20 Days...

...until my daughter's wedding!

It's been over 3 months since I last posted.  I guess you could say I've been busy being the MOTB.  I've never been a MOTB before, so I'm still learning the job description.  My daughter, S, is so well organized that I haven't had to do much.  My main job can be divided into two categories, I suppose:

• Advisor / Counselor / Idea Bouncer Off-er
• Cake decorator

S doesn't really need much advising or counsel, but every once in a while I feel useful.  And S is so creative and brilliant and full of wonderful ideas that it's been very fun being the bouncee of her ideas.

So that leaves cake decorator.  I'm doing both the wedding and groom's cakes.  And since we are on the home stretch, I thought I would try to blog about the plan and the execution. 

Here are the plans in a nutshell:

• Wedding - 12" square chocolate with mocha filling plus an 8" square amaretto with raspberry filling plus a 4" strawberry with marshmallow mascarpone filling.  The 3 cakes will be stacked together with white on white buttercream and a simple black satin ribbon at the base, a silver monogram topper and some red rose petals around the base.  (S's wedding colors are black and white with touches of red and silver.) 
• Groom's - Frisco 1522.  For those of you not in the know, the Frisco 1522 is a train that is housed at the wedding venue, the transportation museum.  S's fiance, K, is a big train buff, so we are working on recreating the engine and the tender (Frisco 1522 ran on oil, not coal) in cake.  The engine will be rum cake and the tender will be strawberry.

All of the tiers and layers are baked and resting quietly in the freezer.  I should really say "freezers."  I don't have enough space in just my freezer for all of the layers so a lovely friend has let me borrow some of her freezer space for a few of the layers.

K is working on the base for the groom's cake, and it is beyond anything that I had in mind.  I was thinking of a few railroad tracks, maybe a rock or two, a couple of trees, but the 1522 would dominate.  No, K, has so much more in mind.  He is building a scene - a moment in time - a  slice of life.  Our Frisco will be coming up to a railroad crossing, and a Camaro will be stopped, waiting for it to cross. 

This makes much more sense with pictures. so let's try this.  First, here is the real Frisco 1522 - at least the front of it...

The plan is to carve and sculpt this out of cake and other materials.  FUN!!

Ok, back to the base.  Here is where K started...

Are you catching what he has going?  We have the beginnings of a river.  A river.  Yes, I said a river, as in...

That's right.  That is a bridge, and a car and rocks and a river bank. 

But that's not all.  Check this out...

Pretty cool, huh?  And there will be edible train cake "crossing" in front of the car.  I would have NEVER thought to come up with this, but I'm so excited about it!

And nervous.  And excited.  And nervous.  And blogging about this will make me all less nervous, right?

Also, for any previously experienced MOTB's out there, I am very thankful to inform you that we have a friend who also decorates cakes who will do the final delivery so I can focus on being the MOTB on the actual wedding day.  She has been meeting with us for weeks now and is also coming up with great ideas on how best to execute this.  Knowing C is part of these cakes does a LOT to ease much of my nervousness.

C does much more than blogging to ease much of my nervous-ing.  Much more. 

But I thought some of you might also enjoy the plan and the steps to execution of both cakes.  I may not post everyday between now and then, but I hope to keep you informed along the way.  And I hope you enjoy the journey with us!