Behind the Scenes of a Wedding Cake

My friend Michelle was getting married, she actually already got married on the 30th; her brother, my friend too, Jordan, is a pastry chef, agreed to make her cake for her!  When I found out about this, I immediately pestered him to have me help out!  The only credential I have that I could present to him was that I've watched 3 seasons of Cake Boss! haha

Fondant is a paste made from sugar syrup, it is made by boiling sugar and water together , and then agitating the mixture by stirring, scraping, and kneading it as it cools.  Jordan said making fondant is time-consuming,  he said you have to knead it by hand and you can't use machine; even bakers just buy ready made fondants; but if you fancy to hassle yourself, or maybe fondant isn't available, then here's a recipe i got off the net.

Jordan made a 6-tier GORGEOUS Ivory wedding cake, all of which are made of styro except for the hald of the 5th from the top which was vanilla pound cake with lemon zest with lemon curd in the middle.  Design was I would guess, was Victorian; in which design stencil were painstakingly pinned one-by-one.

The details on each cake were ridiculously intricate that this whole cake took Jordan a week to complete (working only after office hours).  I went to help out twice, I got to help him pin the design stencils on 1 of the layer and also got to help him bake a big ass pound cake!

You mix the batter, do not over mix it, as usual.  Jordan used his clean hands to mix the batter, slowly adding the milk and flour into egg mixture.  Poured it into a baking pan, then baked for about 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Next day, after the pound cake cools, he cuts it in half, even out the surface and spreads lemon curd then sandwiches it with the other half.  He let me crumb coat it and covered the side with the first layer of fondant.

Covering stuff in fondant is fun and nerve-wrecking! You have to make sure not to roll it too thin also shouldn't be too thick.  You have to make sure also that your pound cake is pretty even!  I'd say fondant is alot like spandex fabric, it hugs your body so tight that just shows all your curves, good and bad ones. haha.  So you really have to make sure everything's even.

You know how when you're rolling a dough you put flour on the flour board?  Well since fondant is made out of icing sugar, you sift over some powdered sugar over the table to make sure it doesn't stick too.  With that, you also have to remember not to put too much powdered sugar or else it'll crack!  I told you, nerve wrecking!

The lemon curd, was delicious, it tastes just like the Lemon Filling I made for my Lemon Meringue Pie!

I wasn't able to help out Jordan during the piping of the icing because he intentionally just wants me to just pin the stencils hahaha (just kidding Jord).  So i really haven't got that much photo.  Although he did promise me a piping party.

I tell you, if you don't do these kind of cake for money, like as a business, then you just really do it for love!  This cake was hard work! :)