Ahoy Happy Sugar Citizens! Husband Mic here with another behind the scenes from the kitchen of Merci Beaucoup. This week on Amazing Wedding Cakes we battled scurvy and that obnoxious East India Trading Company to launch our very own pirate ship wedding cake for Mike and his favorite wench Michelle. (Sorry Michelle, we know you're not a "wench," but this whole talk like a pirate thing is so catchy!) Speaking of, HAPPY TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY!! I'd like to think this was some sort of stroke of genius from the network to schedule our pirate ship on Sept. 19th to coincide with "Talk Like A Pirate Day," but the ache in the joint that connects the peg to me leg says otherwise. Oh well, it is a happy fluke for sure!!
Sculpted cakes are always challenging and this one was no exception. Our plans had railings and masts and sails and canons and all sorts of piratey goodness. I say "piratey" because that is the word Marc used to describe his ship to the clients. A "piratey" pirate ship? I think someone is getting a word a day calendar from their Secret Santa this year. Land ho!!
Take a shot, Marc called himself an artist! Oh what, you weren't aware of the Amazing Wedding Cakes drinking game? Too bad, down some grog matey!
We started with a styrofoam base that Marc carved into a basic boat bottom with a serrated knife. There's a number of ways to deal with carving and cutting styrofoam including rubbing rough edges together to smooth them out. No matter what you do, it is always messy!! We even dedicated an entire trash can to just styrofoam so we can cut over it and smooth and hopefully catch all those pesky styro pieces! (Hint: it doesn't! I sweep up that damn stuff for days after a project with styrofoam in it!)
Rough seas lay ahead! We had a little trial and error on the sculpting. The bow of the ship was pointing down a little too much which I doubt is a sea-worthy design. Thankfully, cake is easy to manipulate and a simple slice or two from a sharp cutlass and we were back in the sailing biz. Here's some snaps from the sculpting process:
I carved the masts out of large diameter wood dowels and we painted them with some food coloring. (Editor's Note: Reva seems to think a friend of Marc did the masts. Honestly, I just assumed I did since I do stuff like that all the time! It seems so familiar! Either way, masts were carved.) The sails went through a couple revisions. We started with pastillage and did a test sail, but ended up using gum paste because it was lighter. We were all really happy with how those sails came out because they really made the cake something special! Add in all the little details like the canons and the rum barrels and it was quite a site.
They actually showed quite a bit of the process this week, and it came together fairly easy in the end. We sailed around any major difficulties and even the delivery was uneventful. Not that they showed any of that. You know, my part, Mic's part, the hubby's role... the delivery. *SNIP* Le sigh....
Love the gold details! Speaking of the delivery, the "parrrrrr-ty" was at Senor Fred's in Sherman Oaks which had a great dark interior and red and gold accents that totally fit with the pirate theme. It also had an Alabama football game on the bar TV that someone from the AWC crew had a hard time pulling his or her eyes away from! I'm not gonna name names, but Brian, you know who you are!
I don't think they held on a really good shot of the cake in the show, so here's a treasure chest of shots we took of our buttercream vessel:
The water came out pretty neat huh? I think the water, the little details, and the sails all really made this sculpted ship pop and gave Mike and Michelle a memorable cake for their wedding day. By the by, those two were so cool! Forget those Jersey Shore morons, these two Jersey natives are the real deal! We wish you all the best together!!
Outside of my Star Trek reference, my absolute favorite moment from filming this episode was during the delivery. I picked up those pirate props for us to play with and when we hopped in the van for the delivery, I had a plastic pirate hook on and our camera girl Ashley filmed me shifting the van into gear with the hook. We laughed hard in the van but it didn't make it on the show. Also not in the show, any formal interviews with me... where I had a fake parrot on my shoulder. It was awesome and funny, and apparently no one likes such things. I'm not saying the network hates me, but it is kind of obvious so far they do. Oh well. It's their show right? But, I did get a picture of our sound guy Brian using the hook to monitor our mic packs!!
Well, that's cake number two out of the nine we did for season three. Thanks for watching and tune in next week for the glory of the "Cheesecake Cheese Cake!"
Night has stars, appear attractive, The sea is a flower, knowledgeable, A snow in winter, romantic, A friend, you feel deeply honored to, Best wishes to you: happy every day.
Posted by: Nike Air Max 97 | 28 September 2010 at 07:19 PM
Is it possible to order this cake from you? We are getting married at the Pirate Festival in Missouri September 17, 2011. Your cake would be perfect.
Posted by: Dawn Kakouris | 03 November 2010 at 03:13 PM
How much would a cake like this cost? I am considering ordering this.
Posted by: Meagan | 22 November 2010 at 11:09 AM
A M A Z I N G !!!!!!
Posted by: Marilda | 15 April 2011 at 11:13 AM