The wedding cake was a take on a cake found in the Martha Stewart Wedding Cakes book. It was definitely not your typical wedding cake. I looked through the instructions on how to make it and discovered I would be working with meringue. Not just any meringue, but a soft italian meringue. So of course, with any wedding cake, a trial run is necessary. Especially when working with something you are not used to. Trial run was done on a hot dry day. And it went well.
Day of the wedding brought lots of rain and humidity. I had baked the cake the day before and covered it with the soft italian meringue. The cake was carrot with cream cheese icing. Now I know you're all thinking, and you put meringue on that? But the italian meringue has a creamier texture and taste, so it worked well. Not the smoothest icing job on a cake, due to the humidity, it kept running and not smoothing out well, but I did what I could. I actually like the not perfectly smooth look. I think it suited the cake. The top 2 tiers were styrofoam, so I had covered those the night before as well. I had intended to get up early (as it was an afternoon reception) make another batch of the meringue, and do the detail work. It didn't go so well. In short, let's just say 3 batches of meringue later, lots of melting meringue, a complete mess of drooping piped spikes that looked like giant slugs, and a complete emotional break down (the fact that I wasn't feeling well didn't help), I was ready to throw this cake at the wall.
Thankfully, I have amazingly supportive sisters and friends. Who rushed to my rescue by attempting to make another batch of the meringue to see if maybe I just was letting the stress get to me and had somehow not done it right, and also running out to baking supply stores trying to find an alternative to the meringue. I love my sisters and friends.
A solution was found. We got the cake decorated using a stiff meringue made from a meringue powder, tasted gross but it worked! And got the cake to the wedding. However, I will say, I should have attached the 2 top layers better. I had already put the spikes on the top tier, when in reality I should have put it on the pillars prior to the spikes. The cake was a little shaky. I did warn the bride and groom. So they knew. However in their excitement to cut into that cake, the top tier went down. It's a memory! They laughed, everyone laughed, I might have cringed, but really, looking back I can laugh too. The cake was intact the entire reception, as the cake cutting was at the end, the bride and groom loved the cake, and that is all that matters! Congrats again to both of them!
I may have to retract my previous statement of claiming that Martha Stewart is a genius. Because that meringue was not genius. So lessons learned, don't always trust your trial run, soft italian meringue and humidity don't work well together, and lastly, if I ever work with meringue again, it will be too soon!
And of course there was also some baking involved! Keeping with the Australian theme, I couldn't resist making an Australian treat into cake. That's right, I am calling Vegemite an Australian treat. And, even though the cake would have been sufficient, I stumbled across the cutest picture of a Koala cupcake, and had to add my own spin to that and make it my own! 
