The Jeanette Wedding Cake

Happy Sunday! January brings Display Cake design for me and football playoffs for my husband. So while I sculpt, carve, cover and place, he's yelling in the background at his favorite team! Today, of course, it's the Chicago Bears which are, happily for this household anyways, beating up on the Seahawks.

This week's cake is a Display Cake modeled after a Bride who would like a Winter Wedding. This doesn't always mean snowflakes for a wedding cake. In this cake I put the "winter" into it by adding the blue sanding sugar as well as the "bling" of rhinestones and used the color blue. This makes for a very elegant cake to match the Bride and the wedding as well as one appropriate for a gorgeous Winter Wedding. The size of this cake is also something different. Many wedding cakes these days are grand confections that could feed 150 to 300 people. Yet many wedding guest lists don't top 75. So how do you get a "grand" look without wasting cake? You simply take the grand design and make it smaller. This cake has an 8 inch base, 6 inch center tier and 4 inch top tier. Perfect for a wedding of about 50 people. Also, using one big flower will give a small cake a bit of drama without overpowering it like tons of flowers would. This sugar Camellia, pictured below, was also dusted with ivory luster dust to give it a bit of drama as well.

This weeks "secret" is the sanding sugar. You can find this wonderful cake decoration in any craft store that carries cake supplies. Once you have frosted your cake with buttercream you can just sprinkle it on to add a bit of glitter to your cake. If you are working with fondant all you do is either mist on a fine layer of water with a spray bottle or use a new paint brush and lightly paint on a bit of water and then sprinkle on the sugar. Make sure you have something under the cake to catch the excess that will fall off as you sprinkle or this can make quite the mess. But it's an easy touch and one that makes a big impact on any cake. The second "secret" is the "bling". It's very easy to bring a small bit of glitz or a large touch of glam to a wedding cake just by using rhinestones. These can be purchased seperately or in strands, as on this cake, but you can also you a family broach or necklace or even a barrette to adorn your cake and become a stunning piece of "Cake Jewelry"!

January also brings The Pinewood Derby for Cub Scouts. I always do something for the local pack and this year it's going to be cupcakes! So check out next Sunday to see what I come up with.

Cat