Bridal Shower

I did my first bridal shower cake today! I was pleasantly surprised by how it all turned out since the fondant and the stacking didn't give me a bit of trouble (could this mean that I'm *gasp* learning?) and there was only a minor incident with a fallen decoration that was easily remedied with a bit of RI. How did this cake come about? Read on...

Last month the other half and I went out to a birthday dinner for a good friend whose daughter is getting married next weekend. As she and I were talking, I asked if she wanted me to do a cake and/or favors and she said yes. As Aunty started telling me what she was thinking, I immediately said "oh good, I've got it all planned out and this is what we (read: I) are doing."

My husband scolded me for that. Apparently, since it isn't a cake for me I'm supposed to listen to what the other person wants. Ooookay. I listened. And it's wasn't so bad (shhh, don't tell him that he was right.) I said chocolate, she asked for lemon so what the heck, make it 2 tiers and we're both happy. Easy, peasy and here's the plan.



Bottom: chocolate cake, but not just any old chocolate. This cake had another flavor that you had to think about for a bit. What was it? I'm not saying so if you weren't at this shower then we'll just say it was plain Jane (PJ) chocolate.
Top: Lemon.
Filling: Buttercream. But if you know anything about me, then you will know this wasn't a PJ BC. Nope. This was a lemon buttercream with fresh lemon curd that I made specifically for this cake.
Design: Fondant (of course) with butterflies flying up the cake.

Notice the embossing on the ribbon and cake board? The invite had an embossed frame around the invite panel so I did a play off of that.

Aunty also asked for 2 small giveaway cakes for the bridal shower games which weren't a problem. Since the top tier was an 8" cake there was still enough batter to make 2 4" cakes and more then enough buttercream to fill them. I found 2 clear plastic boxes at a local hardware store (who knew I could find stuff in there while waiting for the husband to buy lumber??) and decided they would make the perfect boxes for what I had in mind.

Doesn't it look like someone caught the butterflies?

Ready for the final product?




In case it's eating at you and you need to know, yes, I did favors too but it was just plain old macarons with ganache. Nothing special but they are still so dang temperamental! I was ready to cry. And yet, I'm still willing to whip up more almond flour and keep trying. Go figure! And yes, the colors are off. 2 different cameras, oops. If anyone who was at the shower has better (or any!) pics of the cake, please send them my way.)