I know what you're thinking, but just get that idea out of your head right now! You do not all need a giant wedding cake that gives me heart palpatations to deliver!!
This week we delivered the "cakezilla" known as the Arboretum Cake. 3 feet wide, 5 tiers high and needing to go all the way down to the campus of Cal State Fullerton in Orange County. As you saw, it was satellite cakes arranged to create a base for the big centerpiece tiered cake. It is a great look, but a real bear to assemble and move around. We had to do a test assembly at the shop and then take it apart again to fit back in the fridge and then into boxes and down for final assembly at the reception. Phew! That is a lot of work and puts a lot of stress on the cake itself. Reva had to make a few minor touch-ups as we worked.
And hey, I take a little stab at myself about her letting me help with the cake, but I do have some ability to work on small stuff! Just don't ask me to make the sugar flowers like Karyn was doing, but I can stick them into frosting any day.
The cake board wasn't so much a "board" as it was a table top! No, seriously, it was a table top. Because of the size of this cake and the eventual weight, I had to make a trip down to the local Lowe's and purchase a pre-cut, 36" diameter wood table top. The kind you can screw those pre-made legs into, slap some paint on and tell your friends you whittled yourself! Not that I've ever done that or anything. It was a couple inches of solid lumber and expensive. Next time you spend a few bucks on some cake boards down at the supply store, don't feel so bad. I often wonder if someone from the wedding grabbed it and has it in their living room right now with a lamp and some photo frames on it.
The delivery was one of those nerve shredding ones. We gave ourselves plenty of time (the trip from L.A. towards Disneyland can be one hellish commute) but the traffic was stop and go most of the way. It took so long in fact, that our sound man extraordinaire, Brian, went through at least two big bags of chips. That guy loves chips! When we got to the site, there were a couple crumbs left in the bottom and I forgot my mic was on while Reva was talking. Brian shot me a look from across the field as I snuck some Doritos! Oops. It was pretty funny though.
No matter how many precautions you take, with an important cake of this magnitude, it gets stressful. When we got to the arboretum at CS Fullerton, we had to drive over some dirt access roads and then carry the cake across the big grass grove. So basically the universe threw everything it had at this cake! And then the tree which I always worry about dropping leaves and what not. Not to mention me knocking off a couple flowers as I set it down! I can't believe they got that on film, but hey, that's what happens.
Funny note to caterers: unless you've confirmed with the cake shop, don't put a stand on the table. We had a good laugh when we got to the table and there was a flimsy metal circle with a thin piece of glass on top. It looked nice from far away and matched similar ones by the buffet, but I think the Arboretum cake would have smashed it into a thousand pieces.
Reva did the final decorating touches on site, adding the flowers and walking around it like a bazillion times trying to figure out if it was finished. Because of the traffic, we weren't finished by the time guests started arriving. That's when it is my job to stop her and tell her how awesome it looks. And it did! The Arboretum Cake looked so good in that setting! The color just popped underneath the tree and there was a matching candy bar just behind it, so I was pretty much jealous of the guest list.
You know, an interesting question we get quite often about these cakes is price. Without going into our standard pricing here, all of the cakes featured on Amazing Wedding Cakes were done pro bono. This Arboretum cake would have definitely helped out with the vacation fund, but all our couples were so nice letting us butt in with cameras and lights etc., that the least we could do is call it even. But if you must know, since this cake was such a pain for me to deliver..... um, it was a million dollars!!
It was good to see Cake Girls back on the show this week. We love them out here in Cali, they're awesome. I just wish they'd showed them making those cool sugar flowers.
Thanks for watching our "cakezilla" be born! Let's see, next week we'll be back with a true Hollywood kind of cake. It was probably our toughest design and execution this season, but more on that next time. Take care everybody!!
Fantastic cake! it looks pretty and perfect and with all the drama of getting it there its doubly lovely but I seriously would charge a firstborn child for that cake, I hate delivering heavy cakes!!!! and the "funny note to caters" cracked me up, that has happened to me a couple of times, its like gee, um you didn't make it, stay out of displaying it please, you'll just make my job harder.
I'm so glad you all have the blog, I don't get the show up here so I can cheer you on here!
keep it up you're fabulous!
Posted by: Jenn S | 13 July 2009 at 11:41 AM