Posted by Jennifer Sendrow
When my friends Craig and Patricia announced that they'd be celebrating their wedding with a small party at home, I offered to make them a wedding cake. I love to bake, but this was the first time I tried to make such an ambitious cake!
Here's the cake I made for Craig and Patricia.
My first step was visiting NY Cake and Baking Supply, where I got expert advice on all the pans, decorating tools, and structural supports I would need to make a fancy cake for 50 guests. Next, I headed to the supermarket to get the ingredients, such as three dozen eggs, a gallon of milk, and 24 sticks of butter.
I took the recipes and my design inspiration from Martha Stewart's wedding cakes. The wedding cake was a smaller version of a Nonpareil Tower Cake, made of white butter cake with vanilla buttercream filling and frosting and a layer of white rolled fondant on the outside. The dark chocolate nonpareils were held on with piped royal icing. The retro cake toppers came from the novelty shop Archie McPhee in Seattle, a city the bride and groom once called home.
A yummy slice!
It’s traditional for the groom's cake to represent his personal interests. Craig is the managing editor for “Not for Tourists,” so I designed his cake to resemble one of their guidebooks. It was a chocolate butter cake spiced with a bit of cinnamon, nutmeg, and chipotle pepper. The cake was coated with cream cheese frosting, too!
The groom's cake.
Making these cakes in my tiny kitchen was a two-day job (even with help from my husband/sous chef), but it was definitely worth it. The bride and groom were thrilled, and it's safe to say that the guests enjoyed them as well -- by the end of the night, not a crumb was left!
Jennifer Sendrow is the associate producer of "Morning Living"
From: Patty | 5/29/08 at 3:47 pm
Your cake is gorgeous. Thank you for sharing the recipe.
From: sandygluck | 6/5/08 at 3:40 pm
Jen - that is so cool!