Ok so I receive a call from the brides mom in tears. The brides cousin getting married 3 months before my bride stole my brides cake concept. The Bride is understandably distraught because it seems there is some kind of competition going on.. My own little version of bride wars . The cake was going to be 4 tier stacked square circle square bottom layer being diamond impression mat with pearls the second wrapped with a satin ribbon and broach , the third tier replicated from the brides dress and the top tier with a monogram. I now need to come up with a different concept to re pitch to the bride this weekend to help dear old mom smooth things over as she inadvertently told dear sweet cousin the cake concept. This girl is a pageant queen and loves bling do you guys have any suggestion on how to bring elegant bling to a cake and pleasing my already spiraling bride . I would of course tell her to calm down if this was any other bride because I know thousands of brides have used the exact same design. Shes a family friend so I know we are not having a bridezilla moment but a moment of her special day looking the same as dear sweet cousin .

Maybe change the shape of the tiers making each a totally different shape, use petal, hexagon, heart or oval, this will change up the shape issue being the same. Use cake jewelry or make cake jewels with sugar (hard candy). If she is a beauty queen maybe incorporate a crown shape (3d) effect on one of the tiers. The petal cake could be the bottom tier and each curve could be made to look like a different tiara she might actually have in her trophy case (I am a former pageant brat so I know she probably has many styles to choose from). You can still incorporate maybe a few ideas from the original cake like a tier inspired by her dress. Just throwing out ideas for ya!

How comfortable are you with lots and lots of intricate, multilayer piping and stringwork? A Lambeth style cake with edible white, gold, and silver pearl dragees would be beautiful. There is a series of photos of one I did in my photos:

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-photos-by-prterrell.html

Just to give you an idea. If you do a Google image search for Lambeth cake, you'll get a lot more (and better) examples.

I'd be happy to sketch some ideas for you, but I don't have a scanner, so I'd have to mail them to you. If you'd like me to do that, PM me your mailing address. If she wanted something inspired by her dress, could you post a pic or a link to the dress?

Have you tried steering the bride into a new direction...there are some wonderful new colors and ideas out there...

I hope this gets resolved for you.

I have no suggestions for you, just wanted to say that I hope your cake is the blingiest of blingy for her because that cousin is a snake in the grass and needs her hiney kicked . It is one thing to re-make a design you saw someone else have, but another thing entirely for your cousin to steal your design that close to wedding time.

I found this site of "Unique Rhinestone Cake Toppers, Cake Crowns & Swarovski Cake Jewelry"
They are expensive, but just to get the idea. http://www.decoratingstudio.com/Wedding_Bridal/rhinestone_spray%20_ring_cake_crown.html

You can buy cake jewels here: http://www.fancyflours.com/blue-sapphire-cake-jewels.html

There are literally thousands of beautiful designs out there! You just need to talk to the bride and find out what she likes (and what did she like the most of the previous design so you can adapt it).

On the dress recreation tier I am using Swarovski crystals as the centers of the gum paste flowers. She does not want anything like the lambeth design she says it looks old. The cake topper we are going to use silver wire and Swarovski drops all which I ordered for less than $25 from a beading site. They are lead free and I am cutting the cake so there should be no problems with removing before human consumption. I just have never done a petal or a hex I think I am going to order some dummy cakes and boost this cakes size to be over the top. I so feel that if dear cousin wants to play the over the top game between a pageant queen and an over embellisher we have her . Any tips on icing a petal design?

Check out tonedna's gallery. I think she has some blingy cakes in there. I really like the look of hexagon cakes right now. Maybe do some or all of the tiers like that?

you could always paint on gold or silver dust (use the Wilton powder and mix with clear alcohol to make a paste) in some way to add a lot of bling. It can be amazing on a cake! I did a blueberry festival pageant cake with the painted-on gold on the royal icing and fondant and it was pretty blingy. It's in my photos.

Good luck! I hope you come up with something much better than that nasty cousin gets!

oh what a rotten thing to do! Vindicative Erin thinks the brides mom needs to pay a little extra and up the design - although the mom ultimately couldn't have known that the cousin would steal the design! Are you making the cousin's cake as well? I would design another cake for the bride but also keep the other design on file as the cousin may be saying that just to cause stress.

I say go all out with pearls and diamonds! and set it on a puffy base like Earlene has here.
http://www.earlenescakes.com/Pearls1.htm

I would make it 5 tiers and have alternating tiers (bottom, middle, top) look like they were wrapped in long strings of pearls... completely covering the tier with some pearl luster dust and then a design in pearls and diamonds on the other tiers to match her dress or do all tiers covered in pearls with wrapped broaches on the 2nd and 4th tiers like the lace covered one in the picture.

Also found these cakes with broaches... not sure who they are by though as the blog didn't identify.

I love those pics that dinas27 posted...especially the one covered in lace! So beautiful...

rides cousin is the moms hairdresser the cousin was asking how things we going and the mom just gushing over how gorgeous this were going to be just told her. NO I am not doing the cousins cake. From the grapevine another family member told my bride what was going on. I so plan on making this cake bigger than planned. Mom and Bride have no problem with the money because they just are buying supplies I do not charge for my cakes for family and friends as long as they buy the supplies. Now I am thinking a 20 inch hex on the bottom a 16 round. 12 petal , 8 square and a 4 inch round . Making a crystal mono gram and separating the tiers just enough to place light pink rose buds and pearl headed stephanotis .

dinas27, thanks for sharring those beauuuuuuuuuuuuutiful cakes. I'm saving those. I vote to make your bride one of those!!! Stunning!

Yeah, Lambeth is kinda "dated", but that high-Victorian look is starting to come back. I love working on those cakes, but wanted my own wedding cake to be much more modern and simple, so I totally understand the bride's thinking there!

If you brush luster dust on the fondant, it will make it very shiny and sparkley. I have found that gold luster dust painted on chocolate fondant looks much richer than it does on white.

I think you're on the right track, though. Lots and lots of dragees and the flowers between the layers will look amazing. If you're careful with the construction, you could even add more height and drama and separate the top tier from the rest of the cake with a crystal (or crystal-look) glass/vase/candle holder of some sort.

I found this really cool looking broach:
[imghttp://www.fashionjewelryforeveryone.com/OtherProductsPhotos/b344.jpg[/img]
That you could replicate with fondant on the cake.

For the petal layer, would swags of fondant and strings of pearls work? I've never done a petal shaped cake, I expect it would be a challenge!

If you want to add a lot of drama, you could do the base of the cake as a cluster of 8" rounds, with the rest of the cake sitting up on top of them. I don't think I'm describing that well. Let me see if I can find a pic...Okay, this was the closest I could find:
, but with the round "satelite" cakes more under the rest of the cake. I wish I could find a pic of DH's cousin's cake cause she had this set up. Anyway, it was very dramatic looking!

Oh, I found one:
but use 5 cakes, not 4, so that they form more of a circle/large flower shape.

Also, paisley is very "in" right now, maybe covering one layer with a paisley design would work?

Oh, I keep running across this cake, topper, too. It reminds me of a pagent crown.

OMG I never even thought of seperating the top tier with a crystal vase how cool would that look ! Thanks

I do a ton of cakes with mixed shapes -- round, square, hexagon, and petal. Some are very simple and others are much more "blingy". If you want to check out my pics and have any specific questions on any in particular, I'd be happy to help!

Jpal
I like that one I wonder if I could replave the stripes on the one layer and replace with flat backed crystals???

I've done so many variations of this style cake... I'm sure crystals would look beautiful on it. I have several cakes that have more pearlizing and/or silver trim on them. I love the look of the crystals, but so far haven't had any brides order one!

I can find drop crystal trim but not what I am looking for any suggestions were to look ?

Mom is in tears because someone else is having a cake that looks like their's? I must be out of touch or something, because I can think of a whole lotta IMPORTANT things to shed tears over ... and a duplicated cake just ain't one of 'em.

Geez deb...LOL! What cynical truck did you fall off of today?

I think the issue is that the dueling brides are in the same family, therefore to end up being the second bride to have the same cake design would be a bit of a damper on bride 2's big day. You know tongues would be wagging, and especially upsetting to the bride 2 because the original design was created for her NOT the theiving cousin bride whose wedding would be 2 weeks prior. Put yourself in that mama bears shoes...your darling daughters cake dreams are dashed by a mean family member. Daughter cries, momma cries.

That cousin is lucky I'm not doing both cakes.

I'd tell the cousin to stuff it and tell her to beat street and start looking for a new decorator because that was just low of her to do to a relative.

It's no different then someone stealing a pic from here and putting it up on their website saying it's their own creation in my eyes.

If it was a bride who wasn't in the same family then I'd tell my MOB not to worry but in the same family... that's just awful to do.

Wow that is really terrible!! Who would do that to their own cousin?

I think they should fight fire with fire and don't change the cake design yet. Have the bride's mom go back to the stealin' cousin's mom the hair dresser. Start talking very excitedly about changing her mind about the cake design. Claim it is so yesterday's news. Now they have a better idea right from the famous cake decorators. Bring in a pretty, but different picture of a wedding cake. Be sooooo grateful they found this new design before it was too late to change the cake, because that first cake is just not elegant enough and everyone in the family says so. Just keep the babble up. Accidentally leave the photo behind. Dollars to donuts the cousin will suddenly want the new and improved design (because it is a competition and she doesn't want choice 2) That leaves the original design to your bride.

Ha, ha, ha! yeah, everyone can be manipulated if they are greedy or overly competitive! Even if the cousin sticks with the original cake, she will worry that the family thinks it's not elegant.

What has happened to me by being addicted to this website??? I've never been evil before.

Ooooohhhhh funcakes! What's a great idea.

Funcakes---your my kinda thinker.

Of course, we don't know who is doing theiving cousin's cake. It could turn out like some of the cakes on cake wrecks where the bride gives the "decorator" a photo of an exquisite cake and the result, well, looks like drunken kindergarteners made the cake.

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/2009/01/big-day-big-wrecks.html
http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/2008/07/inspiration-vs-perspiration.html

Wouldn't it be sweet for everyone to show up to OP's bride's reception and be saying "oh, so that's what that mess of a cake at theiving bride's wedding was supposed to look like!"