a Wedding in Nashville

Every one of my friends told me I was crazy.  “Well, that’s a given,” I replied.  And I have to admit, I did have a few cases of nerves throughout the process.  Backing down from a challenge, however, is something I’m usually too stubborn to do.

What was making my friends question my sanity?  As you most likely surmised from the title, I was doing my cousin’s wedding cake – in Nashville, TN.  Yup, that’s over 700 miles from Baltimore.

Carton Plantation, the site of the wedding

“How are you going to manage driving all that way with the cake?  Aren’t you afraid it’ll fall apart?  What are you going to, ship the cake while you fly there?” my bewildered friends asked. 

I had actually put some thought into that.  My plan was to prepare the decorations, frosting, and cake at home and drive everything to Nashville, where I’d take over a kitchen and assemble the cake. My cousin’s finance (the bride) and I had exchanged email messages, photos, and sketches and settled on a simple, elegant design.  I arranged to take a total of eight day off work to give me a couple days to bake, a couple days to travel, a couple days to assemble the cake, and a couple days to decompress after returning home (and to make it up to my dog for leaving her for the first time).

The wedding colors were yellow and gray,
so the bride picked a white fondant-covered
cake with yellow flowers and gray piping.

One week before the wedding, the yellow fondant flowers were assembled, dried, and carefully packed.  A few days later, I was ready to bake my little heart out.  A friend of the bride was making the groom’s cake – chocolate and coconut (yum)!  For a good contrast, the bride selected vanilla bean pound cake with vanilla buttercream. 

Two days later, smelling strongly of sugar and vanilla, I was packed and ready to go.  The next evening I was in Nashville and the morning after that I was up to my elbows in wedding cake.  By the end of the day, all three tiers were frosted and covered in fondant. With an artistic consultation from my grandfather, I had also stacked and decorated the bottom two tiers.

almost finished!

After a nerve-wracking quarter of a mile traveled on the gravel road leading to the plantation where the wedding was to be held, the cake arrived safe and relatively sound.  A couple of my cousin’s friends carried the 50+ pounds of cake into the kitchen and I set to work repairing the slightly squished area that was the result of me misjudging how very heavy the cake was and trying to move it myself. Before long, I had finished the top tier and added the final touch, the bird salt and pepper shakers the bride and groom picked as the cake topper.

Right before the wedding that afternoon, when I saw that the staff had moved the cake to the reception area without incident, I breathed a HUGE sigh of relief. The wedding was beautiful and my mission was accomplished.