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I was stuffing the Thanksgiving turkey when I received a last-minute request from a panicked couple who were getting married the next weekend. Due to unforseen circumstances, they were suddenly without a cake designer. So, terrified yet excited, I agreed to take on their wedding cake!

I spent one week planning, preparing, baking, assembling and decorating the cake. It was a big learning curve and I discovered a lot of new and great tools to make the process easier. Wilton’s cake leveling tool saved my life and ensured we had three even, level cake layers. I also found information on the web about how to make cake baking strips, which are wrapped around the outside of the cake pan while it’s in the oven to ensure that the outside of the cake doesn’t burn before the center is cooked through.

Each tier was a different flavour – bottom tier was French Vanilla. Middle tier was a rich chocolate. The top was a marble cake.

Taking some inspiration from Martha Stewart’s Wedding Cakes book, I decorated the layers in buttercream with a floral/geometric pattern. The center of each flower was highlighted with a pearl dragée.

The decorative base of the cake was a styrofoam circle, covered in tin foil, then wrapped on the sides with a wide white satin ribbon, which I stitched loosely and then gathered to create a frill effect. I picked up a shiny brooch for the front center of the base, and passed a second purple ribbon through it to add another layer of interest and to tie into the couple’s wedding colours. I topped off the base with a small bunch of white feathers, pinned in by the brooch. The florist brought three purple calla lilies to dress up the top, and I wrapped the three cake tiers in the other theme colour – green.

Delivering the cake was quite a frightening process involving a couple of vehicle changes and hours of driving, but the cake arrived unscathed and turned out great in the photos!

All my best to Mark and Jen, who were so easy to work with on this last-minute emergency cake project!