Mission: Wedding Cake, Day 1

I realize it has been almost a year since I last posted, but I thought it might be a good time to start up again so I can keep you all in the loop of this week's project... a wedding cake for a good friend. The wedding is on August 6th, so I will be doing bits and pieces each day to hopefully keep my stress level as low as possible. In the end, the plan is to have made one round 3-tiered cake (14", 10" and 6"), one half-sheet cake, and a chocolate and strawberry grooms cake that will be a 10" square.

After many cake tests and tasting by various friends and the bride and groom, Mindi and Jon decided on a Lemon-Raspberry cake with a creamy lemon curd/fresh raspberry filling and swiss meringue lemon buttercream.  Very fresh and summery flavors! At this point, I am hoping and praying that the Whatcom County raspberry season lasts long enough to get enough pretty berries for the decorations and enough tasty berries for the filling.

Decorations will be fairly simple... bead borders, small polka dots, and fresh raspberries and mint leaves. Day 1 consisted of making two batches of cake batter and baking off a 14" round, a 10" round, and a 6" round. Day 2 will be exactly the same as Day 1, to take care of the second layers of each tier. So I will spare you all from having to read another blog post exactly the same as the first, and you can just imagine Day 2. Here are the process pictures from Day 1, which include cutting out parchment circles, measuring ingredients, mixing batter, and baking cakes.