My Wedding Cake

Nope - I haven't gotten married! This is my wedding cake from our Advanced Cake Techniques class. We had to do a mock cake (styrofoam covered in fondant and decorated) of at least three tiers and then an 8 inch tasting cake. I decided to do a winter nature theme. The birds and flowers above were on the top tier. Birds, flowers, and leaves are all made from gumpaste and painted.

Above is a detail that shows the embossing I did (using clear plastic, flexy stamps I got from Michaels) and the brushed embroidery piping I did on the bottom tier.

Here is the "tasting cake" - I did a coconut cake with vanilla bean pastry cream and tangerine curd between the layers. The frosting underneath the fondant is just vanilla buttercream. The sparkle on the edges is a product called edible glitter - it's basically a type of gum or gelatin and has no flavor.

Here's a photo of the whole cake. The silver birch branches are made out of pastillage (basically a play dough type substance made from sugar, cornstarch, gelatin, and sugar) that was formed, dried and then painted with a cocoa butter paint.

It was fun (and nerve-wracking to work on such a big product). The most time-consuming part was making all the flowers and painting them with silver.