Monday, June 26, 2006

So Thus Came the Bride

[Continuation from Previous Post...]

On Friday morning, I had planned my schedule as such; I would rush home from work slightly earlier, chuck on the glazed fruits decoration, and get the cake delivered to the hotel, and go out and PARTY, having gotten that big load of my shoulders. To my HORROR, the hotel was VERY uncooperative about the whole thing, and this woman just nonchalantly said, "the wedding is tomorrow, so you'll have to deliver it tomorrow. We have no place to store it". And just like that, my social plans for the night were thrown into disarray. The problem with "tomorrow" is, I had to be there to support the groom at the cheep sun leong, (bargaining for bride), etc, etc. And, since the final touches of the cake involve fresh fruit, albeit glazed, I couldn't do it the on Friday night and leave it out unrefrigerated. Cursing under my breathe, I made the necessary sacrifices at the social functions I was at on Friday, to wake up at 7am on Saturday, to quickly plonk on the decoration.

The bride's theme was autumnal colors, and wanted orangey colored fruits, which are actually summer fruit.... so, using a medley of physalis, (cape gooseberries), kumquats, apricots, yellow cherries, red cherries, ...and some standby strawberries, which weren't used in the end. Oh, I had also bought some sugarpaste orange color roses, just as backup, which I didnt use, so if anyone wants about 10 rose buds of various sizes, please let me know, you can have them FOC.
Anyway, by 7.45, and 3 dozen toothpicks later, I managed to put the finishing touches, and headed off for the fun and games at the cheep sun leong, which is another story altogether.



Summer Fruit in Autumnal Colors... Glazed with apricot jam and castor sugar.

The finished product. A bit too late to rectify the cracking fondant,
and the lop sidedness.



Anyway, when we subsquently arrived at the hotel, (the actual wedding commentary will be on the other blog), I was expecting to see the cake on a raised dais, on stage, far away from public scrutiny, BUT TO MY HORROR, it was placed on an eye level table,
where the cocktails were being served. That meant it was subject to close scrutiny.....but I suppose being predominantly people from our church, the scathing remarks were scarce.... but somehow or other, word LEAKED that it was me who made it. Then of course, the next reaction was disbelief...."Huh? Is there another Fatboy in FBC? (First baptist church)....Cannnot be the one who's father of four kids"....And like how Malaysians flock to an accident scene, all of a sudden, there was a crowd hovering around the cake, which was when I made my quick exit.

Epilogue : I missed the cake cutting!!!! ARGH!!! I didn't hear the announcement, and was milling around the other end of the foyer, chit chatting. Got there on time for the bride to give me a thumbs up. As expected, the vanilla butter cake was okay, and some even had nice words....but the chocolate butter cake, (1st and 2nd floor), was a tad dry....what surprised me was, the fondant actually tastes quite nice. Sickly sweet of course, but reminds me of my childhood. Anyway, BRIDE AND GROOM, when and if you read this, I take this opportunity to thank you for having so much faith in me, and it has been, in retrospect, something REALLY blogworthy, and an experience that I will remember and cherish for years to come. God bless you both.

7 comments:

Karen said...

pretty cake! well done, glad it all came out ok :)

boo_licious said...

Congrats! It looks really fantastic.

fatboybakes said...

thanks guys for cheering me on....it was a fun experience. i'm hoping to visit a friend's mother to learn more tricks on handling fondant. i think actually, its not such an insurmountable task after all. except i wont attempt a 14" diameter cake again. that was really unnecessary stress.

Anonymous said...

thanks so much for making us such a beautiful, lovely, gorgeous, best-ever cake!! it really lit up the foyer and of course we wouldn't have put it away in some stuffy corner! with all the fake cakes going around.. real ones are meant to be admired :D

the fruits were very well chosen and perfectly placed (they were yummy too!) and i thot it was so cute how u topped it off by placing the cake toppers on a mini-cupcake - with its own fondant too.

hehe - we're not mad to put such faith in you.. the beauty of the cake is in the creativity and love of its maker ;) wish i had more time to pore over it...

fatboybakes said...

awww, sniff, teary eyed and all. didnt even have a chance to say farewell...in retrospect, i'm really glad you asked me to do it, and had the faith in me...thanks for the lovely lord of the rings trivial pursuit set. it will be a story to be told for many years to come.

fatboybakes said...

dear hobbes, thank you for dropping by. yar, it was bordering on errr....insane, to have accepted the challenge, but as the bride assured me no matter how it turned out, she'd still love it, coz she'd know it was made with love and sincerity, i thought, OK, i'd give it a shot. how did your attempt turn out? got pics?

Audrey Cooks said...

Waaa! You are one brave man who did really well! btw I'm audrey, a very entertaining wedding episode.