10 extra points to you if you picked up on the RENT reference!
Several months ago, I agreed to make a wedding cake for a friend's friend.
Call it a moment of weakness, lack of judgment, an act of kindness.....
I think I was asked far enough in advance where my mind immediately went to that place of agreement and thinking about it at a closer time.
But as you well know...time moves faster and faster and low and behold that far off weekend arrived.
Don't get me wrong. I really don't mind decorating cakes, but I know how much wedding cakes mean to brides and I'm just not a fan of that kind of pressure.
If you read my last blog post, you'll know my husband and I had a rather hectic week.
I filled you in on the storm on Monday and promised some additional pictures.
Here's a better picture of the lines ripped away from our house.
But here's the miracle. Hanging under the overhang from our second floor, you'll see a red hanging basket. It's my dead strawberry plant, thanks to a bird's nest we found several weeks ago.
In it you'll find 3 brand new baby birds....and with all the wind and damage we had...that basket stayed right where it was and those little birdies are safe and sound.
Looking up my driveway. Here's another miracle. Our driveway is big enough at the top of it to park two cars side by side but at a diagonal, with one car slightly behind the other. Typically, I pull all the way up in the first spot, with my husband's car behind mine. But I went to my grandma's last weekend by myself and my husband pulled up into my usual spot. When I came home on Sunday, I took his usual spot. And when I got up to go to work on Monday morning, his car stayed pulled all the way to the front of the driveway. If it would have been a typical weekend, our cars would have been in their regular locations and his car would have definitely been crushed.
And here's the last miracle. This is my beloved lamp post (as in, we picked it out and had it installed ourselves). The tree perfectly encased it and it ended up not having a scratch on it.
And just to show you the force of these storms...here's the Verizon van which wasn't so lucky.
Thank goodness noone was in it!
Anyway, so we were at my grandparent's apartment until 11:30 pm on Tuesday and Wednesday night. Our power came back on late Wednesday night and Thursday night we went back to my grandparent's to gather our food out of their fridge and pick up all my decorated cookies. We ended up hanging out again until 11:30 because we are still without cable and internet. Thursday night we restocked our fridge with the groceries we had stored in my grandparent's fridge. Friday, after work, I brought home the additional groceries I had taken to work with me.
Phew....so yesterday evening, I'm thinking about finally being able to breath a sigh of relief, run some errands, and bake a wedding cake.
My wonderful husband arrived home around 6:00 and we headed out for dog food, Kohl's, Hobby Lobby and to grab some dinner. By 8:00 we were home and I fired up the oven in preparation of baking the wedding cake.
And then I talked to my sister out in WV and she gave me the run down about the severe storms, power outages, downed trees and horrible winds which were rushing our way.
Great.
So I had to improvise. In an effort to actually get all 3 layers baked before the storm hit, I didn't fill up each pan as much as I would have liked. I was hoping for shorter baking times.
I ended up with two layers of each 1 of the 3 tiers. In fact, for the last five minutes of baking time, my fingers were crossed and lots of prayers were being said that I would get in those last five minutes. I literally shut my oven off (and the air and the printer and had charged my cell phone) 5 minutes before the storm hit around 11:00 pm. (All while my husband was off working an off duty job).
So around 11:30-11:45, after the majority of the storm had died down, I grabbed my candle and started icing my cake.
It's not easy to level and ice a cake by candlelight.
In a hot house.
With melting icing.
And no fridge to stick the cake in to help the buttercream 'crust'.
I was hoping to make each tier have an additional layer. I like cakes with height.
But with no power that's kinda hard to do.
So I dirty iced the whole cake.
And called it a night around 12:30 am.
And by calling it a night...I mean, I grabbed the futon matress out of our guest bedroom around 2:30 am and dragged it downstairs by myself...waited for my hubby to get home (after he made a quick run out to get D batteries for our one fan) and we slept downstairs, on a futon mattress, with one battery powered fan blowing on us and 4 very hot dogs.
Not a restful night.
And then I woke up bright and early to finish decorating the cake.
It's hard to decorate a melting cake.
So I cranked up the AC in my car and put the cake in the car 30 minutes before we left to deliver it.
My friend met me at the reception site, complete with the ribbon and fake flowers the bride wanted on the cake.
I'm so grateful she picked up the decorations and that I really didn't have to decorate a cake.
Because I cannot imagine having to do that by candlelight!
(another blessing!)
All in all, the cake ended up looking just fine.
I say just fine, because I know what I'm capable of and this cake is definitely not it.
But then I tell myself, it's not my fault the power went out and you can't exactly bake a cake days in advance.
Ok...have you actually made it with me this far?
Here's your reward.
Without further ado....
The cake leveled and iced by candlelight.
Decorated on site.
Would you believe, as I write this, there has been a tornado spotted about 15 miles northeast of us and we are currently in the middle of a severe thunderstorm.
Good Grief!!!