

I absolutely LOVE IT! Nice job!

[Glenna]

Thanks, Rachel! I appreciate that!

[cheryl]

This is so awesome. First I love Halloween, and I love Halloween weddings. And I love to see cake decorating. You did an amazing job with the cake, and the roses are just beyond perfect. So talented.

[Glenna]

Cheryl--Thanks so much. I really appreciate your kinds words. It was such a fun cake to make.