A commercial sized party bus, a 45minute ride into the hills, a bride, a groom, 150 cupcakes, 2 champagne toasts, innumerable glasses of wine, dinner, dancing and a shot of tequila to end the night.

72 hours later and the Blonde and the Ginger are now married. 

What a night it was. 

You couldn’t have asked for a more perfectly beautiful California October evening - the bright blue sky dotted by white white clouds, punctuated by perfectly cool evening – the seats framed by the vines, the stage poised. A sweet ceremony, sealed with a kiss, ended with applause and a quick jig down the aisle. 

What else is there to say?  It was a night full of love and joy.  The dancing was great, the food delicious. 

And, in case you were wondering, the cake turned out, too.

It's been a hectic summer.  So hectic that it's now, in fact, fall and the activities of summer are still not quite winding down.  Without a doubt, the most exciting and talked about event (at least amongst my friends) is just now coming together. 

It's a WEDDING! 

And in the rush of all the other  activities this summer, I kinda maybe sorta forgot to tell my bloggie
 friends, that I am, indeed, making the cake!

....!

Yes, my friends, The Blonde and the Ginger are getting married and they asked me to make a wedding cake for them.  

So here's the deal:  it's not a huge wedding cake that they need. They have hired out for cupcakes to feed the masses (and to be cute) and wanted something to cut and feed to each other.    

Initially I had thought to make it a standard 8-inch round cake with two tiers and fondant.  After more consideration, I decided that a little bigger, 10-inch round, was more suitable for the celebration.  The bride requested lemon cake. 

Now, as you know, I've had my fair share of cake mishaps in my day, so my emotional response to this request vacillated somewhere between excited (yay! What an honor, this is so exciting!) and terrified (oh my God, the cake is going to fall apart everywhere and I will ruin the wedding, f*ck f*ck f*ck) .  But, when faced with fear like this, there's nothing better to do than to just keep running right through it, so I made a plan and have been implementing Project:Wedding Cake for the past month now.  

Phase One was to make the gumpaste flowers.  I didn't photo-document this process, but trust me, it came with a few (small) hurdles, but eventual success.   Phase Two was to make four cake layers and six topper layers - chikity check!

Last night was Phase Three and Four, which included stacking the cakes (lemon curd was made earlier in the week) and frosting the cakes.  This is the part where the cake could potentially fall apart.  Phase four was rolling the fondant and draping the cake.  Today will be the final phase, Phase: Labor and delivery.  Oops, just kidding!  Today is Phase: Delivery and Final Touch ups.  (Then EAT IT!) More to come...

 Here are some teaser shots from last night: