Atop the cake

I have a very good cohort of friends. Friends who enjoy (!) being put on the spot and asked for things in the shape of intensely stressful once-in-a-lifetime requests…

Such as…

Merry Christmas!

Please will you make my wedding cake?

Jenny is the mother of my godchild (one of the flowergirls) and was something between a live-in nanny, surrogate aunt and all round best friend when we were growing up. A family friend, she turned 21 at our home when she lived there for 18 months when I was about 7. She also happens to be the daughter of an incredibly talented chef and made my sister’s Christening cake in 1986. It seemed only natural that we ask Jenny to bring out the skills again.

What… is it really such a big ask??!?

As you will know from my various meanderings we rather dilly dallied on the style and structure of what we wanted. In truth, as long as it didn’t look like any of these we honestly didn’t mind. Which wasn’t exactly helpful to a nervous non-cake designer.

So we got our thinking hats on, our design books out and came up with this 1950s retro look on the left as our favourite but with the pearls on the right rather than the stripes. For some reason, living with hayfever for 27 years has rather put me off flowers-in-food, so we decided on compact layers, and four at that!

Due to the Boy’s nut resistence and yet my LOVE of walnuts in cake, the layers were decided thus:

• Fruit cake (without whole nuts but moistened with ground almonds)
• Fruit cake (with whole nuts and moistened with ground almonds)
• Carrot cake without nuts
• Carrot cake with nuts

 

All recipes, instructions and general brilliance were sourced in the wonderful Mich Turner’s Spectacular Cakes who also founded the Little Venice Cake Company from where these images are taken.

The final result is the rather unflattering image of me here… with FIMO cake toppers made by yours truly as described here.

 

 

 

Needless to say, we were over the moon.