DsD, partner & 3 kids arrived late on Friday night, so that she and I could spend Saturday decorating her wedding cake. Poor cats did a runner, as they are used to (relative) calm.
Saturday morning, after a proteracted breakfast, we managed to get started, and spent ages trying different things on two cake dummies that I had bought specifically for that purpose.
Eventually, we had a good idea of what we were going to do, so we started icing the cakes. There was a bit of a problem with the top layer, which I can't explain here as we were doing something "clever". However, we fixed it.
We iced the cake and the board, and eventually got it all smoothed down. A bit of hand-slapping and smoothing, and the top and sides were smooth and shiny. I used some royal icing to pipe around the bottom to hide the join. We then decorated the top - I can't say much more here until after the wedding.
Then it was time to tackle the bottom layer.
This was huge; not only wre we icing the top and sides, we were also icing the board at the same time. We broke the huge mound of icing into several smaller pieces, and kneaded each one individually, then combined them into one huge pile.
I had shown my DsD the importance of rolling all the way across the icing in one go, without stopping. If you stop part way, you end up with a dent. When the circle was small it was fine, but as it got bigger she found she had to use her forearms as well, and eventually she ran out of arm.
We then had an enormour circle of icing to lift without breaking, and we had to get it onto the cake first time as the cake was now glazed with sherry. We did it. Smoothing it down was OK, and as soon as we had it smooth and hand-slapped, I piped around the join.
This was the easier layer to decorate as we were using some icing lilies and some small ribbons.
We finished off the boards with some ribbon, and then had a look at the two together. We're very pleased with them.
I'll post pics after the wedding.
Saturday morning, after a proteracted breakfast, we managed to get started, and spent ages trying different things on two cake dummies that I had bought specifically for that purpose.
Eventually, we had a good idea of what we were going to do, so we started icing the cakes. There was a bit of a problem with the top layer, which I can't explain here as we were doing something "clever". However, we fixed it.
We iced the cake and the board, and eventually got it all smoothed down. A bit of hand-slapping and smoothing, and the top and sides were smooth and shiny. I used some royal icing to pipe around the bottom to hide the join. We then decorated the top - I can't say much more here until after the wedding.
Then it was time to tackle the bottom layer.
This was huge; not only wre we icing the top and sides, we were also icing the board at the same time. We broke the huge mound of icing into several smaller pieces, and kneaded each one individually, then combined them into one huge pile.
I had shown my DsD the importance of rolling all the way across the icing in one go, without stopping. If you stop part way, you end up with a dent. When the circle was small it was fine, but as it got bigger she found she had to use her forearms as well, and eventually she ran out of arm.
We then had an enormour circle of icing to lift without breaking, and we had to get it onto the cake first time as the cake was now glazed with sherry. We did it. Smoothing it down was OK, and as soon as we had it smooth and hand-slapped, I piped around the join.
This was the easier layer to decorate as we were using some icing lilies and some small ribbons.
We finished off the boards with some ribbon, and then had a look at the two together. We're very pleased with them.
I'll post pics after the wedding.
