Baking: Anatomy of a wedding cake

My sister-in-law got remarried this summer, and I made the wedding cake.  Although my kids didn't help out much besides eating cake scraps, I did try to explain the steps and talk them through the process.  Here's the anatomy of my sister-in-law's (and brother-in-law's) wedding cake:

A trip to the nursery instead of the florist provided the succulents she wanted.

The the baking process: their request of Funfetti, though very light, was fine for the top layer.  They'll freeze and eat on their 1st anniversary. 

A dense coconut cake formed the base.  I made it hollow so that they would be able to cut the cake at the reception and still have the stability of something structurally stronger to support the top three layers (see below).

The middle layers of the cake pre-made, wrapped and waiting in the fridge.  Yes, that is rice crispie treats. My mother made my wedding cake with the middle layers made from rice crispie treats and after peeling off the frosting (unwrapping the plastic wrap), my hubby and I took it on our honeymoon and ate it for breakfast and as a car-snack.

They wanted an off-centered stacking of the layers.  Since it was an outdoor, more rustic-style wedding, I used a round pine board from the hardware store cleaned and oiled with vegetable oil as the cake plate.

Back to the structure.  Nothing works better in a wedding cake than rice crispie treats.  It is strong, yet light weight.  Plus, it generally gets eaten more readily.  Just form the rice crispie treats in a cake pan lined with plastic wrap and frost as you would any other layer. 

A simple cardboard round leveled the rice crispie treat center with the cake.  The middle layers were simply frosted rice crispie treats. 

Off-white butter cream.

Burlap and orange were themes for the wedding, so I pre-oiled the burlap ribbon, wrapped and tacked each seam with pins.

Ah - my least favorite part - transporting the cake.  Luckily it was an uneventful 30 minute drive, but still I did get a good bicep workout compensating for all the curves. 

Adding the succulents and orange flowers (from my backyard daylilies and trumpet vine) was too tempting for my daughter to not get in on the action.  I guess being a flower-girl had a double meaning for her that day!

The finished product!

After a couple hours of looking pretty, every wedding cake meets it's demise.  They actually ended up serving the cake at the reception, and to be honest - I chose a piece of rice crispie treat!