My Grandmother is turning 95 in March. I want to do a really beautiful cake for her as she is ailing fast The problem is I don't know what to do or even for how many people. My mother is throwing the party and since unfortunately most of my grandmother's dearest friends have long passed we're not sure of the turn out. She lives in a senior complex (non-assited god bless her) and has limited friends there as they are all "younger". Most of her family has also passed and my father was an only child. We're thinking of maybe an open house type of event with invites to the remaining family which could put the numbers in the 100 range due to the fact that there are 100 apartments in her building alone.
My Grandmother doesn't have a lot of interests and her eye sight isn't the best but she did mention when I put a wedding cake in the fair that she would like me to make her a wedding cake....we kinda laughed it off at the time but now I'm thinking...why not? The problem is ......what to put on it, what kind of topper etc???
She's always been a lady, silk stockings, high heels and make up everyday NO MATTER WHAT. She was beside herself the last couple of hospital trips because they wouldn't let her "get dressed". So it should be more "lady-like" then whimsical.
She collects stuffed dogs but I thought I would make her a small 3D dog cake just for her close friends to have on her actual birthday. I need something that will celebrate her and her life!
Please help! I have some time in with this but with the holidays money will be tight and I'd like to start getting what I need ASAP.
TIA!

Bless your heart for wanting to do something nice for such a special person.
Since she said she wanted a wedding cake, any chance you can do something similar to what she had at her own wedding?? It doesn't need to be overly elaborate since her eyesight isn't so great, but how nice would that be to celebrate such an important day in her life on another important day.

I would recoemmend that you make a nice 2 or 3 tiered cake that feeds about 25-30 people. The reason is this, you're not sure about how many people to expect and even if some of the "younger" people come they are not very likely to want to eat alot of cake. Also, mentioned making a small dog cake for her actual day, so I think that would suffice.

As for the style and design of the cake, she's a lady right? (that's a rhetorical question by the way!) Why not make the cake pink, or what ever her favorite color is, and have a shoe as the topper for her wedding style cake? You can make a shoe out of fondatn, mmf, gumpaste or chocolate. You could probably do the mmf with some gumpaste and do a few practice shoes before you actually need it. this is very cost effective, in my opinion anyway. the cakes can be adorned with small tubes of lipstick, handbags, mirrors, etc. All of the girlie things that she likes which represent her. I hope this helpe you get started.

Good luck!

I was just looking around online and found some ideas that you might consider.
HTH,
HeatherMari

http://www.confetticakes.com/wd1.html

http://www.sugarcreations.com/gallery1.htm
(She has many beautiful cakes and I am pretty sure she is a CCer!)

Do you have mny stories about her life? I mademy g-g-grandmother a wdedding styl cake for her 100th ( he women in my family all live long) It was real femine with ruffles garland stuff like that I also used pillars to separate the layersnot real high ones though, then I put stairways on the sides to the top and on the steps and in between each tier I put things that related to her fondest memories, such as her wedding, the birth of her chaildred, things they all did together, etc. Then on the top put a pairof gloves, a twenties style cap a rose and set of pearls. Just my opion hope it helps get you startes. Sorry this was so long.

Mickey

Gosh you guys have some really neat ideas!!
I'd love to make her a replica wedding cake but her and my grandfather were divorced .....in a time when that wasn't socially acceptable none the less it's definitely something we aren't to talk about in the family

I love the hat, gloves and pearls idea too as she never leaves the house without her hat and gloves (even wears white ones in the summer!) and pearls are her favorite. Do you know how I'd go about making them? I fairly new to all of this so talent is still a work in progress!

I got some great ideas from the websites as well.....especially like the pink ribbon cake. Pink is her favorite color....she all girly. I remember her pink high heeled slipper with this big pink feathery thing on top.....they were her favorites ....wore them up until her dizzy spells got too bad
Maybe I could make that too...if I knew how to make a shoe...LOL

Thank you all soooooo much!

I can give you instructions for a shoe if you want them, Just PM me with your email address and I will send them through to you. Here is a photo of the shoe I typed up the instructions for!

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo-29881.html

(Happy to send the instructions to anyone that is interested!!!)

wedding cake

topper....fancy poodle wearing pearls and a tiara? (looking a mirror?) (remember how some dress up their poodles?)

gloves and other items (flowers!) placed on other tiers.