May 25th 2022

Wedding cake

Tom and Yuri have entrusted the baking and icing of their wedding cake to Mary and me! I think that they feel that, with the wedding still over a year away, we will have plenty of time to practise and should by then be able to produce something that not only looks impressive but it also edible; and if our attempts are really not up to scratch then they should still have time to purchase one from someone who knows what they are doing.

Over the past six weeks we have learnt a lot: a rotating cake stand is essential; Russian butter icing made with sweetened condensed milk should be avoided; trying to produce a white (rather than yellow) butter icing by adding minute quantities of purple food colouring is very difficult and it is much better to just use Normandy unsalted butter; and a slightly irregular finish on the final butter icing layer can be disguised by adding lots of decorative flowers!

Have practised with a single cake made up of three layers, we are now experimenting with multiple tiers supported by embedded stiff plastic 'piles'. We are definitely going to need a full year before we get it right.