Cake with the Daring Little Separator

My most recent cake reminds me that there is an awful lot of editing that goes on behind the scenes before you ever see a television show.  Let’s give you a little background before I show you the wedding cake from somewhere south and red and very, very hot where people have little horns and carry pitchforks.

I’m sure at some point in your life you’ve watched one of the numerous cake decorating shows that are on the Food Network or TLC channels. I’ve watched several of them – my favorites are the Food Network challenges. I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to take a class from the wonderful Kaysie Lackey! She is one of THE MOST energetic and creative people I’ve ever met! The class was so much fun & I was super shocked that she taught us to put together a cake (real cake – not just a cake dummy) that made it all the way home from Nashville, TN – A 5 HOUR DRIVE!!!!  Here’s a picture of the cake before we left:

Kaysie & Casey - KC squared!

And here’s a picture after it’d been traveling for 5 hours in the car.

Totally amazing that it survived right? I thought so.

So, this brings me to the cake from H. E. Double Hockey Sticks. All of my wedding cakes up to this point have been tiers stacked on top of tiers. Ever since I went to the crazy teapot cake in Nashville, I’ve wanted to step up my game as far as cake design goes. I’d gotten very tired of doing the same ole thing, but that’s what everyone seemed to want. FINALLY, I have a sweet friend that’s getting married and said I could do what I wanted.

This is my chance! I can do finally do something out of the ordinary. YAY!!!! Or so I thought to begin with… The cake design is fairly simple. Round cake, ribbon roses, and buttercream piping. The part that gets tricky is the 6x3 cake dummy covered in fondant that separates the center tiers. I really think that if I had not insisted on stacking the entire cake at home before I left, I wouldn’t have had a problem. They do it on TV all the time, so why wouldn’t it work for me?

Purple and Black Round Wedding with Separator & Ribbon Roses

The car ride was MURDER! I thought it would be a good idea for someone to sit in the back of the car with it just in case it tried to topple. I didn’t make it to the end of my short little street before I was hyperventilating in tears and made my hubby pull over. He graciously sat squished up in the back with it and let me drive. I think I held my breath the entire way there. Just before we pulled into the parking lot, we hit an unexpected BUMP & my hubby’s hand smashed a small part of the bead border. No worries though – that’s what the emergency kit in the front seat is for. We got it set up, I fixed the border only to realize that the cake is sitting on a table that is slightly crooked L I guess it could have been my cake, but all the tiers would have had to be crooked in order for it to be the cake I’d think. All the tiers seemed to line up to me. I guess it doesn’t matter though – the bride said she loved it & I’m fairly certain she would have told me if she didn’t like it. I am just thankful it made it there in one piece and she was pleased.

If I ever do another similar cake, I will just have to put on my big girl britches and stack it in front of people. I’m thinking I won’t do another one of these though. I don’t know if I nerves could take reliving the memory of this one again...

Closeup of some details (I know this looks crooked because of the camera angle - LOL)