Here Comes The Bride....Part 3

The entire experience is almost enough to make me want to hang up my oven mitts. Rolling out the fondant icing, especially for the 14" dia cake, was a mammoth task. I could feel my shoulders falling out, worse than the Shoulder Track during Body Pump in the gym. It got worse, not better, because I had made the fondant in batches, and some were more pliable than others.

It was like an on the job training experience. I've never done it before, and in all the cookbooks, the largest diameter cake is 12", with no reference to anything larger. I guess it might qualify as industrial size. Anyway, I even had to telephone my other half to ask if it was coming home anytime soon, as I needed help to lift the 28"diameter piece of fondant onto the cake without making a huge mess. Alas, it was nowhere near home, so I had to do it myself. It was a mess.

The process continued, and I thought it should get easier with the smaller cakes, BUT NO....it got worse, because of the s****** fondant icing. I had used the most pliable batch for the big cake, so now was left huffing and puffing trying to role out the balance which was a lot harder.

Now, a friend in Singapore had warned me that when stacking, to make sure I got it centred. As in concentrically aligned. I pooh pooh-ed him, and said, excuse me, I am a Civil Engineer, and have built precision buildings before, I think I can stack a cake accurately. Boy, was I wrong. For one, I didn't have all the canggih surveying equipment with me, like a theodolite, and what have you. Secondly, I thought, heck, this is not the twin towers, that needs just precision, to link a sky bridge between the two. So what the heck, I just plonked in some skewers as markers, and plonked on the layers. Now, if you look carefully, the top layer is a bit off centre. But (boy, talk about imperfectionist), I figured, ah, well, when it's decorated, and on stage, I doubt people will actually go closely to inspect. This lackadaisical work ethic....is basically what made me almost always fail my university exams.

As you can see, the imperfections are quite obvious. Dents in the fondant, etc etc.... but having said that, I am CONFIDENT I will be able to pull off a fondant iced cake next time without much problem. (if I haven't hung up my mitts, AND, for cakes of NORMAL size only). The perimeter edges of the base also were a bit dodgy, hence the idea to put a piece of braided rope around the perimeter.

The next step, (after going to jalan jalan first in 1 utama...had to de-stress a bit), was to place the bows in position. The bows and its layout are dictated by the bride herself, and ribbons supplied by her too, based on the original dimensions of 14", 8" and 5". Its a good thing people remember their formula for circumference. Argh, what is it again? 4 Pi R? So there I was merrily putting the bows around the cake, when all of a sudden, at the last layer, I realised we were short. Argh, did the bride bungle her form 4 maths? Then I realised AAAAAAAAAAAARGH, I had changed the tier dimensions to 14", 10", 7"!!!!! DIEEEEE!!!!

Fortunately, she said the same color ribbons are available at MPH, (near me office), but at 4 times the price of what they were in Jalan TAR. Jln TAR is a veritable habedashery if you intend to tie the knot. It is the silicone valley of wedding implements.

So, here it is. Yup, looks lop sided. Sigh. Well, if love covers a multitude of sins, I am hoping decoration will cover a multitude of flaws as well.


Ah, saga not over yet. Now, unless you happen to own a hotel, or a restaurant, you'd find that in a normal household, you are NOT equipped to store anything of this size. I didnt want lizards dropping in from the sky, or ants crawling up, so whattttttt does one do???? What to do, what to do??? Then the genius in me thinks, okay, support it over an island, surrounded by a moat, so the ants cant swim across, and cover it with a tudung saji so lizards wont drop in. But tudung saji also not big enough. So, this was my solution.

Cake suspended over a moat. (The baking tray is filled with water)

Tudung saji, elevated by two tins, as a roof over the cake.