Display Cakes Final

Last week, we made all our gum paste decorations for our 3-tiered wedding cake final. This week, we assembled everything....

The three tiers consisted of two each of 6", 8" and 10" rounds. We used two, since they need to be filled and stacked to make one tier. Each tier has to be crumb-coated, final coated, then covered with fondant, dowelled (i.e. putting dowels into the lower tier for support), and finally stacked. Towards the end, we were running out of fondant, so those of us who finished sooner than others churned out several batches.

I managed to final coat all my tiers and covered one in fondant before the end of the first part (Day 1) of the final. The second part (Day 2), I covered the other two tiers with fondant, which I tinted pale, icy blue. I learned my lesson on rolling out the fondant thinly and using enough to cover the cakes with, so the cakes turned out without cracks and (almost) wrinkle-free. Whatever imperfections I had, I covered with gum paste ribbons.

Then it was time to decorate! I used royal icing to paste the snowflakes onto the cake. Others I embedded into the cake itself. The 3D snowflakes looked really cool sticking out of the cake. I also embedded some pearl dragees. I checked on the cast sugar snowflake I'd made last week...and it hadn't recrystallized! It still looked very pretty. I stuck that on top of the cake. Luster dust gave the cake a pearly sheen. Behold....

My winter-themed wedding cake!

A close-up of the snowflake decorations. I'm in love with this fondant cutter now. Of course, the cake is not finished just yet--there's that final touch I'm about to do...

Yes, the cake topper is a light-up! I put the submersible LED lighting behind it. The luster dust coating shimmered in the light.

Although I didn't score as well as I'd hoped (Chef said that the cake was off-centered and not enough scrollwork--but mine didn't need any...), I'm happy with the way it turned out. Regardless of the score, every passerby complimented and loved my cake, as did my classmates.

Well then...what should I do with my three weeks of vacation?? ...Bake, of course :)