Wedding Cake and Penny

A few years ago, my sister called me and said she was getting married. I was happy for her because I knew her fiance was the right guy for her. She first asked if I would be in her wedding. She knows from many conversations that I don't really go to weddings, much less participate in them. I don't know why I have a strange hangup on weddings. Some of my friends have suggested that maybe I'm a little bitter because it is against the law for me to marry in most places.... perhaps. I'm not sure. I just never really enjoyed most of the weddings I have been to- recently though, I've attended a few weddings where I have been extremely close to the bride and that makes all of the difference in the world. That happiness for someone else makes the ceremony and the reception all the more fun. After I agreed to be in the wedding, she asked if I would bake her wedding cake. Whoa. My heart started beating really fast and I kept asking if she was sure. She knew that over the year or so before, I had taken a few cake decorating classes. I had never made a wedding cake, though. I decided to take on the challenge.

Now, I never would have taken on such a big task if my sister did not reassure me that she absolutely was not bridezilla. She didn't care about the cake at all. This made it so much easier. I have watched so many TV shows where the bride debated about her cake for months and the bakers would say that the cake is the most important part of the wedding. Not in my sister Penny's case. I told her that it could be a disaster and the cake could end up being crumbled up on a plate with a few flowers. She said that was fine, that it was no big deal and she just thought it would be nice to have her brother bake the cake.

I probably went about the whole thing in the wrong way. Looking back, I could have done so much more to make the cake a success. Instead of outlining the project and experimenting with different techniques, I went right to my go-to recipe for frosting- a simple butter cream and then decided to use fondant which I had learned in my last cake class. To keep it simple, I figured I would use fresh flowers that matched the ones she was using in her wedding.

I purchased several round cake pans that would stack nicely and immediately got to work in my Vegas kitchen. For some reason, I had not worried much about how the cake would taste, but how it would look on display. I baked a few layers and began coating the cakes with butter cream. I rolled out big layers of fondant and started placing them over the cakes. Trying to smooth it out, I encountered all of the disasters that go along with fondant. The tearing, the holes, and air bubbles. After practicing a few layers, I think that I finally mastered fondant. I convinced myself that if there were any imperfections, I could cover them with flowers. I didn't practice much after that and showed up in Ohio to bake this cake.

I think I probably started a little too early and I think that I hadn't planned out the task the way I would now. The cake took me a couple of days and I added raspberry extract to the filling of butter cream because Penny told me that Nathan liked raspberry. I probably could have asked that before a few days before the wedding. I could have used actual raspberry filling instead of butter cream with raspberry flavoring. Instead, I carried on as if I knew what I was doing.

When we met with her caterer, they asked if I wanted them to peel the fondant covering from the cake, and I said sure. I worked for days on the cake and kept the layers protected from guests at the all-night bachelor party. My sister-in-law, Stacy was in charge of picking me and the cake up from the house. We did that with success and I saw concern on her face when she saw the cake. It didn't look good and I was nervous about the humidity. We got the cake to it's table and I began decorating with the fresh flowers. Suddenly the cake came to life and even Stacy admitted she didn't think it was going to look good but that it surprised her and looked great. I was so happy that it was able to be on display, knowing that the actual cake being served to guests was a giant sheet cake in the kitchen. All I had to do was make the cake look good and I had achieved that. I was relieved.

Now, years later, I wish I could know what I know now. I have since experimented with many different frostings and decorating techniques. I could have made the cake so much better and even made a cake that people would want to eat. Raspberry filling is so easy for me to make now, using fresh raspberries. Vanilla butter cream can be transformed into a Swiss meringue with vanilla beans and fondant can manipulated to create flowers. But that's okay. I think the cake served its purpose and it meant a lot to me that my beautiful sister would want the cake to be made by me. I'm glad I had the experience, but would probably not do something like that again, honestly. I now pay close attention to wedding cakes when I go to weddings. I notice the work that goes into them more now and I appreciate the little details on the cakes. Cake is a delicate medium to work with and it takes years to master the art form.

What my sister did for me by asking me to bake her wedding cake is simple. She got me to Ohio several days earlier than I normally would've shown up and we got to spend more time together. Penny is one of my best friends and I am so lucky to have her. We had such a great time together, as we always do and I won't ever forget being a part of her wedding.