Wedding Planner Rescue: Cake

In my 10 years as a planner there are many times whereby I have to ‘fix an emergency’ (sometimes) without the bride & groom or guests knowing. In this series I am sharing some of those circumstances with you in short snippets once a month.

In May 2008 there is one ‘cake’ incident that has always stuck with me. The day before the wedding the cake was delivered to me, made by the Aunt it was agreed I would deliver and set the cake up. This was an already stacked cake so in theory – simple enough to do. The venue chosen was Vaulty Manor and this particular weekend was incredibly hot – in fact it was a bit of a heatwave, totally unexpected. I had carefully strapped the cake into my car and cushioned it with pillows etc. I carried it to the cake table ever so gently and then I opened the lid.

My assistant Lisa has said she has never seen my face drop as it did on this day, the top 2 tiers had totally slid leaving big gaps of un-iced cake. I asked the chef to come and give his professional opinion, he determined that having the top 2 tiers as fruit on top of a bottom sponge – when there was a heatwave – was just too much for the cake. We agreed not to try to repair the cake as we felt the tiers might totally slide off! However my fabulous florist Beverly was on site and the theme was very floral, thus we filled the cake with hydrangeas and other flowers (see actual cake above). The  design was a surprise so the bride didn’t even know there was anything wrong with the cake although I did have to take the Aunt to one side to pre warn her.

Tip: If you have fruit on the top make sure there are plenty of dowels in place, even better, have fruit at the bottom

And in case you wondered, I wont deliver wedding cakes anymore 🙂

 

Photo: Harvey Collard