Like Mama...

My mother is amazing! I've always known she was amazing, but as an adult, it's sunk in even more how amazing she is. She is a master cake decorator, builder, wood-worker, seamstress, artist, gardener, and trouble-shooter to name a few.

She says she learned it all out of desperation. I guess raising eight children can be demanding. I just take her word for it.

One clear memory as a four year old begins with me sitting on the kitchen countertop watching Mom cleaning bottles.

Little Leslie: Mom, when I grow up, I want to be JUST like you!

Mom: Why, you'll be better than me. You'll learn from my mistakes...

I didn't believe her then and still don't believe her now, but when one of my friends put out a request for someone who could make a wedding cake I figured I'd try my hand at being more like Mom. I'd make that wedding cake! How hard could it be?? I'd watched Mom make wedding cakes for years!

Little did I know what lie ahead...Her comment during my initial get-advice-from-Mom phone call should have been a foreshadowing:

"I've been trying to keep it a secret for years that I make wedding cakes!"

What?? Why on earth would you want to keep such a talent hidden??

And then I began to learn:

Wedding cake creation requires several phases.

Phase 1: Pan/Structure development

(I'm almost embarrassed to show this photo because then you'll see how different it was from the real thing!)

The bride emailed me a picture of the cake she wanted. Stacked squares, green ribbon, add some flowers - piece of cake! Shockingly, after running by every kitchen/baking store I could find open in Tulsa, including Target, I was barely able to find a 12 inch and 8 inch pan! Go figure they had tiered heart pans, tiered diamond pans, even tiered PAISLEY pans!! But no tiered square pans. No problem though...the Ace of Cakes always cut their cakes to fit the design...I could do the same...I should have let Mom ship me her square cake pans...

The hunt was fun though! It got my creative juices running and transported me back to my childhood frequenting similar stores with my mother. It was then the appreciation for her really began to bubble out.

The frosting appeared to be fondant. I had never worked with fondant nor known anyone who enjoyed the taste of fondant. Bride told me taste was more important than appearance...note to self...find yummy alternative to fondant that still has a nice finish...

Phase 2: Recipe development

The bride and groom tastefully requested a chocolate cake. Immediately, I knew I wanted to use a chocolate pound cake recipe my sister Lisa had introduced me to last August. So one Saturday night, I baked it, and Kirsten and I ate it...

And ate it...

And ate some more...with Nutella, without Nutella, it didn't matter...it was HEAVEN in my hands!

But the next day it wasn't so moist. Maybe it was because the plastic wrap didn't completely enclose it. Or because it didn't have any frosting on it. Whatever the case, something had to be done...So I began to think, dream, and breathe wedding cake in any spare thought time. It woke me up early and kept me up late. But I loved feeling creative! There's only so much creativity in emergency medicine when you're held to the standard of care. The conclusion was that the pound cake had to go. I learned they call it pound cake because when you cook it in a 12 inch by 12 inch pan, it weighs about TEN pounds. Add another layer on top of that for the base then two more tiers...It would collapse under it's own weight! Or so my brain perceived.

While visiting my brother Gene, the food scientist, I mentioned my plight...

"First wedding cake, eh?" he just chuckled and shook his head. What wasn't he telling me?? It was evident he knew something I didn't know! Oh well...how hard could it be?

After falling asleep in the Cincinnati airport, missing my flight, and then finally making it home, I resumed the test runs. It only one recipe later I struck gold! This was it! Moist yet heavy enough to hold the other tiers. Chocolatey heaven! (And much healthier than the pound cake). I took the sample to work and it was a hit. Bride and groom also approved.

(Little side note: don't try to make spinach dip for the first time while working on wedding cake. It killed me to see my spinach go to waste...so I attempted this. It smelled great! And I'm sure would have tasted great...until the heat of the mass caused my Pyrex pie pan to explode! If you look closely you can see shards of glass scattered through the mass. It was also strewn across the kitchen floor into the living room. Fortunately, it didn't leave another burn hole in my countertop)
Then came three night shifts...three exhausting night shifts...I finished Friday morning December 4th at 7:45 am. A few more errands were run - odds and ends were collected, and baking commenced at 10pm. A little voice in the back of my head told me not to double the batch but to make two single batches then mix, but I didn't listen and baked two double batches that to my horror turned out like this! My thoughts went immediately to the foundation of the Salt Lake City temple when it was originally done in sandstone and then covered up when the US Army arrived in Salt Lake. On uncovering, they discovered what I imagine were similar cracks. That wouldn't have supported the temple, and this certainly wouldn't have supported two other tiers! So in the wee hours of the morning, I started all over...
Around 7:30 am December 5th, I managed to fall asleep. Three hours later I awoke to bake just one more batch. I could salvage part of what I'd messed up the night before by cutting it down to the size of the higher tiers. More errands were run for an hour, then the assembly.

(If you look closely, you can see the broken-off-handle lying next to the once-a-measuring cup in the bowl)
Mint chocolate ganache: check!

Butter cream frosting: check!

Something to create a nice finish...White molding chocolate: check! This was also inspired by my mother. In one of those wee hours of morning or night, I recalled a cake she had made while I was in high school with chocolate roses. If you can mold it into roses, then you should be able to mold it into ribbons! One more phone call to mom: mix corn syrup with the melted chocolate.

The next few hours are a blur. I knew no fatigue. I knew no hunger. I couldn't hold a conversation. I could just do. Crumb coats, sawing dowels, cutting sheetrock for a base, covering with foil, roll out white chocolate siding...pack in box, drive carefully to church...

Before beginning the process I had the attitude: as long as it tastes good...

Driving to the church was the attitude: I don't care what it tastes like! It better look good. At that point, what I had assembled of the cake did not look like my vision, and I worried it wouldn't look like the bride's vision. It certainly didn't look like the picture! As I sat at a stop sign, a car came up close behind me, and I will confess, I actually had the thought:

Too bad they didn't hit me. Not hard enough to hurt me, but just enough to send the cakes flying...then I'd have an excuse for how bad they look...

Fortunately, I didn't need to get rear-ended, the church was dimly lit with twinkle lights to hide any and all flaws! Even I could have walked around in a swimsuit and looked good! Final assembly commenced. And then just at 7pm December 5th, it finished! And I walked to the bathroom to do my hair.

Minus the Mad-Hatter-like lean on the middle layer from the way I cut the cake down, it looked like a respectable wedding cake. It was nothing of the caliber my mother would have done, but on the day she and my dad left for their mission to Albania, I couldn't think of a better way to honor her.

But all was not over...lurking, lying in wait at home was something monstrous...something dreamful...A GREAT, BIG, HUGE MESS!!! Dear friend and former roommate Mandy caught wind of it and requested that she and her husband be allowed to clean it up. As exhausted as I was at that point, I couldn't concede, but I couldn't fight. I told her they could come by and visit, but nothing more. So I left early thinking I could get the brunt of it done before they arrived. But when I got home, they were already there! One of these days I'm going to have to remember to take away her key!

But they were heaven sent! Angels! There was no way I would have been able to clean up the mess before Sunday. So we cleaned, and visited, and I slept better than I had in a month!

The angels!

So I've come to the conclusion that making a wedding cake is like running a half-marathon. I am happy I can say I've done it, but I have no particular inclination to do it again. In fact, immediately afterwards, I would have told you I'd run a half-marathon again before baking a wedding cake - it was more fun and over quicker. But looking back now, I can say, if a friend was broke, didn't care what it looked like, and asked me to do it, I just might do it - but hopefully I'll have my commercial kitchen by that time. In the meantime...let's just keep that a little secret between you and me...