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.