THAT wedding cake

[shallots]

Because the cake plays fifth fiddle behind the dresses, hats, handsome men and beautiful women at the wedding today, the eight tiered cake with exceptionally beautiful designs deserves to be appreciated.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/artic...

[pdxgastro]

Did y'all notice some of the British bakers wearing a hat with a hairnet attached? When you see some of the bakers on the tv cake shows (eg. Ace of Cakes) with their hair all out and free, you wonder if stray hairs don't make it into their cakes. Skeevy!

[Jay F]

Hairnets make people look deformed. I find having to look at people wearing them *infinitely* more skeevy than contemplating whether some normally-dressed person is shedding stray hairs. In a similar vein, I don't like watching someone making me a sandwich who's wearing those awful plastic gloves.

[Naguere]

Remember the cake will be dismembered and small boxes will be posted to all sorts of people.

Often they pop up in newspaper articles 'I still have a piece of Queen Victoria's wedding cake' stylee.

the icing traditionally would be hard Royal icing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_icing

[chowser]

How would they cut a cake frosted in royal frosting?

[ChefJune]

That's a gorgeous cake, and I feel for the folks who had to handle all that $*%()^& fondant. Been there, done that, wrote the book and HATE to work with that stuff. (Can you tell I don't like fondant?)

[Jay F]

I hate fondant, too.

[sunshine842]

the Daily Mail article says "The confectionery masterpiece covered in cream and white icing and decorated with up to 900 delicate sugar-paste flowers", but that sure *looks* like fondant.

The flowers and piping are, um, WERE magnificent.

[chowser]

Everything except the monogram of intertwined letters "W" and "C." As a calligrapher, I see so much poor lettering on cakes. I know no one else notices but it catches my eye. I'm surprised they didn't have a calligrapher design that. But, I know I'm being nit-picky because it's a breathtaking cake.

[Kajikit]

Just beautiful! Thanks for sharing... it's elegant and sophisticated but not garish.

[shallots]

If you have enough bandwidth for a download, ABC's Nightline last night (4/29/2011) had a lovely visit to the bakers of both cakes. The decorations on the white cake were shown being formed. A general recipe was given. They also had more about the chocolate cake than I've been able to find elsewhere.

http://abcnews.go.com/nightline

[im_nomad]

I was wondering why no one seemed to be talking about the food ! The McVities cake looked particularly good. I've seen a few copycat recipes out there, and I think I'll try one soon. The chocolate / biscuit combination has always been a favorite of mine.

The list of canapes served also sounded very good.

[shallots]

And a picture of the Groom's cake which is McVittie wafers in chocolate and fancied up.

http://images.mirror.co.uk/upl/m4/apr...

[jujuthomas]

also gorgeous! :)

[fern]

Wow, spectacular!

[Gio]

Oh come on you guys. That cake was a work of art. And, Fiona Cairns looks justifiably pleased and proud. In fact I think everything about the wedding was perfect. (Well, except for some of the outfits, but that's another story.)

[melo7]

How long until Robert Irvine takes credit for the cake?

[jujuthomas]

THanks, that's the first I saw of the cake. it was lovely!

[jlafler]

It's a pretty object, but it doesn't really remind me of food.

[Roland Parker]

Are wedding cakes supposed to?

[small h]

In other news, the bride's gown did not look especially warm or comfortable. Sometimes it's okay for food to just be pretty. I enjoy finding an edible nasturtium in my salad, but let's not kid ourselves - nasturtiums don't taste like much. But they sure are pretty!

[Caitlin McGrath]

Of all the edible flowers I have tasted, nasturtiums have the most and best flavor. Nice and peppery. The others surely didn't taste like much, but they're pretty, too!

[sunshine842]

I don't think there's ever been a wedding dress made, especially for an occasion such as this, that was actually designed to be warm or comfortable.

I did wonder if she was freezing...and saw she went for an angora cardigan for the reception.

[small h]

That was my point. Wedding dresses, like wedding cakes, have a value beyond the purely functional.

[chowser]

Or they would just be called dresses and cakes.;-)

[syrup09]

I'm diabetic so looking at it seems like a form of masocism. Anyway, Her dress was pretty.

[david t.]

The cake lives up to expectation. It's beautiful, intricate and detailed. Even though white wedding cakes are unpopular right now, it's still nice to occasionally see one done well. is there any fondant on the cake? If it's all buttercream, then that's an amazing feat.

[Roland Parker]

It will be fondant. Traditional British wedding cakes are fruitcakes covered with marzipan and fondant.

[Jadore]

White wedding cakes are now unpopular? Since when?