Our Cake

As I've mentioned in an earlier entry, we aren't having the 'traditional' wedding cake so to speak.

With our wedding being quite non-traditional all the way round, ie:

• Surprise wedding
• We're driving to the ceremony together
• Not having a sit down meal, canape & soup station instead so people will mingle

it's probably not a huge shock to read our cake isn't the 'norm'.

We are going with a cake table, where we will have 5-6 of our favourite cakes (cheesecake, pavlova, lemon meringue, chocolate ripple, mango cake), made by our mums, sisters, on cake stands, then in the middle we will have a taller stand with a 2 tier 'wedding cake.

The style of cake we wanted isn't the norm so to speak either, we didn't want a really formal wedding cake, with royal icing etc, we wanted something more informal.

So this is the style we've decided on:

Soft buttercream cake (photo source)

I am heading to the Sydney Flower Market with our florist (daughter of a friend) on the Wednesday before our wedding, and will pick out fresh flowers then to use on top and on the middle layer.  It won't be as many as this photo, but this is the inspiration.

Below is how we hope the table will look on the day, or there abouts!

The cake table look we're going with (photo source)

As with just about anything that includes the word wedding, the quotes I obtained from cake shops to make our cake were scary, ranging from $350 - $440, plus delivery, plus flowers!

As I've probably mentioned a few times, we're paying for our wedding 100% ourselves, so budget is definitely high on our agenda. $500 (cake plus flowers) for a cake just seemed ludicrous.

However this is where I've been lucky, or resourceful perhaps, I met with the lady who is helping us decorate the hall (a retired lady who does it as a hobby), she lives in the town next to us, and mentioned that one of her friends does cakes on the side, and gave me her contact details.

We were a tad sceptical, thinking that maybe it would be a fruitcake making lady who would baulk at the thought of a buttercream cake filled with 'weird' flavours.  So when I went to meet her last night I wasn't overly confident.

Well my lack of confidence was definitely misplaced, the lady bought out an album of cakes she has created, and there were some lovely ones, she's very talented.

She was a bit shocked with our surprise wedding concept (quote "I'd kill my daughter if she did that", oops!), but once I'd explained the relaxed style of wedding, she came round a bit, and was excited about our cake choice.

I was a bit nervous asking about using flavoured ganaches, but she said if I could get her the recipe she'd be fine.  Yay!

So our choices:

Bottom Tier (Mr Mel) - Chocolate cake with jaffa ganache
Top Tier (Me) - Vanilla (or maybe coconut or lemon) cake with rosewater ganache

The recipe I found for the rosewater ganache looks simple enough, I'm sure our cake lady will be fine:


White Chocolate and Rosewater Ganache (recipe source)

• 
  
  • • 150g White Chocolate
      

      • 100ml Thick Cream

      
      

• • 2-3 drops Rosewater essence
    1. Heat cream in small saucepan over medium heat. When close to boiling, remove from heat and let rest for 30 seconds or so before pouring over white chocolate.
    2. Mix well, making sure the chocolate is melted. Add the rosewater and stir well.
    3. Place mixture in a piping bag, seal and leave in fridge for 10 minutes to thicken.
    
    
    The recipe for the Jaffa ganache looks simple also:
• Jaffa Ganache (recipe source)
  
  200g Dark Chocolate Chips
• 200ml Thick Cream
  1 tsp grated orange rind1 tsp orange juice (we might swap in a splash of cointreau)
  1. Pour about 1 1/2 cups of water into a small saucepan and place a heatproof bowl on top.
  2. Place the chocolate in the bowl and continue to mix until almost completley melted then add the cream and stir until combined.
  3. Take bowl off the heat and stir in the orange juice and rind and set aside to cool stirring every few minutes until ganache is thick and spreadable.
• 
  

And the best thing of all, the cost, would you believe $120 including delivery, plus whatever flowers I buy she'll put on for me, for free!!!!!!!!!!    

SCORE!!!!   

I sooooo love all the savings we've made through research and word of mouth, sure it would be so much easier to just order everything off the shelf so to speak, and be done with it.  But so far I think we've saved about 1/3rd costs across the board, from hiring the venue, through to dress, catering, cake, flowers etc, all through being willing to put in some hard work and not take the easy route.

Yay! Although I may be speaking to soon, as this Sunday is 'DIY Bunting Day' cue the Jaws, scary, full of dread music!

Wedding Cake - the plan

After much back & forth, many (expensive) quotes, we've decided to go a bit left of centre with our wedding cake.

Instead of a traditional 3 tier cake, we're going to have a cake table.

We're asking our mums, sisters, aunt, to make one of our favourite cakes each (won't give anything away, as they've been asking if they can help with the catering side), we're going to put them on a tressle table, sitting on different level cake stands, and on the tallest stand we'll have a 1 tier 'wedding cake'.

This is the sort of layout we'll be aiming at (photo source)

At this stage, the cakes will be:

Lemon Meringue
Pavlova
Chocolate Ripple
Tiramisu
Mango/Passionfruit Cake

Then a 1 tier white icing covered cake, maybe a mudcake, still deciding, topped with fresh flowers, in our green & white theme.

We'll have knifes and servers for each cake, and our guests can help themselves.

Going to scour the opshops for dessert spoons, forks and small plates, rather than disposable, then we can keep them all for future parties.

Forgot to add, also scouring the opshops for large glass containers for lollies to include on the table, and will be heading out to the Hunter Valley Chocolate Shop and the British Sweet Shop at Hunter Valley Gardens, to see what bulk buy deals they offer, to fill the containers :)

The Kindness Of Curvy Strangers

As you could probably imagine, in having a surprise wedding, I have limited my available helpers to myself & Mr Mel, and have spent the last few weeks calling & emailing a long list of suppliers to get quotes on everything we need.

Not being a local for long and not knowing many (well any apart from boss & neighbours) in town, I wasn't able to rely on recommendations etc.

I joined Curves 2 weeks ago in an effort to ditch some kgs leading into the big day.  On Monday, after my failed DIY invitation attempt, I mentioned that I was craft challenged, when some of the other ladies were discussing their craft projects.  They asked what I was trying to do and as soon as the word 'wedding' left my mouth, it was on for young and old!

Within 3 minutes I had been offered:

• Florist services - a daughter of one of the ladies is a stay at home mum, but is a florist by trade
• Decoration services - a friend of one of the ladies does part time function/wedding decorating
• Cake - daughter in law of one of the ladies is a stay at home mum, works in a bakery part-time, and obsessed with cakes

I was taken aback by their kindness and generosity, by my quick calculations based on another 5 minute chat yesterday morning, on those 3 items alone we'll be saving around $800 - $1,000! Alot can happen in our Curves circle!

The ladies are bringing in email addresses & phone numbers to our Curves session tomorrow, so I can liaise directly.

So yay to me for speaking up (ok kind of whinging!), and yay to the Curvey ladies, after their kind offers I can no longer call them strangers!

Needless to say I am going to add them to the list to receive our 'thank you' photo/postcard after our day!  :)

The Cake Toppers - so cute!

So we haven't even considered what we're doing cake wise, but I just couldn't resist the most gorgeous cake toppers.

Mr Mel calls me Chickadee or Chicken, and I call him Monkey or Monkelicious, just so you don't think I'm completely crackers!

I've requested they both be around 9cm tall, and the monkey won't have bananas.

Chicken Cake Topper

Monkey Cake Topper

We're thinking of going with plainish white cakes, with a green ribbon, maybe some green orchids on top, with the chicken & monkey sitting amongst the orchids.
They're made from gum paste, I'll be receiving them in an airtight container in the next week or so, then just need to keep them away from air, light, moisture, and Mr Mel :)

I realise they won't be everyone's cup of tea, but I know Mr Mel will love them as much as I do, and really it's our day, so there :)