Such a special day!

For those of you who've been watching the progress on the cakes, you'll know that I'm talking about my daughter, S's, wedding day yesterday.  I was more nervous for her wedding day than my own, and I'm starting to think that is normal for the MOTB.  But everyone and everything came together and just worked!  It was truly a beautiful day all the way around.  I didn't get pictures of everything, but I will share what I have. 

Let's start with a couple of pics of my beautiful daughter and her beautiful dress.  I didn't get Bridal Gown 101 from the store, but thanks to some wonderful people that I will talk about more another day, I had the special privelege of helping her with her final dress preparations.  I kept having to take pictures of my lacing job from the back and showing them to her to see if I was doing it right.

 And I got it wrong at first.

The bow goes on the inside!  See how pretty it lays!

 

And here is my daughter all ready to go.  Can we say "beautiful" boys and girls?

I will post another day about her something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue or the wonderful people and beauty of the setup or even the moments that made me tear up. For now we'll just go straight to the cakes.  We'll begin with the wedding cake.  Here are the final pics of the cakes taken from my house, ready for C to pick up and transport to the wedding venue. 

And here it is all stacked up and ready for S & K and their guests to enjoy!

Now for K's Frisco 1522 cake.  Let's begin with some of the fondant prep activities.  I said something a couple of days ago about black luster spray being my new BFF.  Here's a shot of the fondant before BLS.  Notice how the fondant is still closer to gray than black?  Also notice the leftover powdered sugar traces even after I had brushed it off repeatedly? 

If I had caught a shot of the "steam cap" (that hat-looking piece from a few days ago) layed on top, you'd really see the contrast in color.  Now look at the BLS after.  Amazing, right?!!

I added some trims to lay the first sense of dimensions that it's a train and then it was ready for C to take on the task of transporting it to the Transportation Museum.

And now, here are some shots of the final cake with all of the side pieces and the top pieces in place, the working light, the working bell and yes, even some smoke coming from the chimney for a few minutes at the very beginning. 

 And here's a view of the entire cake luggage cart.

As one friend put it, a one of a kind cake.  And she's right.  It will never be built again - to be enjoyed but once and irrevocably, like fireworks.

It was a very special day.  And it was obvious that S&K had a wonderful time. 

Oh, and they ended up married....which I think was the whole point! 

1 day...

...or really T-minus 27:30...and counting!

I won't post much, and it seems wrong to post any pics of the cakes now, but I wanted to at least say a few things:

1 - the cakes are ready for transport!!!  I was giving myself until 2pm today to do all that I could on both cakes and trusting Providence and my friend, C, to take care of the rest.  Well, I was actually "done" 20 minutes early!  Woo-hoo!!!  I'm quite pleased with both cakes.  They aren't perfect - they were done by me, after all - but I like them overall.  I really hope S & K enjoy them!

2 - black luster spray is my new BFF.  When I show you pics of the before BLS and after BLS, you'll think it's your new BFF, too.  Trust me on this one.

3 - I still need Commando strips that hold 5 lbs.  Sitting here across from the picture that I still need to hang up (hopefully before I have a household full of guests the next 2 days!) reminded me.

4 - I need to run to Wal-Mart after the rehearsal dinner.  Does that fact make me a) a normal MOTB?  or b) a cheap MOTB?  or c) forgetful?  or d) all of the above?  Need to add Commando strips to that list...

5 - My sister and her hubby (J&G) are on their way from Bloomington for the wedding!!!  Woo-hoo!!!

I suppose I should go.  It's now T-minus 27:20, and I have to leave here in under 2 hours to head to the rehearsal.  By the way - "not" and "now" mean totally different things, but I get them typo-ed wrong all of the time and often end up giving a sentence a totally opposite meaning!  And that's not just a result of being the MOTB on the Wedding Eve!  (Does anyone else do that?)

Looking forward to posting pics of the finished cakes as well as my beautiful bride daughter and all of the beauty she and her wedding coordinator friend have planned!

J'Deb

2 days...

...and 48 hours from now we will be dancing at the reception. 

It's just getting from here to there - from now to then - from planning to doing - from vision to execution - and keeping it all in perspective - keeping the main thing the main thing which is S&K get married.

The layers are thawed...

...and most are stacked and trimmed and crumb coated.   

I think I may be tired and not able to form really good thoughts, so I think I'll just post a few pics and let them do the talking for me.  I may not get to post again tomorrow since it'll be Wedding Eve, but I will do my best to post pics of the final finished cakes as well as the bride, the wedding, the reception over the next few days.  

Crumb coated base of wedding cake

Crumb coat before smoothing

Crumb coat after smoothing (see the difference?)

Wait - I have to say one thing before I close.  These are my 2 favorite fondant geniuses ever!  And may be my 2 favorite people for today.  These 2 fondant geniuses spent an hour - yes, you read that right - an hour between the two of them needing WHITE white chocolate marshmallow fondant into BLACK white chocolate marshmallow fondant.  That is an AMAZING feat and a HUGE help to me.  If you have ever spent 5 minutes kneading fondant, you can appreciate the muscle and humor and sheer love for bride and groom (or self...I suppose, since one of the people in this picture IS said groom!) it took to do this.

Random thoughts since I'm tired.  My son, D, flew home from CA today, and then he and S&K went out for a white shirt and black shoes for him to wear.  We (not my son, D, but we as in bride, MOTB, MOH and GMOTB) went for manis and pedis today and for the first time in my life, I can honestly say that I'm shellaced.  My fingernails feel like they are 3 times their normal thickness.  I almost put the gold side of the foil on the wedding cake boards instead of silver.  (Don't tell S, the bride, that; she hates the look of gold, and her color scheme includes silver, gosh darn it!) 

I think I need to go to bed.  In fact I'm pretty sure of it.  Tomorrow is a big day followed by an even bigger day.  And there is still so much to do.  And I'm not sure this post is making any sense at all, but S is looking for one of the bridal party gifts that's lost, so I'm out. 

G'night

3 days...

...and I've had to keep reminding myself all day that it's only Wednesday and not Thursday!

Since I've been talking about the groom's cake almost exclusively, I thought I'd spend a little bit of time on the wedding cake in tonight's post.  We made the fillings for each of the layers today.

The top tier will be strawberry with a mascarpone marshmallow filling.  It doesn't look like much, but it has a very nice, subtle flavor that will blend well with the strawberry cake and the buttercream icing.

The middle tier will be amaretto cake with a raspberry mascarpone filling.  This is so simple to put together it's almost shameful, but the flavor is really rich.  It's just mascarpone mixed with raspberry jam.  Seriously.

The lowest tier will be chocolate cake with a mocha filing, including some espresso provided by a friend from high school who is now in the coffee roasting biz.  Nice!  And yum!  I basically took the mascarpone marshmallow base and added espresso and cocoa.  I am really pleased with how this came out.  It's velvety on the tongue with a very nice balance of coffee with chocolate.  Neither flavor overpowers the other but are happily blending like a good husband and wife should!

I'll close with a quick peak of the really cool cake base that our caterer is letting us use so we don't have to buy one or rent one. 

It looks much heavier than it is, which is very nice for transporting.  The ribbons will go around the base of each tier.  My friend, C, will apply that at the very end.  She is even supplying all of the royal icing for final attachments to both cakes.  Is this lady a wonderful God-send or what?!!! 

Tomorrow is a big cake make or break day.  Please feel free to say as many prayers for us as you like! 

Signing off for now and taking layers of cake out of the freezer tonight.  This means commitment....but not quite as much commitment as that first carving cut...have I mentioned that I'm excited and nervous all at the same time?  

4 days...

...and we're just about ready for cake layers!

Call me a morning person, and I know it's only been about 12 hours since I last posted, which I suppose could mean I'm OCD, but I don't have time to think about that right now.

I don't really have many words to add to these pics; they're pretty self-explanatory.  The first two show the mess that carving styrofoam makes...

And then these last two show a couple of views of the foam layers post carving and covering with baker's foil. 

Can you read the labels?  Make sense?  I still need to glue the tender and cab bases down onto the train wood base, but I'm waiting until after C visits tomorrow evening to do that just in case our discussion means tweaking things.  We're pretty much committed on the engine - although there's still hours in the days to redo but I might have to cry, if so!

That should be all for today!  Thanks again for taking this train journey with us!  And yes, just so you know, I will be posting pics of constructing the wedding cake, but I'm just not doing anything on it yet - unless you want to see pics of the base or black ribbon...hmmm...maybe tomorrow...

Love,
Jus' Deb

5 days...

...and the weather is FANTASTIC!

Today was absolutely BEE-U-TEE-FULL!  How long ago was Friday?  Was that just 3 days ago that we were feeling 100 degree weather?  Saturday was much the same for most of the day.  Today was 30 to 40 degrees cooler.  Such a breath of fresh air the last couple of days have been.

It brings thoughts of Fall - cooler evenings, leaves changing colors, soups - it even make the colors of this cake fit.  (Was it just yesterday that I was posting about my favorite summer meal?  Seasons change quickly around here.)  This is the cake I told you a little bit about yesterday.  This family was honoring their father who has been a pharmacist for 50 years this month.  I was happy to do this cake for them since they have been friends for a long time, and he and his wife have inspired me multiple times.  Here's the whole...

And here's a close up of just the logo.  You may not be able to tell it, but there's glitter and sparkle dust on the cake in various places.  I love adding those tiny touches at the very last.

But that's not all we did today.  We started on the overall train cake layout.  Some of you may think that the pics you are about to see are cheating, and you could be right.  At the same time there's going to be so much more cake at the reception than people can eat that I can't justify baking that much more.  In fact we have little black and white boxes pre-folded ready for people to take home as much cake as they can hold in one of them!  I'm pretty sure there is a law that says you cannot leave S&K's reception without a box full of cake,  Yes, I'm sure of it.  It's the S&K Cake Law.  Look it up.

But back to the cheating part.  We are using layers of styrofoam to make up some of what "should be" cake.  To make the cake large enough to capture as much detail as possible, we need a few fake "layers."  If you've lost all respect for me and stop reading now, I can't entirely blame you.  For the rest of you, here is what I'm talking about.

The pieces on the left are the tender, and the pieces on the right are for the engine although they still need to be carved into the cylindrical shape.  The cake layers will begin behind the stack of blocks at the front and match the width and shape of the carved blocks.  Here's a view of the mock layout from the front.

I will carve the rectangle shaped pieces to match the front round of the engine.  Likewise with the cake layers that will be stacked on the foam.  I will also need to cover all of the foam with decorator's foil after they are shaped - similar to this...

My daugher, S, actually came up with the idea of how to adhere the blocks to the wood.  She drilled little holes in the base and then hot-glued skewers in the holes so that the foam blocks are not only glued to the board, they are also stabilized by the skewers.  Do I have a smart bride daughter, or what?!

Speaking of how smart she is I will close tonight's post with a comparison of the "mess" she and her maid of honor, B, made today while kneading the white chocolate marshmallow fondant vs. the mess that I made....

See all that extra powdered sugar all around the finished fondant bags from S&B?  I mean, really, it's like mountains of powdered sugar, right?  Here are two pictures of my mess. 

I spilled the melted marshmallows down the side of the mixer and then couldn't get the powdered sugar into the bowl!  I swear it's like I've never had a bag of sugar in my hands before!  I blame it on the glass of iced coffee I had an hour before.  Yea, that must be it.

So if all goes well, I hope to have pics of the carved foam blocks in my post tomorrow.  But for now I'm heading off to bed.  I am looking forward to a good night's sleep under soft, freshly-cleaned covers with the windowns open, letting in the cool evening air.  And I don't have to get up early to go to work.

Sigh.  Nice.  Good night. 

6 days...

...means we are under a week! 

It's been 9 days since I last posted, but that doesn't mean we've been reading magazines and eating bon-bons.  My daddy used to say that, and it's just sort of stuck.

I'm now on vacation until after the wedding, and our maid of honor is in town for the week along with her beautiful daughter, our flower girl.  We have organized Wedding Central, discovered a problem with 1/2 of the programs and one of the center pieces, and had the bachelorette party.  I suppose all of that means we are right on track.

I also made the below football cake that I took into work on Friday for college football day to help hone my carving skills ready for this week's activities.  To form the football I took a 6" round cake plus a small amount of cake baked in a glass bowl and then 2 portions of cake baked in custard cups. I "glued" them all together with icing and then started cutting.  It's not perfect, but it's not too bad either.  And it was very good practice.  The Notre Dame logo was for someone else, not because I'm a fan...

As I'm working on this post I'm also baking another cake for some friends tomorrow, again to help freshen up my skills.  I'll try to remember to post a pic of it after I deliver it.

And yesterday we all went to the farmer's market to finalize the plan for some of the flowers and pick up the things to make my all-time favorite summer meal that we ate for lunch!  Corn on the cob, watermelon, fried okra and homegrown tomatoes!  That combo just shouts "SUMMER!" to me, and makes me happy every time I get to enjoy it. 

Indulge me a moment to describe what I mean by fried okra.  I do it the same way my mama did, and that doesn't mean dipped in a batter or a 3-stage breading and then deep fried.  My mama always rolled her okra in cornmeal with just a couple tablespoons of flour tossed in per cup +/- of cornmeal.  She would saute some onion (I add garlic, too) in bacon drippings (I also use olive oil) and then add the okra lightly dusted with the cornmeal.  I guess you could call it somewhat of a stir fried okra, but it is so much more flavorful to me than the deep fried version.  And yesterday's rendition was probably the BEST I've ever had.  The okra was so fresh and tender, the flavor just popped in our mouths!

But that's not what you all are interested in hearing about.  You want to know about the groom's cake!  Well, let me assure you that the base is done!  Here are some updated pictures...

The groom, K, gave us a pilot (cause I guess we needed one...shows what I know about trains, right?!)  It's that flat piece across the front...I think...

He also added some cylinders and gear...

...before finally declaring it "done' and ready for cake!

Here's another angle of "done"...

Pretty cool, huh?  I haven't even seen the whole entire thing "live" and up close yet, because check this out.  You see the railroad tracks themselves?  That whole piece comes off of the base for transporting the cake.  Talk about ingenius!  This is the part that is now at my house, ready to build cake on to. 

That's not all that has been happening.  Remember my friend, C, who has been helping me with the cake all along the way and is doing the final delivery for me?  She has also been very busy making beautiful things and I got to see them yesterday.  It was so exciting! 

Look at these really cool pieces...a chimney, a bell, one of the 1522 signs, and that big round thing that sits on top of the boiler.  Obviously I know the real name for this thing, I'm just trying not to show off too much...

And here's a look at the tender sides...

Pretty incredible, right?!  They are made of a gum paste/fondant combo and then painted and lines formed with rice paper.  See why I'm getting so excited about this!!!

Here is a look at one before painting that is still here at the house to use for sizing since those panels won't be applied until after delivery.  Even I won't get to see the cake completely put together until the reception.

C even made us the "light" to put on the front.  So cool...

There is more that I could show you, but this is probably enough for one day.  I promise to post tomorrow with the next steps to building the cake parts.  Thanks for taking this journey with us!

15 days...

...and counting!

My daughter and I have been working on wedding stuff every evening this week - from seating chart to program fans to place cards.  Last night we added bows to the program fans.  Strike that - we added bows to 1/2 of the program fans.  We have one more night of "fun" planned for next week to do the other half!  Think very narrow ribbon and a small bow.  It's a small motor skill fest at its finest!

In the mean time, the groom has been working steadily on the Frisco 1522 base.  Here are some updated pics.  Let me explain these first two.  The base is actually too wide to fit through any of my doors without tilting.  And call me paranoid, but I'm not really in to tilting cakes to transport.  I'm picky that way.  So K has built a second platform for the train that will transport separately from the base.  Check it out...

See the part that the groom's dad is holding above?  The cake will be built on this part and then...

...poof!  It fits down inside the box on the base.  Ingenius, right?!  But that's not all that's happened on the base this week. 

We've been painting and making wheels and little rod thingys...I'm sure they have a name, but hey... I'm a cake decorator not a train expert...it's my job to just think how cool they look!

But a train needs railroad ties, too, soooo...

See how it's coming together?  Now let's put that piece in context with the whole:

We have a stream and a bridge and a roadway and a railroad crossing and railroad ties and a place for the train.  The base is due to be completed in the next day or so at which point it will be moved to my place, and then I will start to work on the cake portion!  Woo-hoo!!

Stay tuned.  I think you'll get a kick out of seeing how we put the engine together....

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!