Let Them Eat Cake!

Remember the other day when I told you that my stepfather created our slideshow? Well our wedding cake was created by my aunt and uncle (and his mother), you can give them props here. What I liked best about our cake was that I knew few things about our cake. I told my aunt I wanted marbled fondant (a relative easy feat as anyone who has ever worked with fondant before knows), I also sent her a link for butterflies and gave her the cake topper that I had actually had since the start of our engagement.

My aunt did an amazing job on the cake. And before you ask, no her and her husband do not do this professionally. And probably never will, as its a hobby and when you do a hobby with a constant deadline, it loses its appeal. $AVINGS TIP: If you have a friend or relative who enjoys baking and isn't directly involved in your wedding, try enlisting them before checking out bakeries. Some people will do it as their "wedding gift," as my aunt did, while others will do it for a much smaller fee, or just the cost of materials.

We decided to have this smaller cake for us to cut and then have sheet cakes to share with our guests. The sheet cakes were less intricate, as they should be. $AVINGS TIP: Having a smaller cake for the cake-cutting ceremony and sheet cakes for the guests is far cheaper than a giant cake.

But there are secrets to this cake.

First of all, no, the butterflies are not edible. They are stuck in their with wires. That is brown ribbon on the bottom of each layer, so no its not edible either. The white swirly cake thing, a cake stand what have you, is held to the white pieces above and below with our "cake baker's" newest obsession Glue Dots. The cake was vanilla, but alas, of the four layers only two are cake. No the other two aren't styrofoam. Their Rice Krispie treats. When we ran out of cake later on, we actually cut up these two layers. They were a hit, and an unexpected one!

Things you should know:

Fondant: Not very tasty, even with flavoring added to it. Its like that outside part to a uncooked marshmallow... except flavorless. Same texture though. So, if possible, avoid eating it. Blech.

Top Layer: Most people know that this layer is supposed to be frozen for your first anniversary. Now, clearly we haven't reached that one year benchmark where you indulge in that cake, but we've heard some pretty nasty rumors about freezer burnt cake. So, our plan? 1st Anniversary Shakes! We'll see how it works out though. Although I imagine it would be better than freezer-burnt cake.

Cake knife & server: In our experience, we didn't really use the cake server. In fact, we cut a one inch wedge for each of us... After some work of course, its quite difficult to hold a cake knife perpendicular to a cake. And using our fingers fed one another. $AVINGS Tip: Order a discounted cake knife and server set from the internet (hello, eBay!) and customize it for your big day. Our cake cutting set was a pearl one that we added dark brown twine and beads to. Saved us about $15!

Let THEM eat cake: Don't expect to get too much, if any, of your cake after that first bite. We literally only got that small wedge each of it. We ran out of sheet cakes so we donated the rest of our tiered showpiece to the cause!


Happy Planning! And Until Next Time... Keep an eye for more Wedding On The Cheap!