July 27, 2010

m + a get married: the cake

Ashley asked me to make the cake for her wedding. She was inspired by this wedding from Max Wanger's blog. I only obliged because it was an unfrosted cake. The thought of fondant makes me want to poke my own eyes out. Yes, I have done fondant cakes but I really hate them. Buttercream is much better but it's equally as tricky to get just right. I thought this was going to be "cake" (lame joke, I know) but . . . read on.

Luckily I already owned two very pretty bundt pans and a few bundt recipes bookmarked from Smitten Kitchen. I had planned to make a lemon cake (sans glaze) for the two tiers since I had tested the recipe a few days before and it was delicious. However, as I took the cakes out of their respective pans the day before the wedding I saw that the smaller of the two hadn't browned the same as the larger one. After much stressing, I decided to start from scratch on Saturday (the day of the wedding) and use the less pretty cakes for serving. This time I decided to make the cream cheese pound cake - a cake I had never made or eaten. They were both browning beautifully in the oven while I was round brushing my hair and William was taking a nap. The oven timer went off so with my round brush cooling on the crown of my hair, I carefully held the pan between two oven mitts when it slipped out of my hands crashing loudly onto the open oven door. The still-warm cooked cake went everywhere and my sleeping baby woke screaming from his too-short nap. This is the part when I just started crying. Thank heavens I have a husband who is calm and collected. He swooped in and cleaned the oven while I wiped my tears and picked up William. Then I took a deep breath and tried to salvage the cake. It wasn't as bad as I had thought and once I dusted the cakes with powdered sugar and placed the berries around it, no one could even tell. This is the part when I breathed a big sigh of relief.

This cake was a labor of love for my little brother and his beautiful bride but I think it was worth it! Here are the recipes in case you're interested. They are both really delicious. I will definitely make both again in the future.

10 comments:

  1. The cake turned out so beautiful! Thank you for sharing the recipes, I can't wait to try them:):)

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  2. Yours looks much prettier than the inspiration wedding one does!

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  3. I can barely stand to wait for pictures! I'm checking every day. Love what you've shared already!

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  4. Liz, those recipes sound so great. I love bundt cakes so I'll be trying these for sure. William is adorable and you are beautiful!

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  5. I didn't get to taste the lemon cake, but the cream cheese pound cake was delicious! That is one I'm adding to my recipe book.

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  6. Looks yummy (and I LOVE smitten kitchen)

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  7. That would have made me cry too! I'm so glad you were able to save it though!! Beautiful cake!!!!

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  8. That looks so scrumdidulyumptious! (just sound it out-it means SO YUMMY!). :) I'm sorry you had to go through all that but it turned out beautifully!!

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  9. Gorgeous pics of both the cake and of you & your son! Please post where you found the bundt pan used for the bottom tier of the cake. I hope to try both recipes very soon! Thanks!!

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