R & R time...

That is, as Andrew puts it, "Rest & Redecoration!"

It was another cakish day here at the Bornemann house... When we weren't eating sheep cake with my dad's cousin, Jerome, we (and yes, I do say "We", as my family helped give advice and technical support...) decorated cakes.

This picture was taken yesterday, after taking the marbled cakes out of the oven...

And this picture was taken this morning--two of the cakes being ready for colored decorations and the big one still needing Cornelli lace on top...

Before going to bed last night, I had (what I thought was) a great idea for holding the roses up on the sides of the cake. I took some of the chocolate candy melts Andrew had picked up for me at the MagiCandle Cakery last week, melted them and made little lines on some parchment paper and left them to dry. What did I make? Edible toothpicks! I would stick one of these "Toothpicks" into the side of the cake and then hang the rose (which had a dab of frosting on the back as well) on it. (You can see my creation in the top photo---all those white lines on the sheet on the counter.)

So, did the little sticks of chocolate work, you may be thinking? Welllllll, for the smaller flowers, yes, they did work, once I made them thick enough so they didn't break in two! However, once I started in on the medium cake with the larger roses, I had a disaster on my hands.... I did eventually get all the roses up in swags around the side of the cake, but in a few minutes time, several had toppled off. I tried longer and thicker "Toothpicks", but it wasn't helping much and I was getting frustrated! About this time, Jerome left and wished me well. :) Also at about that time, Andrew came along and suggested I change my plan a bit and make each cake unique. So long as the cake had yellow roses and bright, Royal blue icing on it, as the bride requested, I didn't mind....and was quite grateful, actually!

Here you can see the top cake---the design being what I was planning to do on all the others...

The second cake actually turned out to be my favorite design. After a very long struggle with slipping roses, it was fun to put them around the bottom edge of the cake and to then add a very healthy ivy plant that sprawled across all the imperfections. :) (Andrew helped me move this cake over to the table so I could start work on the largest one.... "Please be careful, brother!!!")

All better!

I didn't even try putting the rose garland around this cake, as I'd learned better... I did have a lot of roses to use yet, though, so this is what I/we came up with:

...And a picture from the top:
I really hope that the new couple will enjoy their cake immensely (and I'm praying ever so hard that it makes it up the 3 hours North of us safely with my parents tomorrow!!! I'm sending a little touch-up kit along with them, just in case......)

It's been a long day and I must say I'm glad to be done with cakes again for a while.

I am grateful that my wrist didn't hurt today!