My weekend project:

In a classically Abby move, I volunteered awhile back to make my brother-in-law and soon-to-be sister-in-law's wedding cake (they are getting married four weeks from now!).  I have to admit, the mental vision of myself, cutely aproned and wielding a decorator's bag, is always so much more enticing than actually rolling up my sleeves to make the vision a reality.  It is too easy to forget what cake decorating in July or August really means (sweat, weeping icing, more sweat, decorations melting into nondescript blobs, did I mention sweat?) when the generous impulse strikes in February.  To be clear, I really am looking forward to this project - it should be fun, a challenge, and a really good experience to have under my belt.  At the same time, I really want their cake to turn out well, and let's face it, a wedding cake is a Pretty Big Deal, so this weekend I did a trial run of what I'm planning to do.  Of course, this trial run had to be relatively miniature, since the actual cake will feed some 116 people, and I do not need a cake in my house designed for that many people - my willpower regarding sweets is poor enough as it is.  So, I made a tiny 6" topped with a 4" tiered version; the real thing will be 6" and 10" and 14".

Anyway, here's how it turned out (keep in mind that I only took an hour to do this, and will take far more time with the real thing, smoothing and leveling and getting everything just so):

They wanted something quite minimal, with real ribbon at the bases of the tiers, a simple decorated border, and real flowers on top (no, those are not real flowers, just an imitation sprig to get the idea, but the real thing will have a flower dome done by the florist).  For a trial run, I have to say it turned out pretty ok!  I did a Nutella filling for the top layer, and raspberry jam on the bottom; the real thing will have a layer with lemon curd as well.

I learned:

• The ribbon needs to go on after the frosting has set, not while it is still sticky, otherwise it soaks up butter from the frosting and discolors.
• I'm going to buy the little perfectly round candy balls to do the border (probably on top of piped icing) because I had a hard time not getting little peaky points on the round dots.  If I place them with tweezers, it'll actually be easier and I think will look pretty classy.
• Everything needs to be really level and all the icing needs to be as smooth as possible (and evenly spread as possible), because it will really show up in the pictures otherwise.
• Also, my nice 6 inch pan sticks like crazy, so I may need to have an extra box or two of cake mix around in case of disasters.  I also plan to do the baking on thursday and the decorating on friday so there is plenty of time to recover if something does go wrong.

The soon-to-be bride and groom were pleased, anyway, so I think I'm on the right track... still, prayers for success are much appreciated (and any tips, as well)!