the cake trial.

While back in the UP, my mom and I whipped up a trial cake to see how much work the fondant and gum paste are going to require. My mom makes wedding cakes all the time, but she's never used fondant before. I realize fondant doesn't taste very good, but we both think the wedding will be a nice way to broaden her horizons and use some different materials. Her cakes are quite popular in our little town. I think everyone coming to the wedding has eaten a cake or two or hers at some point, so using fondant on our cake will be a nice way to give our guests a little something unexpected.


My mom baked the cake and frosted it with her famous frosting recipe while I made the gum paste flowers. I set the flower petals aside for them to dry when I was finished. Then I helped her roll out the fondant (we used the box kind since this was our first trial) and we placed it on the cake. After smoothing it out, I added a little border with more fondant to the bottom to make it look more finished. The last step was to "glue" the gum paste petals together with frosting (you are actually supposed to use royal icing, but I was lazy) and place the finished flower on the cake.

I probably should have let the gum paste dry longer, but I was in a hurry. For the real thing I'll make the flowers well in advance so they will retain their flowery shape. But for the amount of work we put in to this little cake (AKA not much at all), I think it turned out pretty cute! And it definitely gave us the confidence that we can use the fondant and gum paste on the final cakes!

Is anyone else having someone they know make their wedding cake?