The Perfect Pair!

I am overdue for a new post and I have just the cake to use.  This past Friday, I had to pleasure of working with Christina Garrou, who I consider to be a far better cake decorator than myself.  I did my first large wedding cake.  This cake set a few new milestones for me because it was the largest cake that I have ever attempted but it was also the first one that I did for a stranger.  And one day, when I am a fabulous cake decorator, I will look back on this cake as my first real accomplishment but I truly could not have done this one with Christina.  I baked the cakes on Thursday night and let them cool in the refrigerator then on Friday, before Christina came, I iced the cakes and stacked the layers (not the tiers).  When Christina got here, we both start in on the roses.  We figured that we would need about 20 fondant roses to fit perfectly for the design for the cake (more accurately, we needed 9).  We rolled out fondant and cut 1 1/2 by 7 inch strips and began rolling them up to form the base of the flowers.  While I finished forming the inside layer of the flowers, Christina began forming the outside layer.  She is actually brilliant for the way that she went about doing this.  She rolled out fondant in the shape of a circle and placed the base of the flower in the center of the circle and formed the shape around the inside.  Sort of similar to the orange flower on the anniversary cake that I did but thinner and with a rose in the center.  Then Christina rolled out the fondant and showed me a much better way to lay fondant over the tiers of the cake.  My biggest mistake, thus far, is that I do not roll out the fondant thin enough before I lay it over the cake.  Next, we stacked the layers and wrapped red satin ribbon around the base of each tier, put the cake topper in and began positioning the flowers.  Now, to keep the flowers in place, we used pins with pearl tops and pushed them in the center of the flowers.  It added a little flare to the flowers plus kept them in place.   Added a few leaves and, presto, a beautiful wedding cake was born.
        It was truly a wonderful day.  Working with Christina was so much fun that I really want her to consider working with me again in the future.  She is so amazing at what she does and I can learn so much.  I am not quite as fabulous at this whole thing as she is but I am learning and getting better.  Decorating cakes is the most relaxing thing that I have ever done for myself.  For someone that does not sleep and is constantly worrying or stressing about something, it is nice to know that I have found something that keeps my blood pressure at normal levels.  So for those of you that read this little blog of mine, thanks for letting me share my hobby with you.