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Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Competition Work Log: Tiered Wedding Cake

Competition Work Log:
Tiered Wedding Cake
  • 1/31/11:  Finally got my last styrofoam dummy for Dallas Foam.  Sanded smooth most of its surface area.  Covered the tops of 6", 8", 10", and 12" rounds with a 50/50 fondant/modeling chocolate mix.  ~2.5 hours.
  • 2/01/11:  Covered the sides of the 6" and 10" with white modeling chocolate.  I had to re-do the 6" because I wasn't happy with the first pass.  This was my first time to roll out on to freezer paper and I must say it worked great!  Colored more modeling chocolate white.  Mixed black fondant with modeling chocolate (will be used for trim).  I'm now a bit unhappy with the green color.  It looks really green ... like ... golf course green.  I'm hoping my color scheme will all come together when I add the trim.  ~ 2 hours. 
  • 2/02/11:  Aren't I the busy beaver??  I covered the sides of the 8" round with modeling chocolate.  Before doing so, I applied my colored accent stripes to the rectangular piece of modeling chocolate (~4"x24").  I used my extruder to make narrow strips and glued them to my rectangle, then wrapped the cake with it.  Turned out awesome.  My only concern is that I only used a tiny bit of water to glue on the stripes ... hopefully it was enough to keep them on for good.  ~1 hr, 45 min.
  • 2/04/11:  I've been keeping my cakes in the den closet so the toddler, the husband, and the 3 cats won't mess with it.  Hubby and I were cleaning up the den area and he had to put something in the closet.  After placing the whatever it was, he said "Your cake has a crack in it."  My heart practically stopped.  Turns out he was referring the to seam on the side of my 8" round that I was planning on being the "back of the cake".  It was pretty good motivation for me to make some Royal Icing and patch up some of that gap where the ends met failed to meet cleanly.  Later on I covered the sides of the 12" round and let me tell you ... it's a lot harder to do any technique when you're working with 3 feet of continuous material.  I made a 4"x36" rectangular strip of modeling chocolate and put my accent stripes on it before attaching it to the dummy (this time using piping gel as adhesive).  It only had a minor tear getting it on, but easily rubbed away.  This is definitely the biggest cake I've ever worked on.  And tomorrow, I'm finishing it dammit!  I need to finish a cake a week to be in time for the show.  ~2.5 hours.
  • 2/05/11:  So I didn't finish the cake yet.  Hit a snag when my plan for my 2-tone damask design didn't work.  Hubby and I put our heads together and I mocked up a suitable solution, but didn't really have a lot of time to continue tonight.  Instead I put vertical stripes on my 8" and 12" tiers.  They look great!  Hopefully I can finish the cake tomorrow.  ~2 hours.
  • 2/06/11:  Superbowl family time prevented me from finishing this cake ... but I'm getting closer.  I put the damask designs on my 6" tier.  It looks ok ... not thrilled but I think the 10" damask designs will go better.  ~ 2 hours. 
  • 2/07/11:  ~whimper~ cake ... won't ... end ... Another couple hours cutting out and trimming the damask design for the 10" tier.  I'm fighting the urge to slap everything together and call it done.  I'm trying to decide if I want to coat the non-white portions of the cake with 50/50 corn syrup/alcohol to give it some shine.  Still not sure how I want to finish the borders.  ~ 2 hours. 
  • 2/08/11:  Ok.  Stacked all the tiers.  Put trim on the bottom of each tier.  Dusted it and tried to take off  excess powdered sugar by painting it with Everclear.  Stood back and looked at it.  Had Hubby stand back and look at it.  Decided the top tier ... the tier I did first ... looked like crap.  Had tons of finger marks, the cuts weren't straight, and we couldn't figure out how to fix it.  I took it off, threw it in the sink, and ripped off all of the decorations and coverings.  :(  I'll have to redo the this tier all over again.  ~3.5 hours.
  • 2/10/11:  FINISHED! It was a lot faster to re-do the top tier than I thought (probably because I knew exactly how to do everything).  It looks great.  I even decided not to put trim on the top of the tiers because it didn't need it.  A day or two before the competition I'll dust and shine it up.  ~2 hours.

3 comments:

  1. Can't wait to see! Are you going to post progress pics?

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  2. I'll post progress pics after the competition. Our entries shouldn't have our names showing until after the judges declare the winners. I'm doing a lot of volunteer work for the show, so I don't want to risk many people recognizing my work. Is that paranoid? Maybe it's silly. I am dying to show pics though!

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  3. We can't wait to see them! This cake sounds amazing!

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