Our Wedding (Looking Back)--The CakeS

Welcome to the last installment of "Our Wedding (Looking Back)."  Today's post is about not only our wedding cake...but our 1-year anniversary cake as well!  In fact, yesterday was our actual anniversary--if you're lucky, I'll post some pictures from our "celebration."

But back to the story...

When it came time to figure out a wedding cake, I was shocked by the limited choices we had in Manhattan.  There was one person I had heard negative things about, another person that I knew too much about to want to do business with and a few others who frankly, their cakes looked like they were made by a 12-year old.

I got on the internet and broadened my search to other communities.  That's when I found out about Karen Avery of Creative Cakes and Cookies, just outside of Wamego...The work on her website was amazing so I contacted her and set-up an appointment.

After meeting Karen and trying some of her samples, I knew right away that I wanted her to do our cake!  She took the time to get to know us, got a feel for what our wedding was going to be like, she was extremely professional, super creative, she listened to what we wanted and was effective at directing us toward the perfect design.

In my mind, I wanted cupcakes...plus a cake that Justin and I could cut...something that would incorporate our peacock theme but without being too peacocky-ish...I also wanted pops of color...some glitz...and all without being too fussy or gaudy.  I had no idea what my wants equated design-wise but this is what she came up with:

The cupcake tower and cutting cake...the cupcakes in the purple liners were Red Velvet and those in the teal--well, I think they were vanilla.  I really don't remember!

A close-up of the feathers on the cupcakes and cutting cake--it was a perfect way to incorporate the peacock theme without making the cake too gaudy!  The cutting cake was sprayed with edible metallic gold "paint"

An even closer view of the feathers...Karen made each one out of gum paste, handpainted the eye and sprayed them with edible glitter

This is the mold she used for the feathers--it was less than 1" long!

Justin's Groom Cake--it's a replica of his jersey and because he's from the south, it was only appropriate that it be made of *his personal favorite* Caramel Cake...Yup, just like the caramel cakes they talked about in the movie/book "The Help" ;-) 

Here we are feeding cake to each other...it was during this moment that I realized I failed to tell him he could NOT smash the cake in my face!

As I suspected, he definately tried getting some cake on me...so I kept trying to lean away from him!

So once he was done and thought it was all over with, I made sure to get him!  There may be a competitive streak in our relationship...

But then I was nice and cleaned him up!

This is what we found on the board to the cutting cake--such a sweet message from Karen!  If it's difficult to read, just click on the pic for an enlarged image

I couldn't have imagined anything better than what Karen created!  The cake was gorgeous but it also tasted uh-mazing.

But wait--it gets even better!

For our 1-Year Anniversary, Karen made us our very own complimentary cake to celebrate with!  Isn't it pretty?!

Before we cut into the anniversary cake, we had to try a slice of our orginal cutting cake that spent the last 364 days in our freezer!  Apparently, Justin didn't know it's tradition to save a piece of cake for your first anniversary...he thought I was pulling his leg at first but then decided to try a bite!

Just as I expected, it was still really good!   It was a bit drier than the day of our wedding, but the flavor remained in tact.  Now THAT'S the sign of a good cake!

Then it was time to cut into our anniversary cake.  We chose chocolate with buttercream this time around and it was DIVINE!  Something tells me the cake won't last more than a few days in our house :-)  Thanks, Karen, for not only an amazing wedding cake but the generous gift of an anniversary cake!