Kelley, another friend and also the MOH, asked Christina to make Jen's shower cake (we made Kelley's sister's shower cake last year and she just loved it) in the theme of the shower, which was nautical. The theme was inspired by their engagement: Mike asked Jen to marry him at Old Barney, the lighthouse at Long Beach Island, NJ.
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| Old Barney, Long Beach Island, NJ (picture courtesy of www.longbeachisland.com/history.html) |
This cake was a labor of love for Christina, as Jen and Mike are two very special people to her. The design seemed simple: a conical shape decorated to look like a lighthouse. A quick sketch was step one:
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| The original design, which underwent many changes. |
The support structure came next. That was a challenge in and of itself because we had never created one despite watching it done many times on TV. Christina consulted her dad and a very hand colleague, Jim, and with their advice and a shopping list in hand, hit Home Depot for what she would need. (See our post from March 1st on our old blog for step-by-step details and a picture.)
Another challenge for this cake was figuring out the beacon for the top of the lighthouse. Isomalt (a sugar substitute that is used for sugar sculpture since it does not crystallize as quickly as regular sugar) was considered but quickly abandoned as too tricky to try to pull off after the adventure making the support structure. Another shopping trip, this time to Pier 1 Imports, wielded perfect results: a metal candle holder that showcased four small lanterns that perfectly resembled a lighthouse beacon!
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| Pier 1 Imports tea light lanterns are the perfect lighthouse beacons! |
The final step was the actual cake itself. Kelley requested chocolate since it is the favorite of the bride and groom. The filling was our popular homemade strawberry (made of the freshest berries, sugar, and cornstarch cooked down), which had been the same flavor cake we made for Kelley's sister's cake last year.
The new challenges came once the cake layers were stacked on the support structure and when the filling began leaking past the frosting dams Christina made to keep said filling inside the cake where it belonged. An extra thick crumb coat and overnight refrigeration took care of that. Next came covering it in fondant, a new nightmare. Fondant is notoriously heavy and this cake was tall. Another friend and fellow cake maker, Laura, was called in for an extra set of hands. After rolling it out twice, the fondant was finally on!
Old Barney is a maroon color on top so Christina decided to use her airbrush machine for this job, a gift from her husband at Christmas, which had only been used up to this point for spraying vodka on cakes to finish them off. (The vodka wets the cake, eliminating unsightly powdered sugar spots from rolling the fondant but then evaporates leaving a nice sheen on the cakes.) The airbrush was a bad idea. This led to Christina taking off the fondant and starting from scratch! In the end, the second fondant job was much better, done in two pieces, white for the bottom half and red for the top.
After that, the finishing touches were a piece of cake, pun intended! The coup de grace was the beacon on top with a battery operated tea light candle lighting the way to Jen and Mike's future wedded bliss.
After all was said and done, the cake was hit, Jen and Mike both loved it, and even had some left to take home for later!
Happy baking!
Christina & Meghan
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