A tale of a wedding cake....

My biggest project this year, no in fact I underestimate the stress of the situation..my biggest project this year was a dear friend's wedding cake. Sure I did my own wedding cake but, had that gone awry I would have had noone to blame but myself. To be in charge of the centrepiece of someone else's dream day was an absolutely immense responsibility.

Needless to say there were several meetings to discuss flavours, dimensions, details and thankfully for me the design she wanted was crisp and 'simple'. I use the speech marks as simple is, as I found out far more complex.

The cake was to be three stacked tiers tall with a fruit base layer, chocolate centre layer and lemon top layer. Coated in pure white icing and wrapped in ribbons of teal and ivory.

First problem - I had never stacked that amount of cake before. I quickly came to realise that supports would be essential. I used Wilton invisible pillars which I inserted into each layer. These were a good choice as they were easy to saw and file. Though I'm sure you can imagine the looks I got in my local hardware store when I went in and said 'I need a hacksaw' 'What for?' 'I'm baking a cake...'.

My second problem was a rather large set back I encountered - I managed to drop my 13" fruit cake. I have never wept over cake before but I did sit among the wreckage and weep. However, and thankfully, this calamity happened in plenty of time..and it did mean my husband got a taste test.

Third problem was ensuring that the icing was absolutely pure white and free of impurities. This just meant very careful preparation of surfaces. Something I also found useful was the discovery that you can use vodka as a cleaning solvent on icing.

Crumbing, covering and stacking was otherwise uneventful. The next terrifying step was transportation. I don't think my husband has ever driven so slowly and carefully..even when I was in labour with our children. So we got there safely.

Then it was time to set up. Very carefully I moved all the tiers into the function room and started to restack on their rather gorgeous stand. No problems thus far. But could I get those bloody ribbons to stay in place. My faux professional cool, ably demonstrated by my bringing along my tool box (read:trolley), was destroyed by about thirty minutes of muttering at ribbons. But I got there in then end and, several months on she is still telling me how much she loved it.

*PHEW*