Kimberley fell in love with Nat and Glenn’s cake – the dark and light and the hydrangea on top – she also loved the pique with pearls design I had used for my sister Melanie’s wedding cake – therefore I designed a simple yet elegant cake in the same shapes as Ainsley and Roger’s cake – two squares and three circles… minus the 5th layer on top as this cake was to feed about 100 guests.

The Cake Design

The Monogram that matched the invitation

The Ingredients

No substitute for the real vanilla bean

Nat cake leveling

Vanilla bean buttercream

Weighing out the fondant

Airbrushing

Nat kneading fondant

Adding the dragees

Adding the monogram

Light hitting the dragees and they sparkle

Cakes ready to go

Closeup

The Cake

Big big flower

It was all alone on the cake table when we left

Everything was going perfectly, Nat came by to help, things were looking up – and then the GREY FONDANT happened. Back to haunt me from the days of the Red Bull can, the grey fondant I’d made with chocolate and black (the last of my black) gel colouring was giving me elephant skin (where the fondant on the top dries and wrinkles yet the fondant underneath is still pliable). As I lifted the sheet to cover a double layer 9 inch round cake, we saw it begin to rip!

Of course I attempted to smooth the wrinkles out, tried to fix the torn fondant, and even wheeled out the pique design, sending it off to airbrushing with Dany – this was to be a test run only. We were able to reproduce the exact charcoal colour of the invitation so I carefully peeled off the fondant, resmoothed the buttercream (I had made exactly enough – 15 cups) and popped the cake back in the fridge. Only just enough grey fondant left for a second go at it. Somehow I had miscalculated the amount of grey fondant I needed for this double layer – I had exactly twice the amount I needed – luckily!

The second time around we nailed it – I created the holes for the dragees before running the pique wheel across the fondant. I inserted 200 silver dragees and added the purple ribbon at the base to hide the wrinkles (don’t ask me why the grey insists on wrinkling, it is very frustrating). And when we stood back, with the halogen lights hitting the dragees at just the proper angle, the cake sparkled like a Swarovski reproduction. I nearly cried. By now it was 2:40 am. Time for bed.

We delivered the cake to Chateau Vaudreuil, the room went with the cake (well maybe vice-versa). I was disappointed that neither Rod nor Kim were close by to have a look – I only heard through my grape vine (Dany) that they loved the cake, loved the taste.

A word about florists – they sure want to take the cake – I asked for a 4 inch topper and they made an 8 inch topper! The cake looked like it was wearing a hat. Also – never let a couple refuse a serving knife set – the ones supplied by the hotel were in terrible shape.

Lessons Learned:

• Forget about grey fondant – the results are incredible but it isn’t worth the hassle.
• Silver dragees get an A+ for adding class and sparkle (when used correctly).
• Peeling off fondant is not as hard as it seems at first.
• Love your bestfriend, love your boyfriend, and they will stick by you even when you want to give up and are swearing.