Long story.

Well, I just got over the most stressful week of my life! I was baking three wedding cakes for my brother for his wedding. I was supposed to start on Monday...too bad on Sunday there was a gigantic wind storm that blew nearly all of the power out in Cincinnati!

My house was down, everyone's house was down, all except for my brother! So I made plans to bake the cakes at his house (which is like a four story row house with a very cramped kitchen and very narrow stairs). My cake supply store was closed because they had no power so I had to wait until Wednesday before I could start my cakes (all the grocery stores were down too).

So, bright and early on Wednesday I got up and rushed around buying cake supplies and taking them all over to my brother's house where my niece and I baked all day long. We got all of the cakes baked and leveled and put in the freezer on that first day.

On Thursday I had to wait until nearly 1:30 to get started again because my sister had to take my niece to get her hair cut at 10:00, then we had to go get lunch and the entire time she just kept asking "Do you have any idea when you're going to be done? I want to be home in time to make dinner" I wanted to kill her...oh yeah, did I mention that along with all of the power being out my car died too? Yeah....the starter died....we kind of fixed it...anyway.

I wanted to kill my sister, she just kept sighing like she was bored and I was rushing trying to make gum paste ranunculus while my niece made all of the ganaches and simple syrups.

So then my sister comes over and is like "well is there anything I can do to speed this up" and I'm thinking to myself..."hmmmm, you could just go home and stop bugging me!" but instead I said "sure you can mix the dry ingredients for the icing" which consisted of powdered sugar and salt...apparently my sister didn't realize how powerful salt can be! She put in waaaaaay too much salt and ruined four batches of icing! So then she was sulking some more and I was like..."ugh! fine! We'll clean up and leave and I'll come back here tomorrow and work BY MY SELF!!!" and she was like "okay!"

So while me and my niece cleaned, she sat there on her butt telling us to hurry up...I wanted to KILL her!

So we left at 8:30 and I got home at about 11:00 because my sister wanted to go shopping for wedding clothes she made me buy a shirt that I didn't really want but I got because I didn't have anything for the wedding. I did find some nice clothes for my boyfriend though.

Anyway, I got home at 11:00 and kept working on my flowers, I went to bed at 2:00 and woke up at 6:30 to finish the flowers (which I did) and I fell asleep on the couch until 9:00...oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the power had come back on at my house on Thursday but I still kept all of my stuff at my brother's house because I didn't want to lug it all back home.

So I left my house at 10:00 to find a real outfit for the wedding, which I did, but I didn't get to my brother's house until 2:00. I stayed there and worked by myself non stop until 4:00 am. I had to remake all of the icing and I had to fill the cakes and cover them with BC and fondant...

So on Saturday I called my sister to ask if I could have her kids to help me carry the wedding cakes and she didn't want to let me have them!!!! Again, urge to kill!!!!! So I yelled at her and said I needed help so she caved. Then she called my mother and said that she didn't want my nephew carrying a cake because he might get something on his black shirt!!!! I told them that I was coming to get them no matter what and that my sister was a crack head...the cakes were covered in fondant for cripes sake!!!!!!

So I got the cakes and took them to the wedding and the ride over nearly killed me! I had two kids in the back seat of my car (14 and 15 years old so I trusted them not to drop them) holding the little cakes, and I was holding the big cake and my crazy boyfriend was driving. I was so scared that the cakes were going to go flying that I nearly had ten strokes and five heart attacks. Not to mention there were spare cakes in the trunk getting smooshed because my boyfriend was driving like a maniac.

Anyway, we got there and the cakes survived for the most part...they did grow a few bubbles which really pissed me off so I had to pop them while I had people yelling at me that I had to go get my picture taken with my brother...I wanted to kill my entire family at that point.

Well, everyone said the cakes were beautiful and I disagreed but what do I know, I should just accept their praise. So the wedding was awesome and everyone LOVED the cakes. I was extremely upset that the caterer guy that cut my cakes was a total ass!

I had THREE cakes! Six different flavors! So what does the guy do? He cuts up the biggest cake first and then smashes his elbow into my lemon cake so that it looks like someone sat on it, he mutilated my carrot cake, I don't think many people got to eat it, and he cut a few slivers of the lemon cake very poorly. PLUS he tried to peel the fondant off the cakes (I DID NOT TELL HIM TO DO THIS! NO ONE TOLD HIM TO!) so they looked like crap. He never even cut the extra flavors I had made and when I went back to get one of the extra cakes to give to my 80 year old aunt he came over and was like "What are you doing?" and I was like "Back the eff up jerk! I made these cakes I'll do whatever I want with them!" More murderous thoughts raced through my head.

So, now I have the extra cakes and I'm slowly feeding them to the customers at my mom's quilt shoppe!


So I am glad that everyone loved the cake (basically the swiss chocolate with dark and milk chocolate ganaches, and the white chocolate cake with white chocolate amaretto ganache) I'm just disappointed that people didn't get to taste all of the cakes I made....I had the spice cake.

I was pleasantly surprised by the fondant, I originally didn't want to do it and I wanted them to peel it off before they cut it, but then I figured it wouldn't work so I scrapped that idea. I was lucky enough to get a white chocolate fondant and it tasted awesome! The bride and groom loved it! But then the caterer guy took the cake and tried to peel all the fondant off and I in turn wanted to peel his skin off I was very mad!

Oh yeah, then after all of the fun, I went to leave with my boyfriend at about 10:00 at night and my car wouldn't start....we had to flag down the best man and catch a ride with him and his airhead girlfriend...he was too drunk to drive..I could have been killed!!!!

So I went home and passed out and had to work in the morning and today I slept in because it's my one day off and I never want to do another wedding as long as I live!!!!

holy cow!!!!!

bless your heart, people can drive you to madness sometimes....and on top of everything else you went threw.

well it's great that everyone loved the cakes!....
you need to post a pic so we can see your pretty gumpaste flowers!

you did a very nice thing taking all that time making that cake....under such difficult circumstances .....you need another day off!

Man, I'm exhausted just from reading and trying to follow!!! Sooo....do you feel better now? Sometimes it's just good to vent...glad we was all here. Get some rest....and look forward to the next one.

Holy cow alright. What a week. Murphy's law hey, what can go wrong will go wrong.
Hope you have a relaxing week now it's all over.
Leigh

hi everyone, well that sounds like a huge headache maker, but kudos to you katilia!!! with all that craziness and you pulled it off!! yay!!

OMGosh, we have the same family!!!!

Enjoy your day off and consider it in the past. You now, future wedding cakes that aren't for family would probably not be as stressful .

well, my favorite part of the story was when you told the caterer guy to back the eff up! Dont' mess with a cake lady when you've screwed up all of her hard work!

Wow... what a story! Now I am nervous... I am doing my brothers/best friends wedding cake in March, and I am the Maid of Honor! A 5 tier square... yikes...

Whew! I thought I was tired but now I'm EXHAUSTED! I'm stressed just reading your story. I think your family are related to my in-laws! Your story reaffirms my gut feelings - if I'm ever asked to do something like that for family or close friends, I will respectfully decline. Because no matter what, someone's feelings would be hurt - probably mine!

Kudos to you for going above and beyond the call of duty...if heaven keeps score in "cake points", you've earned a bucket full!

Man I'm tired just reading that.

Enjoy your time off.

I know you wrote a lot, but it's okay I can tell and totally understand why you are so stressed. Breathe and relax. Luckily it's over and they did love it. Get some chocolate or even better a martini and lounge around for a bit, you really deserve it!

Well, I did sleep in yesterday, then I spent the whole day cleaning the kitchen But I did have a good day, it was good not to have to worry about the cakes anymore.
My problem was not that I was making cakes for my brother (he's perfect! he was very helpful) I just realized that if my sister ever needs a cake I'll tell her to hurry up and bake it herself

But I do have to say that if I hadn't found this forum I wouldn't have been as confident as I was, I learned a lot and it really helped me get the job done. I'll post pics soon I promise!

Thanks everybody! It does really feel good to vent.