Baked a Cake

As the song says “love and marriage goes together like a horse and carriage” - much like peas and carrots, peonies and spring weddings, and Paris and Adam.

I couldn’t resist these amazing peonies at Woolworths tonight on my way home from work – they also inspired me to share the story of Paris and Adam’s wedding cake with you all.  

I went to pre-school and primary school in Orange with Paris (and The Boy the same with Adam), and many years later we met up again when we both moved to Newcastle. I was absolutely thrilled when they asked me to make their wedding cake after seeing photos of my cupcake bouquet. Without hesitation (even though I would be in Sri Lanka until four days before the wedding) I said yes, and started day-dreaming about the perfect cake for these high-school sweethearts.

Luckily for me, Paris and Adam are very laid-back (so much so that Adam’s wedding band being lost somewhere in the sand on Merewether beach didn’t even phase them), so after a quick meeting with Paris to discuss the theme of the wedding and the flowers in the girl’s bouquets I decided on a classic three-tiered cake with handmade sugar flowers including peonies, stock and small buds. Next came the flavour – white chocolate mud cake with raspberry filling or caramel mud cake with salted caramel filling… why not both?!

I started making the delicate sugar flowers before we left on our overseas adventure so that they had time to dry (and so that I wasn’t trying to roll, curl and assemble the petals while jetlagged and baking) and was so happy with how they turned out.

Once the cakes were baked, cooled, sliced and filled with their delicious fillings, I covered all three tiers with a white chocolate ganache and carefully placed the finished cake on top of the cake stand and added the flowers. Then came the daunting task of transporting the cake to the venue! Now being frightfully clumsy at times this was probably my biggest dilemma – I had visions of this baby toppling down our steep driveway and me running in to Woolworths to buy a couple of mud cakes and stacking them together! Luckily, The Boy placed the cake on my lap and we drove to the venue at 20km/h, like new parents taking home a new baby.

I was so happy to see Paris and Adam’s reaction as they entered the reception and saw their cake and to receive the kind feedback from their lovely friends and family – not only did the cake look pretty, but it tasted good too!

Paris and Adam celebrated their first anniversary last Sunday with their beautiful little boy Ace and tucked in to the top tier to celebrate. The Boy and I are so lucky to have such great friends and are so glad we got to play such a special part in their big day. Here’s to many more years of happiness together.