A weekend of cakes

Two weekends ago, I did some major caking. I managed to complete three wedding cakes and a grooms cake at the bakery. Granted, I did not have to bake the cakes (and technically, someone else iced one of the cakes for me), but still! I decorated three tiered cakes and did a cutout. I find it majorly impressive.

So this past weekend, I wanted to one-up myself. You know, really make the challenge interesting. So FIVE cakes. 

OK, fine. I wasn't so much looking for a challenge as I really had planned on doing two cakes and then the bakery needed me to do two cakes also, but somehow when I got there, two had magically changed to three. :)

Oh well. 

Cake #1 (for the bakery):

Very simple. Simple in that, it's not much to look at. Not simple in that piping those stupid lines just about drove me batty. 

Moving on.

Cake #2 (for the bakery):

Also a pretty simple cake. But of course, there was some miscommunication between the bride and the cake order taker. She did not like this cake. She said it was too simple. And yes, it was. BUT it was what I was told to do. So I'm not devastated. I mean, the cake did not fall apart. 

Moving on.

Cake #3 (for the bakery):

I've done this cake before (except smaller).  Actually when she went to show me a 'similar cake,' it was my cake. A cake I gave to a friend for her wedding. So, this one was easy too.
And can I just point out that although technically I am a writer, that does not mean I have good penmanship! And if you think writing is easy, try doing it with a bag. AND for some reason, all the good tip sizes are missing from the bakery. (If you know tips, they jump from a #5 to a #12. What's a girl got to do to get a #9!?)
AND, since reading Cakewrecks, I am constantly questioning how to spell 'congratulations.' CONSTANTLY. 

Cake #4 (for me):

Talk about delicious death by chocolate. This one had my mouth watering the entire time. Chocolate cake, with layers of chocolate ganache, iced in chocolate butter cream, drizzled with chocolate, topped with chocolate-dipped strawberries. This thing looked so yummy even I want to be my friend. YUM!

Cake #5 (for me):

The bride gave me a photo of a cake like this but round. I was really excited. I love tiny details. And I adore the idea of being able to eat anything gold or shiny. (odd? Probably why I think edible glitter is THE COOLEST thing ever. EVER.) But I have to say the best part of this cake is all the yummy flavors hiding beneath the icing. 

The largest layer was actually styrofoam (not yummy), since the wedding was at the Clinton Presidential Center and Park, she wanted a large scale looking cake, but didn't need cake to feed 300. The next layer was a basic white, but after that, the flavors got interesting. She wanted citrus flavors. At first, I wasn't so sure. I mean, orange cake? Really? 

Yes. Really. So the 8 inch layer was orange, the 6 inch layer was lemon, and the 4 inch topper was lime. And they all had cool, creamy cream cheese filling. Can I tell you how divine that cake tasted? I simply added a bit of fresh zest and juice to my basic recipe to achieve a subtle, summer flavor. And, since she had multiple flavors, I tinted each layer an appropriate color. 

It was so good that I went home and made cupcakes with the leftover filling.  I highly recommend trying it.