My in-laws just celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary! Woot Woot! So, I decided to make them a cake for their special day since everywhere I called it was going to cost me hundreds and more, or they didn't have time to do it.
I can bake, but I was just too busy putting together their video, their picture book, and I had made their invitations too. Oh, and I might be able to bake, and I can decorate weddings and my home, but I am so not a cake decorator! So, this is what I came up with.
I bought a plain white 1/2 sheet cake from a local store, then I cut it up to make a second tier. Bottom one I made 10" by 10" and top was 8" by 8":
I seperated the pieces and pieced them together on wax paper, putting a crumb layer of frosting on them first, then froze it for an hour:
I used regular frosting to do a crumb coat, then stuck both pieces in the freezer to firm them up so I could work with them. I then put the smaller one on top (putting the bottom layer on the gold plastic tray I found at a party store for cheap) and made some royal icing and spread it on top first and worked my way towards the sides. When the cake seem to get too flimsy I froze it again for another hour.
I used a spoon to give it some fun swirls, and then used my pampered chef icing gun (which my sweet husband bought me years ago, and I am ashamed to say this was the first time I pulled it out, but now that I did I am going to have some fun! Way easier then an icing bag!) to do the shells on the edge.
I put it in the fridge to firm up, then decorated it with fake flowers that had gold in them with the '50' topper.
I probably should of bought two 1/2 sheet cakes to make it have 3 bigger layers, but it was my first try. They all loved it and that is what counts, right?
Hope it inspires someone who was afraid of it as much as I was. Have fun!
~V
