Finally Done ... My First C. Peters Inspired Cake! (Long)
Decorating By indydebi Updated 14 May 2008 , 1:44pm by MissRobin
Some of you may remember when I confessed I had no idea the picture the bride brought to me was a C. Peters cake ... and if I had known that I may have been intimidated against doing it.
And even tho' it fell due on what has become my busiest weekend ever, I like how it turned out and I'm so glad I made it!
It was inspired by Ms. Peters skyline cake. The bride is an engineer and I give her so much credit for the design of the cake. The template she made for me REALLY saved me some time and headache!
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1219555&done=1
I just didnt' have the time I really wanted to spend on this cake, so I was really stressing it! I pretty much made it all the day before the wedding. I did manage to get half of it baked and frozen, but here I am on Thursday night, after finishing my 5-day fraternity job that morning, baking half of a 7-tier cake and wanting to finish it that night.
Well, that didn't happen. 
I did manage to get all 7 cakes iced before I finally went home at 1:00 a.m. 7 tiers with 4 different flavors (I'm gonna have to re-think my "no charge for add'l flavors" policy!) Came back at 8:00 a.m. and started melting chocolate (I have to deliver this sucker at 5:00 p.m. and I'm just now melting chocolate!).
The hardest part was remembering to turn the templates over when I cut them out ... the underside was the perfectly flat side of chocolate, so I needed to use that. The bride had made each side with a "Slot A meets Slot B" type of design, so I had to code the templates, then code the cut outs so I'd be sure to line them up correctly.
I put no-skid material between the glass blocks thats supporting the tiered cake, and between the cake and the top block. Bride suggested to me to use white material. I had purple and orange at the shop and she said the colors would REALLY show thru the glass. I had no idea, but she was so right! I couldn't find white no-skid (the price you pay for waiting till the last minute!) but I did find a bright green that was going to match her decor. So the color blending thru ended up working really well!
The reception was at the Indpls Children's Museum, which is the #1 rated and largest children's museum in the country. There is a 3-story tall water clock in the lobby. (pic and info at this link ... scroll down .... it's VERY cool to watch! http://www.childrensmuseum.org/themuseum/icons/index.htm ). The green flowers were inspired by the green neon color of this clock. I took a distance photo of the cake with the clock in the backgroun ... it's on my flickr site if you're interested.
Once I got it done, I was so happy with it. The bride called on Saturday to tell me how everyone raved over it. I've gotten emails from brides before, after they come back from their honeymoon, but I think this is the first phone call the day after the wedding to tell me about the cake! Well worth the tired muscles and lack of sleep!
However .... this becomes the first cake that I will be adding a "premium design fee". My cakes are a flat fee, regardless of design. The amount of chocolate for this cake is a factor and I spent about 3+ hours doing the melting, pouring, cutting out stuff. And the cost of the glass blocks....and the Advil!! 
Just had to share the details with people who would appreciate the stress and the challenge!
indydebi....It is really stunning! I love the chocolate skylines, you did a fabulous job on those! That alone would have taken me a month to do!
Her flowers really topped off this design and make it very classy. This will be a huge hit on CC I'm sure!
And BTW I keep hearing about Ms. Peters and although I'm sure she is the bomb.............she ain't got nuthin on you girl! 
Thanks for sharing, Indy! Your cake came out fantastically! Looks amazing! Very pleasing to the eye......and, I'm sure, to the taste buds as well.
Holy Smokes! That is a cool cake! I would have never thought that buildings could be worked into a wedding cake. Bravo!
WOW,THAT IS GORGEOUS, I LOVE THE GREEN MY FAVORITE COLOR. GREAT JOB!
Way to go! Very nice job - now go get some rest
wow!!!!! just wow!! And did you temper all that chocolate?? stunning!!!
You know .... I'm not really sure what tempering is. I've read and read and read about it, and all I can get out of it is "melt the chocolate and let it get hard again." 
I bought the dark chocolate disks from my local cake supply store, melted it and poured it into one of my 18x26 baking sheets (on parchment). Let it set then cut out the templates.
Quick story ..... I took an icing bag with the #5 tip in case of any border repair work. I use disposable bags and I had cut the bag too short when I put the coupler in. So I'm fixing some border and when I squeeze the bag, the whole coupler pops out! Holy crap, what do I do now?? Well, I stuffed the end of the coupler with icing and with my (gloved) finger, push the icing thru the tip to fix the borders! 
What a sight that was!!
But it worked! 
Wow, I can just see you stuffing icing through the end of a #5 tip
wow that cake is soooo cool. it's so modern, definitely different from your other cakes. i admire you for trying "something new and different" and really going all out for your bride. i've said it once, i'll say it again, whoever hires you (or any CC'er for that matter) is really lucky because the effort you put into a cake is tremendous and inspiring.
wow, debi! You get the grace under pressure award from me!! And the carving chocolate into a skyline award!!
I have not really taken a lot of time trying, but I have only been able to temper chocolate twice and tried several times with different methods. You melt it, and then, I can't remember very well, but you cool it to a temp just below body temp. It is tempered when it cools shiny and hard and snaps, like good chocolate, when you break it, something about the fat molecules not separating. Anyway, hearing me descibe it, it's not wonder my success has been so seldom!! It's been a long time.
But, after seeing your skyline, I will have to try tempering a lot less than I thought I would. Did you use meltable "wafers" similiar to Wilton? Or regular chocolate?
wow that cake is soooo cool. it's so modern, definitely different from your other cakes. i admire you for trying "something new and different" and really going all out for your bride.
I've mentioned it a number of times, but yet not near often enough ..... I would NEVER have tried as many new things as i've tried in the past year or so if it wasn't for finding CC and all of you folks! Thanks for practically forcing me out of that box I was in! I am living proof that you CAN teach that old dog new tricks! This is MUCH more fun!
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