I did this cake a couple weeks ago for a friend of a friend. It was so fun to make! I just love the sleek look of it. Because the wedding was a large one, this cake required supplemental sheet cakes in order to feed everyone. I made two huge sheet cakes and a small gluten-free cake to round out the selection.
Details on the cakes:
Bottom tier: Tiramisu (vanilla/almond cake, espresso syrup, mascarpone mousse, chocolate shavings) -- I know it's a stretch to call it tiramisu when there are no ladyfingers or cocoa powder, but it's a delicious adaptation that lends itself well to wedding cakes.
Middle tier: Lemon poppy seed.
Top tier: Tiramisu.
Outside: Buttercream. (I'm so glad I used high-ratio shortening for this -- it was an outdoor wedding, and although the weather was supposed to be fairly cool that day, it turned out to be hot. Butter/regular shortening + hot weather = melting cake.)
Decorations: Beautiful grosgrain ribbon (pink) and flat ribbon (orange). I love this color combination! Major props to the bride for the excellent choice of color and spacing. Cake topper and additional fresh flowers were provided when I got to the venue. So pretty.
Supplemental sheet cake 1: Chocolate raspberry.
Supplemental sheet cake 2: Tiramisu.
Gluten-free cake: Lemon poppy seed.
Interesting tidbit about the sheet cakes:
My oven at home isn't large enough to accommodate the large pans required for the sheet cakes, so, about a week before the wedding, I did a couple of baking sessions at my friend Teri's house.
The first session went well. The spacious oven worked out great and baked true to temperature; I got three cakes done easily in under 4 hours.
The second session also went great. The trip home, however, did not. See, there's a certain art to transporting cakes. For some reason (crack smoking, maybe?), I thought it would be a great idea to place my KitchenAid right next to one of the sheet cakes in my trunk....
Everything was going fine until I hit the first stop sign on the way home. I heard a loud "thud." My heart sank; there was no doubt in my mind what had happened. This is what it looked like when I opened the trunk:
Holly embraces her fail!
Lesson learned: KitchenAids like to tip over! Fortunately, I had the time, ingredients, and energy to turn right around and bake another one that night. It was a long night, but it could have been a lot worse. This is why you plan ahead and bake your layers in advance!
Special thanks to Teri for letting me take over her kitchen for the extended baking sessions. I salvaged the large, unsmashed pieces and gave them to Teri to share with anyone who had a hankering for cake -- BYOF, of course (bring your own frosting). I heard the leftovers from this cake lasted for days and days.
