Project Wedding Cake I

When a good friend asked Rebecca and I if we would like to bake the cake for their wedding reception, I didn't hesitate to say yes!  Luckily Rebecca indulged my craziness and accepted the challenge.

Many hours later, our hard work paid off and every last morsel was consumed!  Better yet, Rebecca might even bake with me again!!

Rebecca's baking suit :)

The couple gave us free reign when it came to what we wanted to do for their baked goods...  cake or cupcakes, flavors, decoration, it was all up to us.   Knowing how quickly I make decisions, we're lucky they got their cake :)

After pouring over some cookbooks, a three baking sessions to test out some cakes and flavor combinations, we had a plan.  One cake for cutting purposes and a lot of cupcakes.  Wedding cake novices, we didn't quite have the equipment for baking a cake large enough for 70 people, nor did we feel comfortable decorating one!

My estimations for numbers (~100, 48 of each flavor) seemed spot-on, as both the cupcakes were polished off before we all left Fosters Clam Bake.  However, my fear of not having enough filling and frosting did cause me to overestimate the amount of those to make, oops!  Things went pretty smoothly, minus one failed attempt at finding the soft ball stage :)

Here's how it went down...

Plan of Attack:
Thursday PM- make frostings (~4hrs)
Friday- bake cake and cupcakes (~5hrs)
Saturday AM- prepare fillings (~2hrs)
Saturday noon- assembly!  (~2hrs)

Thanks to a consult with Jen, transporting 100+ cupcakes was made easy through the use of under-the-bed boxes  (awesome tip)!  Seated in the boxes lined with grip-it shelf liner, all of our babies arrived safe in Maine safe and sound.  The cake layers were simply wrapped in saran, fillings kept on ice, and frostings left out so they would come to room temperature during the car ride north.

a perfect bite (cupcake core, dab of filling and frosting)

When it came to go-time, we went with a divide-and-conquer approach, Rebecca and Mike cored and filled cupcakes while I prepared the cake.

After that was done I frosted the cupcakes while Rebecca provided the finishing touches!

Somehow we managed to finish decorating the cupcakes and get our mess out of the way just as the first guests started arriving.  A quick trip to the hotel to change, it was then time to relax and enjoy the party :) 

Congrats Meghan and Leo!!!

Come back on Monday to find out what flavors we baked up!