Spackle Wedding Cake

My regular readers know I'm the queen of smooth buttercream.  I work hard and pride myself on icing my cakes satiny smooth.  So when I get a request to do a wedding cake that has a very splackely, stucco like finish... well, you have to step back and ask yourself how to make something inherently "messy" look professional.

I started the only way I know how - by icing it nice and smooth.  Not finished smooth, but pretty darn smooth.  Then I went back and smacked the sides of the cake with my spatula, creating peaks or spikes in the icing (but not the cake!).  Think about when your testing meringue or whipped cream.  Then I ran the spatula around the cake again, re-icing it, but keeping the spatula just off the cake.

I delivered this cake to the Tennesee Aquarium, where the florists were to place the real flowers on the cake (the 2 in the picture were just for the picture).  They brought the flowers, but were unsure of the placement.  Luckily I had brought my original design sketch and was able to help them with the proper placement.  This brings up a good point:  I bring all my cake paperwork to every wedding.  The contract, design sketches, e-mails... the whole folder for that cake comes with me to the venue.  It has saved my butt more than once!

Have a great weekend and have a happy and safe Independence Day!

Tennesee Aquarium Butterfly Wedding

This weekend we did our very first Chattanooga Aquarium wedding.  The staff there were wonderful and the venue was spectacular!  The wedding was held on the fourth floor in the Tropical Rainforest / Butterfly Sanctuary section of the aquarium.

In keeping with that theme, the bride wanted some butterfly accents on her bridal cake.  I put my brother to work building us another custom cake stand out of a Baby Bio Orb fish tank.  Inside the tank we put moss, twigs, and some mechanical butterflies that I bought from Etsy.  They are so thin and delicate, but their wings move like a real butterfly!  Lots of people at the event thought they were real!!

The wedding cake itself is all buttercream, with each tier getting gradually lighter.The white swirls were then piped on.  I was very happy with the cake and the natural background the Tennessee Aquarium provided made it pop even more.

Stay tuned next time for the accompanying groom's cake... a scale model Martin guitar.  Have a great week!!