When I think of weddings, I think about the beautiful couple, beautiful wedding setting, beautiful cake and beautiful flowers.
Everything just seems right and in place but when I was called to bake my friend’s sister’s wedding cake, I didn’t know how to answer her in a polite manner, hinting my intention that I had no capability to bake her wedding cake. Weddings as we all know are special and I don’t wanna be that person that spoils that day with a cake that is unprofessional, unclean or one that topples suddenly due to unforeseeable circumstances. After all, I’m only a person working in the finance sector who bakes during weekends to distress. Wahaha! Please be easy on me!
Anyway basically, the only reason why I hesitated in giving her a direct answer was that I had never baked one before. She wanted hydrangeas or callallies as the main decoration on her ombre blue cake, which leaves yet another problem- Making the flowers from scratch outta edible fondant. What?! *Pulls hair*
So I did a little researched and I finally found my lifesaver when I chanced upon Petalsweet’s blog post on making hydrangeas…. For beginners like me, I must say that her steps are awesome and so easy to follow.
I initially did a test batch with fondant but was afraid that the fondant wouldn’t set hard enough for me so I went the tradition route of using gumpaste. Texture wise moulding it felt akin to moulding fondant but when left over a few days, it sets to a rock hard piece of clay like material consistency that you won’t wanna bite on.
I test batched a couple of hydrangeas, left half to set in my egg tray and the other half to dry upside down. After a few days, they were ready to be painted.
This is a lighter blue shade of hydrangeas I did
The white ones.
The more I did, the happier I was. The happier I was, the more I did so it went on and on until I was severely satisfied with having enough flowers. Blue and white doesn’t seem very striking on its own so the next step was to petal dust them.
I’ve always been excited about the painting portion. It’s like blending colors to match what you deem suit for any occasion. I decided to go for Wilton’s ice blue and what I think was periwinkle blue to match the ombre blue theme of the wedding cake. I had actually set my eyes on some lustre dust amidst all the petal dust at the shop but they were too sparkling to be dusted on the petals. Another time perhaps.
I started off with pure white flowers and ended up with these 🙂 A blue shading with yellow centre to make the colors pop!
and you go on and do the same for the blue ones adding more darker shades of blue to the corners and sides. Lastly you bundle them up into a bouquet and arrange them into a manner pretty enough for the final cake!
So Ta da! Presenting to theee my very first wedding cake blog post! I’m glad that the couple loved it! 🙂
