oh, cake!

Logan and I celebrated our second summer wedding this past weekend. Jordan and Alli began dating the following winter after Logan and I did in the fall. We spent a lot of Sundays eating at Pizza Hut and hanging out at the Shepherds. Seriously, these two people love life and have so so much energy. It's a beautiful thing.

I helped by making their wedding cake, which was such a great experience! Alli was super laid back, and let me have fun with it. As you can see, it was a pretty simple two-tier cake. The base was three-eight inch layers, and the top was two-six inch layers. I made a vanilla-almond cake with a peanut butter cream cheese filling. For the frosting, I subtracted the peanut butter to make it white. It was pretty rich, but I think it tasted pretty good (I'm probably biased). Plus, Alli found that super cute cake topper at the flea market, which completed the whole look.

I'm so thankful for Sandra's help on cake tricks (she was my RD and boss this past year). She let me borrow her cake pans -- she advised me to use all the same brand of pans which made it easier to stack the layers. She gave me an awesome recipe for "Cake Release" so each layer would come out smooth and whole. I never posted a photo of the second cake I made last week for Lauren's party. It was Smitten Kitchen's Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake (which tastes amazing)... however, the cake did not come out as pretty as her layers. It was more of a mound hill than a cake. Needless to say, this cake release became my best friend. I'm pretty sure I could also use it for pies. Here's the recipe:

Cake Release
1/2 cup of shortening
1/2 cup of flour
1/2 cup of oil

Directions:
Mix all three ingredients until smooth. Store in refrigerator for up to a year.

Surprisingly, my first wedding cake thing was easier than I expected. The only problem was the 92 degree weather on Saturday. The cream cheese frosting definitely didn't like it so we let the photographers take their photos of the dessert tables, and I put the cake back in the refrigerator until thirty minutes before Jordan and Alli needed to cut it. It all worked out.

The wedding was beautiful, pretty details, good-looking couple, deep-fried biscuits, and lots of dancing. Congrats Jordan and Alli, love you!