Wedding Cakes

Here's the best picture I can find of all the cakes together... completed!
I guess this is the end of my cake story... it was a fun one!

The Making of a Cake... part 2

I left the last post on Friday night...

Above: Kim sifting endless cups of powdered sugar on Friday afternoon and the mixer whipping up a batch of the vanilla buttercream frosting.

Below: My Mom rented an extra refrigerator just so I would have enough room for my cakes. Isn't she just the greatest? This is how it looked after all the cakes were baked, the lemon curd and ganache were made and just before the frosting was made and put on the cakes.

I guess I actually assembled and frosted the banana cake on Friday night, not Thursday night, but that is a minor detail...


Saturday was the day of the wedding and I woke up at 6am to complete the cakes. By this time, all the cakes had a crumb coat except the large 12"x12" cake for the base of the tier. I started the morning by cutting the 12"x16" sheets to a square, placing them on their special board, putting the berry filling in the middle and giving the cake a crumb coat of frosting so it could chill while I finished frosting the other cakes.

I had to make another one and three quarters batches of frosting... I was so wishing Kim was at the house to help me with the powdered sugar again! I managed though...

All I really remember was that the morning flew by... Before I knew it, it was 9am, then 11am, then 1pm, then 2:30pm... By this time I had finished all the frosting and decorations and was putting the cakes on the stands, Mike arrived with the cake toppers, I had my father cutting and sanding dowels to make the tiers... all I know was that I was in my own little world. I was completely focused on these cakes and heard people around me giving encouragement and commenting on the process, but I really felt like I was in a bubble. I'm not sure if I even smiled when I was working. Mike and Ally's wedding was supposed to start at 3:33pm... needless to say, I was working until about 3:45pm, but that is okay, because neither Mike or Ally were ready on time. Ally and I put our dresses on in my Mom's closet and I quickly splashed my face with some water and threw on some makeup.

I was happy with the way the cakes looked - although I broke through both of my pastry bags and ended up using a ziploc bag to finish decorating - and had a great time at the wedding. The cakes got rave reviews, and I tasted all but one cake (top tier: chocolate with pb filling) and can say that they were yummy.

This was an amazing experience. I pretty much did everything by myself because I was quite adamant that if others were heavily involved, then this wouldn't truly be my gift to Mike and Ally. I really loved being in the kitchen, organizing my materials and mixing the ingredients. I loved watching the cakes twirl on the lazy susan as I frosted them. There was this energy inside of me and it felt good!

So thanks Mike and Ally for getting married and letting me be involved. It was so so so much fun!

The Making of a Cake... part 1

7 cakes (yup, up from the original 5)... 4 days... 3 cake stands... 2 tiers... 1 awesome wedding...

These are the ingredients for one of the top tier chocolate cakes.

These are the completed lemon chiffon cakes. I think they could have spent an extra 5 minutes in the oven, but they were baked through and were very moist.

These were the parts of the butter sheet cake. I ended up making three 12"x16" sheet cakes because there was some concern there wouldn't be enough cake to go around. In the end, that ended up not being so much of problem.

So here was my baking schedule:
Tuesday: shop for ingredients... 9lbs of butter, 12lbs of sugar, 8lbs of cake flour, 2lbs of chocolate, 60 eggs, 2 bottles of vanilla, 6 lemons, 7 bananas, 1 gigantic tub of crisco, 46 cups of powdered sugar... and more!

Wednesday: before beginning to bake, desperately search for Dutch process cocoa...
1. bake lemon chiffon cakes - 3 layers
2. bake banana cakes - 2 thick layers
3. bake buttermilk cakes - 3 layers
4. bake first butter sheet cake - 1 layer
5. bake second butter sheet cake - 1 layer
... dinner with family and my cute niece...
6. bake third butter sheet cake - 1 layer
... then sleep at probably 12:30am...

Thursday: up nice and early, with lists of things to do swirling around in my brain...
7. bake flourless chocolate cake - 1 layer (this cake was the 7th unique cake to be added because we had some people at the wedding that had wheat allergies and others that had chocolate addictions)
8. bake 1st layer of the chocolate butter cake for top tier - 1 layer
9. bake chocolate domingo cake for my uncle's surprise bday party - 1 layer (this was the 8th unique cake I baked but wasn't served at the wedding)
10. bake 2nd layer of the chocolate butter cake for top tier - 1 layer
11. make lemon curd for lemon chiffon cake
... short break for Mom and I to get a pedicure...
12. make sour cream ganache for banana cake
... bridal shower for my friend Kim...
13. carmelize bananas
14. assemble and frost banana cake (called "You Crazy Monkey" cake)
... sleep around 12:30am...

Friday: up nice and early at 6:45am with more things I need to do... is this ever ending?
15. make 4 batches of spinach artichoke dip for the wedding... (this did not go into the cake)
... Kim comes over to help - she's the official sous chef/pastry assistant of wedding preparation...
16. fill some deviled eggs for the "rehersal dinner" at Ally's house tonight
16. remove berries from freezer and put some aside for the buttermilk cake, dump the rest into a pan with some water and mash and reduce to a concentrate that I can add to some buttercream for the berry filling
... Kim and I cover the boards to support the cakes in aluminum or parchment...
17. Kim sifts 32 cups of powdered sugar as I make 4 gigantic batches of vanilla buttercream frosting and also one batch of peanut butter frosting - thank goodness she came to help!!!
... Kim has to leave before I start frosting...
18. make berry buttercream by mixing in berry concentrate to some already prepared frosting
19. assemble lemon chiffon and buttermilk berry cake and start putting the crumb coat on cakes - a thin layer of frosting to hold in the crumbs when the thicker layer goes on, after a chill in the fridge
... family arrives to go over to Ally's parents' house for the rehersal dinner...

Okay... more to come later because I'm going over to the pool for some rays and relaxation...

what? local tv stars!?!?

I love Restaurant Week in Boston. There is no better opportunity to get an amazing meal for an excellent price! Om opened in Harvard Square some time in early 2006 and up until today, I've only experienced their great cocktails (my favorite is the Fred & Ginger) and long for the bar to serve the sweet & spicy caramel popcorn again!

But... today I went with Steve B. (a reliable foodie friend) for lunch today. And it was delicious! Right Steve? After we finished our appetizers (I had a borscht - which I almost wore thanks to our waiter - and Steve had okinawa sweet potato ravioli) a local news station breezed into the airy, sleek space Om calls it's dining room and asked us if we would mind being filmed for a news special...

... and well, that is when Steve and I became big time TV stars!!! Just kidding... for all of you who weren't home at 5:26pm to catch us on the Channel 4 news... watch 'em and weep, baby!!! We're like seconds away from our own food critic show!
http://cbs4boston.com/video/?id=23216@wbz.dayport.com

Oh, by the way, Steve had the duck and I had the lamb, and we both had our own vanilla creme brulee with hazelnut cornmeal biscotti. Definitely an excellent meal and highly recommended for the great deal the lunch restaurant week menu offers!

New Shoes & Cookies

What girl doesn't love new shoes? So here they are... one is a great deal I got at Macy's on a shoe for Kim's wedding... brown velvet... perfect! & the other is my new pair of Dansko clogs for the kitchen... thanks former co-workers! Super comfortable!



Also... even though it was hot here last week, I still wanted to make cookies. So instead of turning on my oven and heating up the whole apartment and negating the AC effect, I just made the dough, formed them into individual cookies and froze them. And yes, that is a Friendly's cup Reese's PB cup ice cream sundae in my freezer... eat your heart out Mikey! I baked them off on Friday morning when the temps came back to a cooler level & the humidity went away.