you want what?

When my cousin Megan found out a friend of hers was getting married, she let her know that I do cakes. Her friend decided that I could do her cake and gave me a website to look at the cake she liked. We looked it up and I was surprised.... it was a very dark red, but I thought, sure that wont be so hard. It really was simple in design and decoration. Just fondant tinted red and pearl candy attached. Sounds easy, looks easy, right?

Well, let me tell you, it wasn't.

First I made the Fondant with the color added to the liquid part of the recipe so I wouldn't have to kneed more than I had to. The end result was a crumbly fondant. I decided that I had done something wrong in making it and to make another batch.

I had to run to the store to pick up some ingredients I had run out of. I then added the coloring (half a bottle at a time) after it was all made. It still wasn't as dark as I thought it needed to be so I ran to the store again to buy a darker red (hopefully) If anyone wonders Wilton, Christmas red is not a dark red. The end result was the same...Crumbly fondant

By this time I was in tears. I kept asking Megan what was I going to do. Do I just cover it in buttercream? Is there any way I can use what I have? After trying everything I could think of to fix it, I went to the store yet again to buy ready made fondant and I was never going to cover a cake in ready made fondant after that first time.

Anyway, I got home and started dying it red, and it started to crack as I kneaded the coloring in and we decided that that was as dark as it would get. I could only hope the bride would be OK with it.

Thankfully I was able to get the fondant on nice and smoothly and the addition of the pearls really brought the cake together. This cake also taught me a lot. Especially that I need an air brush, something that has been noticed many times since.

The bride gave me the best compliment ever, through Megan,

she said it was perfect.