archived: wedding cake round 2

Making this cake is a very long process involving baking, leveling, slicing, crumb coating, cooling, and decorative frosting. Sadly the only part that really matters and that I need to practice is the last part...the decorative frosting! Well I tried a new frosting recipe this time and it turned out MUCH better than last time in terms of taste and consistency. But I still have quite a bit of work to do on my frosting technique. The good thing is that all the little mistakes don't look as glaring once it is all done.

Here is the mess I made making frosting batch number 1 (I made 6 in all...oh yes that means this little cake has over 24 cups of powdered sugar just in the frosting!)



These are the four layers that make up the top layer of the cake just before I add the 'crumb coat'



Here are both layers with their crumb coats cooling in the fridge. The crumb coat is a kind of protective layer of icing that makes the decorative icing easier to apply.



After the crumb coats were cool I was able to apply the basketweave decorative frosting. Here is the final product... We decorated it with Christmas holly to get the effect of what it will look like with flowers on it.

(It looks better if you stand back so this picture gives you that prospective)



Here is a close up just so you can see that I am actually improving over my last attempt!