Wedding Cake

All week I have been talking about the wedding cake I was going to have to help my 15-year-old make for her Romeo and Juliet party at school. I have been dreading this event for some time now. I don't have a problem with baking, but a wedding cake seemed to be a huge undertaking to me. I think it's the decorating part that gives me hives. Plus, she decided she wanted to do a fondant cake. Who on Earth told her about that stuff? 
..oh, wait.  I think I did.

See, I cause my own trouble.

Thank goodness for the Internet. I've been searching for weeks now about how to do this. It's only for about 25 kids, so I knew that I didn't want to go really crazy and make a 3 tier monstrosity. I watched a ton of videos - man they make that look easy. I also knew that I was not going to have time to tackle roses or anything like that.  This was going to have to be a simple, yet somewhat elegant, cake. How do I get myself into these things?

Of course she wanted marble cake. Why not? I've never done that either, so why stop now? I drew the line at two layers.  Mostly because I was afraid to have the whole darn thing topple over.

Actually, I can see it in this picture here that it's already leaning. Oh well, Romeo and Juliet is supposed to be Italian, right?  Just think of it as the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

What I didn't know before my research, is that you are supposed to frost your cake before placing the fondant. Good to know. I hate frosting cakes. The cake always pulls up and gets into the frosting. How do I stop that? I used this Buttercream frosting recipe here. I actually expected the cake to be taller. I'm so used to just making sheet cakes. This is all uncharted territory for me. Onto the fondant.

You can actually buy fondant from your local craft store (@ $20), but how good can a box of fondant that has been sitting on a shelf taste? After making it myself, I don't think I could have kneaded a pre-made, boxed fondant. This particular recipe made it with marshmallows. Not only is this sticky, but I really got a workout kneading it for 10 minutes. The hardest part was actually rolling it out and getting it to not stick to the counter. We had to do this twice because it tore apart the first time when it stuck. No pictures of that disaster because I was too busy hyperventilating. 

I was so concerned about not having enough that I really over did it. Look at all that extra fondant! It does make the cake look really pretty, though. Ignore my messy hands. Clean up was fairly easy, but this is not a project for the feint of heart. And having two people does make it easier to place the fondant. 

Final step, simple decorations.  Have you seen how expensive cake toppers are?  OMG!  No thanks.  We found these cute little birdie salt and pepper shakers. I think they look adorable and they don't overwhelm this small cake the way a traditional topper would.

I think she's pretty proud of her decorating skills. It's a learning process. One that I don't want to repeat. Ever. At least for a long time. No wonder Cake Boss is so popular. 

I think I'll keep my day job.