New wedding cake design
When I saw this image by Tamsyn Morgans of these glorious globes of hydrangea…
a new wedding cake design popped into my head in late January!
The design process
Pantone’s wedding colour for 2020 was Classic Blue so the hydrangeas complemented this perfectly and I included this colour on the bottom tier. Inspired by the hydrangeas, I continued with the spherical theme, adding brunia berries and raspberries. I made a few rough sketches before settling on the final design. Globes of hydrangea in various forms (3d sugar, 2d hand piped and hand painted) leading the eye in a smooth curve down the cake. Interspersing these with brunia berries, I added a pop of hot pink raspberries. Finally, I included white piping to contrast with the blue of the bottom tier and hand painted blue hydrangeas to contrast with the white tiers…
But then I had second thoughts about the bottom tier. So, conducted an Instagram poll…
and, given the popularity of my original, plumped for hand piped decoration as opposed to (carpal tunnel syndrome-inducing) ruffles. Phew.
Sugar flowers
I get a strong adrenaline rush whenever creating a new wedding cake design and just have to commence work immediately. So I made a start on the sugar hydrangeas…
They’re quite labour-intensive and I filmed the process for this tutorial…
My first wedding cake of 2020
Then, taking a break from my design to concentrate on my first wedding cake of the year, I made some pretty sugar roses…
packing them away safely for the big day. My first couple of the year were very lucky as their wedding pipped lockdown to the post by a few days. To complement their wedding stationery…
they chose a marble design with copper lustre accents…
Nice tall tiers of Elderflower & Gooseberry, Almond & Cherry and Madagascan Vanilla…
Interrupted…
After my first wedding of the year I was all set to continue with my new wedding cake design. But then COVID-19 hit, lockdown was imposed, and my attention turned to all the weddings scheduled for this year. Cue lots of uncertainty – for myself and my couples alike. And admin, lots of admin. And real fear. It felt so frivolous and just plain wrong, in the midst of a worldwide pandemic, to obliviously create sugar flowers and a new wedding cake design primarily to market my business. So I just stopped. It’s a weird feeling, as many will have experienced, to have your purpose snatched away just like that. I didn’t find it easy at all. Creativity is what drives me and without it I’m all at sea.
Although I remained open to enquiries, remote wedding consultations and tutorial sales, I closed my kitchen to orders. As a non-essential luxury food business, despite the very minimal easing of restrictions on 10 May 2020, my philosophy throughout this pandemic has been to protect the front line as opposed to the bottom line. So, to continue to protect the NHS, avoid placing extra strain on the postal service and protect others I kept my kitchen closed.
New wedding cake design, continued…
As lockdown restrictions gently eased on 4 July it finally felt okay to be creative again so I opened my business to covid-secure face-to-face wedding consultations and also returned to my new wedding cake design.
Sugar berries
Firstly, I created these brunia berries…
Then tackled the sugar raspberries…
They’re so time consuming to make. I filmed the process too – here’s a timelapse version…
and a video at normal speed… whichever you have endurance for!
I spent three hours assembling all the sugar decorations into arrangements and boxed them safely, nestling amongst biodegradable packaging peanuts until I was ready to use them.
Icing and (un!)assembly…
And by mid-July I progressed to icing the tiers. To cut down on waste I dived into my tubs of previously-coloured Massa Ticino Tropic sugarpaste offcuts… mixing them together to give me the perfect blue…. purely by chance!
Then, on to the piping…
And the hand painting…
After attaching my pre-assembled sugar flower arrangement, I have to say I was more than a little irritated when my new wedding cake design didn’t perfectly match my sketch.
The fact it didn’t flow like I envisaged continued to bug me. So, with my pottery tutor’s motto ringing in my ears, “If it’s going wrong scrap it and start again. Anything less just causes disappointment in the final piece.” I did just that. Trepidatiously, I removed, untaped and dismantled the whole sugar flower arrangement. Then re-assembled it to match my intended original design.
New wedding cake design ‘Tamsyn’
Happy now…
And this is the motto I live by for all my work. Hence, until I’m completely happy with your wedding cake it won’t leave my kitchen!
Bespoke wedding cake design
I’m now open for covid-secure face-to-face wedding consultations and remote consultations for Intimate Weddings. So, if you’re dipping your toe into wedding planning again and would like me to create your bespoke wedding cake just get in touch!
With Love, Amanda x
