A lovely wedding weekend in NY

A few weekends ago I attended my dear friend (and former co-workers) wedding in Ithaca, NY. As a wedding gift, I offered to make the cakes for the wedding. Perhaps one of my biggest challenges ever. Enough sheet cake for 120 people and a wedding cake and a grooms cake. WHEW! After 15 hours of baking and decorating I had completed 3 sheet cakes, a 3 layer volcano cake and a 2 layer grooms cake.

The sheet cakes were either yellow cake or chocolate cake frosted with homemade buttercream and decorated with flowers so that each slice of cake had its own flower(since the cake was cut in the back and displayed on a table for the guests).


The official wedding cake is a 3 layer erupting volcano cake. The base layer was a chocolate cake, the middle a strawberry cake and the top layer a funfetti cake. The whole cake was frosted with homemade chocolate buttercream with a hint of white buttercream at the top for snow. It was decorated with small flowers and sugar dinosaurs. And yes, I did cut a whole in the top and have the volcano steaming throughout the reception (thanks to dry ice and hot water).

Last but not least was the groom's cake. A 2-layer chocolate cake, frosted with chocolate buttercream. And on top of the cake was the Marine's emblem, made of fondant detailed with buttercream piping.




All in all I think these cakes were quite a success (considering I had to pack a suitcase full of baking supplies and invade a friend's kitchen to accomplish this task while living thousands of miles away).