Oh my, where to start? At its conception I suppose!
So, last year, I was asked to make a wedding cake for Rebecca and Danny. I’ve known Rebecca and her parents for a long time as they are all part of the Pantomime Society I am currently Chair of. Her Dad, Edward was our Director until recently, as well as designing and helping to build the set, writing the scripts, choreographing and performing, and Mum Bev was our props lady, as well as being Edward’s right hand woman! Rebecca has been performing in the Pantomime since she was young, recently helping with choreography as well, and when she met Danny, he became part of the backstage team.
I was pleased to be asked to make their engagement cake, a very ‘sweet’ affair, a few years ago.
So when they asked me to make their wedding cake I was very excited! Especially when I learned that they wanted a peacock theme!
I arranged a cake testing session for them, and provided four flavours as per their request. Lemon, red velvet, vanilla, and mint chocolate. On the day they liked them all! Whilst discussing the design, I realised that because they wanted peacock ‘feathers’ trailing down the side of the cake from the topper, and cupcakes carrying on the theme around the bottom of the cake, there was no reason that they couldn’t have them all!
So, this is what we went with. A 10” round bottom tier in lemon, an 8” round top tier in red velvet, and a mix of vanilla and mint chocolate cupcakes to finish. I used Sugar and Crumbs flavoured icing sugars in lemon drizzle, cream cheese, velvet vanilla and mint chocolate for filling the layers/topping the cupcakes.
The topper was made using Renshaw flower and modelling paste coloured with Coloursplash Jade gel colour, then I added some Wilton leaf green to make a brighter shade, and precoloured Renshaw deep purple to layer the feathers. Gold accents were added using Faye Cahill shimmer gold lustre dust, which doesn’t show up much on the pictures, but had a lovely effect in real life!
I was so relieved when this cake came out well, I definitely started to feel the weight of responsibility the nearer it got to the wedding!
As usual, I made all the elements in stages. The two large cakes were baked and frozen 2 weeks before, and the feathers I tackled by just doing a few a day over a couple of weeks. I covered the 20” round cake drum a week in advance, crumb coated with white chocolate ganache 3 days before, covered with Select Ireland Platinum sugarpaste 2 days before, when I also baked and frosted the cupcakes. After dowelling and using royal icing to put the two cakes together, I added the ribbons, attached the topper and the feathers down the side with royal icing and boxed it up the day before, but I took the round ‘feathers’ with me on the day, and placed them on the cupcakes in situ.
All in all, it was a great, if a little scary experience but I’m now more confident in my abilities and looking forward to the next time!
Until next time
Stay safe and healthy
Debbie ❤️
From sugarandcrumbs.co.uk
Select Ireland Platinum Sugarpaste White
Renshaw flower and modelling paste
Wilton leaf green gel colour (set of 8)
Renshaw deep purple ready to roll sugarpaste
Faye Cahill shimmer gold lustre dust
From eBay:
Baking for Therapy 