Two Years and a Gold Wedding Cake

I can hardly believe that it's been over two years since my last post--how time flies. A lot has happened since January 2012. Not long after my post two years ago, my culinary adventures continued when I moved to the bustling city of London where I obtained a master's degree in International Development at the prestigious London School of Economics. I remember a handful of people forewarning me concerning the tastelessness of British cuisine; however, they all lost credibility as I found to my surprise that the UK is full of culinary brilliance! A melting pot of ethnic backgrounds and home to so many different people from around the world, London proved to be a culinary hub where my eyes were opened to a variety of different culinary perspectives. It's a shame I never continued my unexpected culinary experiences while I was abroad. Months have come and gone since I returned to the United States. Nestled in the rocky mountains in a quiet city called Highland, I now find myself yearning to return to food, writing, recipes and sharing. So here it is--my return!

I can think of no greater blog-resurrection post than one devoted to the creation of my own wedding cake. Yes, it is true, I am now a married man. My wife, Emilia, and I met in London and were married earlier this year. Of course, my own cake had to be the best one I've ever made! This proved to be a lot more difficult as I began to run out of days and the wedding planning furnished lists upon lists of things to do. There were a few things I knew for sure, my cake had to be large and unique.

Gold Wedding Cake

The Petals

I started playing around with some ivory fondant and made a ton of rose petals. As they were drying, I decided to make an edible gold paint out of a combination of various gold shades of luster and petal dusts mixed with some almond extract. I painted the outer rims of each petal to add a touch of gold. The effect was greater than I anticipated.

My Wedding Cake Station

Rolling the Ivory Fondant

Two Petal Sizes

A Fondant Round

Making the Petal

Homemade Edible Gold Paint

Painting the Rims

One by One

Lots of Petals!

The Cake

I began the construction of the cake months in advance because I was set on making a cake no smaller than 4' tall! When I toured the reception hall I noticed a golden alcove, typically used for picture displays and I knew immediately that it was just the place for the towering cake. Emilia wanted to go with a black and ivory stripe linen for the table decor so I decided to mimic that detail in the actual cake by layering my famous chocolate spice with a new cake recipe, vanilla coconut butter cake. The taste and the combination in general worked very nicely and screamed gourmet! Because neither Emilia or I like a lot of icing, I decided to fix the layers together using a mild fruit jelly instead of layering the cake with extra sugar. The outside of the cake, however, had a sufficient amount of icing so no worries, we had it covered--literally.

Black and Ivory Layered Cake

The Gold Buttercream Icing

Emilia had previously selected black and ivory as the wedding color scheme and we decided to add gold as an accent color. After some time I decided to make a risky move and paint the entire exterior of the cake in edible gold. I purchased an airbrush machine and a lot of edible gold paint. The day before the wedding, I spent hours airbrushing the cake the correct shade of gold and fixing the handmade petals in a cascading fashion wrapping around the cake in two areas.

Gold Airbrushed Icing

Cascading Petals

Cascading Petals II

The Finished Product

Transportation was a nightmare. Two hours before the ceremony, my little brother/best man, my good friend, my dad and I transported the gargantuan cake in two pieces to the reception hall. Once we made it to the 10th floor of our reception hall I quickly situated the cake in its spot and stepped back to admire the work. It was a gorgeous, one-of-a-kind gold wedding cake. Was it worth the stress? Probably not, but I wouldn't have had it any other way.

Bride and Groom with the Cake

Gold Wedding Cake

Forking the Cake

Eating the Cake

Cake View

One Very Happy Day!

Phew, that was easy. A triumphant return to food blogging. I have recently developed a few ideas that will keep me posting so stay in touch as "The Unexpected Culinarian" takes an unexpected culinary move...