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!