Boy does this cake have a story behind it! The bride and groom who are friends of mine met here in Savannah. She is from California so they decided to get married out there. They asked me to make their cake and I agreed, that was the easy part...from there things only got harder!
I was late shipping my supplies out to CA from GA (my own fault for being the procrastinator that I am) so I spent more than I planned to ensure that they would get there on time...even then I had to say a lot of prayers and I kept my fingers crossed the whole time that the box would get there on time.
Then our flight (on a Wednesday) was delayed leaving Savannah so we missed our connection in Dallas/Ft. Worth. This pushed back our shopping for the rest of the supplies (by the way, the box I sent ahead got there mere hours before I did) by half a day. Then it took longer than expected to find everything that I needed so I got a late start on baking (Thursday) - at this point we're behind by about a whole day. The following day (Friday) there were 2 funerals at the church where I was making the cake and they were using the hall where I was for the receptions - now we were behind by almost 2 days. So, we were up at the crack of dawn Friday morning (to make up for lost time) to work on the cake, we left while the funeral receptions were going on and went back to the hotel to sleep, and then returned late that afternoon to finish the cake! The rehearsal dinner was that evening, which we were late for, and the Wedding was the next day. We had to leave the hotel early enough on Saturday so that we could get the cake from the church hall, take it to the reception site, assemble it and put the finishing touches on it, get something to eat and make it back for the ceremony in time! Whew! I was completely exhausted by this point!
But that's not the end of the story! The ceremony was wonderful, the reception was beautiful, and everyone loved the cake...there wasn't a crumb left! We returned to our hotel late only to get online and book a hotel room in San Francisco for Sunday night. See, Sunday was my 30th birthday and we had decided to spend it in San Fran with some other friends who had also made the trek from Savannah. While at the reception we got to talking with our friends and one of them was staying the night there. Since we didn't have anything planned for Monday we decided at the last minute to splurge and stay as well. Great idea right? Only problem was that I still had this big 'ol box of supplies that needed to be shipped back home...thank God for 24 Hour FedEx Kinkos! We left early Sunday morning for San Fran (only about a 2 hour drive from where we were in Sacramento) spent all day Sunday and Monday there and had to turn around and drive back to Sacramento on Monday. Got back to our original hotel around midnight and had just enough time to clean up the cake decorating supplies and get them packed, get all the luggage packed, doze for about 15 minutes when I made the mistake of sitting down on the bed, get the package to the FedEx Kinkos to be shipped, fill up the rental car with gas, return the rental car, and get checked in at the airport in time to catch our 6am flight! By the time we got home I needed a vacation from my vacation!
Lessons learned from this trip:
1. Whenever possible, always take extra days off before and after a trip...especially when there's a 4 hour time difference!
2. When making a cake long distance - ALWAYS assume that everything is going to go wrong and give yourself plenty of extra time!
3. Don't ever make another cake long distance, ever again! (I should have learned from the MI cake experience!)
The cake was 8" = vanilla cake, 10" = carrot cake, and 12" = chocolate cake. All w/ cream cheese icing filling, ivory buttercream icing and roses, and silk ribbons to decorate. A seperate 6" square, pumpkin flavor "cake top" was made upon returning to Savannah for the newlyweds to freeze and save for their 1st anniversary.
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