The Home Stretch

Did I mention I went to bed at 5am Saturday morning? Fortunately, my sweet husband stayed up with me! It was nice not being up alone. But I couldn't sleep too late. I had to finish the wedding and groom's cake. They were baked and that was it. That's actually why I was up so late: baking the cakes. And working on the cookies.  So I set my alarm for 9 am. I got up and started at it again...

Yay for two mixers! I'm putting them to work!

I really don't have many pictures because I was too busy for that! But before I forget, let me tell you about making these cakes. The wedding cake was lemon cake. No problem. I have a great lemon cake recipe. Except I zested maybe 20 lemons. Umm... that takes a while. I zested. And zested some more. And then a little more. Whew!! Then I had to get the juice. I found every little cut in my hands. Ouch. Anyway... that's all. But making a 6" round, 8" square, and 12" round was a lot of lemon batter. 

Does anyone else have one of these? It is enormous!!

Oh and the wedding was an hour away. And it was supposed to be outside. Umm... it's crazy hot!! But they changed it the day of to an inside reception!! HOORAY! I had to be there at 6, but now that it is inside, I can get there early if I can. Sweet! That was the plan. Get there asap. The sooner I get there, the sooner I am done! So I bag cookies, make buttercream, ice the lemon cakes, make chocolate buttercream, ice the groom's cake, make the bow topper, dip 80 strawberries in chocolate, dowel stack the cakes, decorate, etc. 

The one positive of having no food at home. Plenty of room for cakes!

Well 5 pm rolls around (the time I wanted to leave) and I'm close to being done, but not quite. I start panicking. Oh my gosh I was incredibly nervous. Blah, blah, blah we head out at 5:30. Yuck. I hold the wedding cake in my lap. So nervous. Did I already mention that?  Finally we get there and it's a resort that we've never been to. We finally find where to go and set up. All good before the guests show up!!! Yay! 

Thank goodness for my phone camera :)

Close up shots

Now that you've seen the pictures... I got there and needed to fix a stripe on the front. It fell as soon as we pulled out of our house. No big deal. I put royal icing, buttercream, and chocolate buttercream piping bags in a bag just in case! Yeah... it didn't make it to the car. Fortunately the missing stripe isn't too noticeable. It was nice that the only one that fell was in the front! Ha!

And a few loops fell out of the bow, which I couldn't fix because no royal icing, but that part was in the back and not too big of a deal.

Also, the strawberries didn't harden. ugh! I practiced them! But of course the chocolate that I used then was sold out when I went to buy my supplies. So I bought a different type of chocolate. Yeah... I suppose that kind of chocolate will work but it didn't work as well as the first kind I had used. I put the strawberries on the cake but there were a lot left over that I was going to leave there. They were a mess. Oh well. Lesson learned. I haven't heard any complaints from anyone either. 

All in all, it's over. They were standing, in one piece, at the reception, on time (even if later than planned). Whew.

"For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength" (Phil. 4:13)

I've got another wedding and groom's cake to do this weekend. And we started renovating our pantry... haha this should be fun!