There are two difficult aspects to the project. The first aspect is something unavoidable--you have to accommodate the theme and details provided by the couple (or in our case the "couple"). That's fine, except the wedding is not what I would have picked at all and I couldn't do a lot of the things I would have liked to do. Ah well...you have to do what the client wants. The second thing is something that won't be an issue in the future--we have never made a cake that is larger a two tier 6in and 3in cake. This must be at least three tiers and the top tier must be at least 3in, meaning that the bottom tier would be at least 7in, probably more. I'm a little worried that my cake will end up resembling the leaning tower of Pisa. At least we can use cake dummies (styrofoam cylinders or, I suppose, styrofoam in any shape we need) for any extra layers.
The wedding we are designing cakes for is being held in Barcelona, Spain at the Park Guell (it's beautiful, look it up if you aren't familiar with it). The attire is traditional black tie, with the bride in long simple, strapless, sheath dress with a sheer over skirt and ribbon trim--no embroidery, no beading, no details to use on the cake. The wedding colors are cool lava and spiced butternut--in other words, muted orange and golden yellow. The flowers are gazanias, red poppies, orange blossoms, and wheatgrass--at least that's what their presentation said, the photos were of anemones instead of poppies and wheat instead of wheat grass. I'm guessing that the anemone was a mistake, it's one of the first photos when you do a google image search for red poppies (possibly because one of the most common species of anemone is the so-call poppy anemone) and they are very similar looking flowers. The wheat on the other hand was probably what they meant. I think wheat is an odd choice for a bouquet, but wheatgrass--looking just like regular grass--is definitely odder; I'm going to assume they mean stalks of wheat when they said wheatgrass. Luckily Chef Kir told use we could make our sugar paste flowers at home if we wanted to since they take quite a while given the amount of time they need to dry between different steps of making them (i.e. the petals for a wired flower must be completely dry before assembling the whole flower). We are allowed to interpret the given theme however we wish and can, in theory, ignore it completely although I'd imagine that would impact our grades. Our grades, by the way, are based mainly on execution of our proposed design and our technical skill, I believe.
Just to give you an idea, my class came up with an Indian themed wedding held at a vineyard in California when we were the "couple." The colors were red, fuchsia, orange, and gold, with bright tones for the ceremony and more muted tones for the reception. The bride, Hindu of Indian descent, wore a traditional sari in bright pink and had henna tatoos--the patterns of which were reflected on the invitations and menu. The flowers were primarily roses, marigolds, and orchids. The wedding cakes that the class above us made were all beautiful. Below are a few of my favorites. I honestly can't remember which one my class picked as the winner, but I'm sure it is on here. (Please note that I do not know which student made which cake--they assign us numbers so that we won't be biased when we pick our favorite--so I can't give them credit. Sorry!) In no particular order:
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| I really like the carnations around the middle layer and am especially impressed with how clean the cake is. The orchids on top were a little clunky, which is a shame given how intricate the carnations are. |
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| I know the piping is a little wobbly, but I like the idea of using the henna patterns and I think the draping was nicely done. |
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| I like the idea of using macaron cookies as decorations for the cake. Admittedly, I'm not sure I like the riser holding up the top layer. They did a lovely job on it and I like that it reflects the henna pattern, but I just have a pet peeve about cakes with risers. |
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| It's hard to tell, but that drape of red fondant was actually decorated with gold dust and almost-but- not-quite cut out silhouettes of flowers, it was quite pretty in person. I do think it should have been draped and pleated a bit more; that way the cut outs would have been more apparent and it would have looked a little more like fabric and a little less like someone hemorrhaged on the cake. By the way, the orchids on top were beautiful and very realistic. |
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| The cake was nicely decorated, though I'm not thrilled by the pattern and airbrushing. What makes me love this cake is the topper: how cute are the two little elephants with their trunks forming a heart?! |
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| This cake was a little sloppy in person (but oddly shaped cakes are so difficult to work with.) What I like is how they made the cakes look like a stack of cushions from the mandap; very creative. |
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| I know this cake is a little over laden, but I like the colors and the flowers were beautiful, albeit a little out of proportion. |
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| I feel like there is something off about the alignment of this cake and I'm not sure I like the giant bottom layer. However I love the hexagonal layer with the concave sides and the intricate (and well executed) piping. The cake was very clean, something that is difficult to achieve on a round cake with straight sides, let alone on hexagonal cakes with concave sides. |
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