Halloween Wedding Cake

HALLOWEEN WEDDING CAKES - WIEDEMAN HILL MANSION WEDDINGS - WEDDING CAKES CINCINNATI

When Molly and Charles ordered a Halloween Themed Wedding Cake, we instantly jumped with joy.
This was our first one and it was so wonderful to make.

To celebrate their October wedding, our client chose fall themed flavors that went beautifully with the design of the cake:

We freshly baked two tiers of the most delicious Carrot Cake, paired with a White Chocolate Mousseline and toasted Walnuts, and a Spice Cake pumpkin shaped tier, paired with a layer of Apple Butter and White Chocolate Mousseline!

The venue were this event was held, is one of our top favorites, not only because of its stunning architecture, but also because it is always a true joy working for the fantastic staff at the Wiedemann Hill Mansion.

For those of you cake fans, here are some fun facts about the cake:

• The carved pumpkin tiered was sculpted from a 12" round cake, that was composed of 6 layers, and measured 6" in height. Yes, after the carving was complete, there was loft of left over cake...and a big mess over our counter!
  
• The central structure supporting the top tiers was made out of PVC piping. There was a 6" masonite board glued to the PVC that acted as a sound base for the top tiers.
• The tree was sculpted out of modeling chocolate, and had a copper piping skeleton. This skeleton was made of  individual branches of the tree, that were hot glued to the PVC main structure. The copper piping I used, is the type that you buy at any home improvement store  that is designed for conducting water to your refrigerator!. I bought two diameters, to form the branches, and hammered them flat, so that it was easier to bend and form. You should have heard the noise I made while hammering the pipe!
  
• The pumpkin as such was iced with rolled fondant. The top two tiers with thin panels of modeling chocolate. I very rarely iced my cakes with fondant these days, except when I need the flexibility and stretchability of fondant, as was needed to wrap the Pumpkin!
• All the color was hand painted with edible powder paint, mixed with grain alcohol (Everclear). Long ago, I used to use lemon extract or vodka to dilute my powdered paint. Lemon extract worked great, but was tremendously expensive, and left a lemon aroma and flavor. Vodka never dried quickly enough. Grain alcohol is just perfect.

My cakes are getting larger and larger, and sometimes I don't have the time, or energy, to photograph prior to delivery...but for this one, I made sure to save enough time, for a full, detailed photo shoot!!!

Our cake, beautifully displayed at the venue. It was displayed on the main foyer and it greeted guests upon their arrival!

These figurines were intended to be preserved, as a memento of the day!

• These sugar figurines, were made out of gum paste and colored fondant, with added tylose powder. I always make my figurine body shapes (limbs and torsos) a few days before I add their clothing. It pays off to have rock hard pieces to wrap that won't get misshapen when pressed over!
  

Tiny gum paste flowers made her bouquet. Painted in gold and accentuated with disco dust!

• I'm always in awe of the beautiful photographs that my photographer friends take of my clients. As I took these detailed shots, I thought about the elements that I always see beautifully documented by the super talented photographers that I have the pleasure to work with. So here, I'm featuring her bouquet and their shoes...because they were so stylished!!!!

• The bats were quick to make, but there were many of them!. I just googled an image of a bat, traced it over to create a template. Then, I rolled black fondant (with tylose) over a flower veining board, and inserted 22 or 24  wires. When they were completely dry, I lightly moistened them with pasteurized egg whites and sprinkled some black disco dust over!

Bats, sugar paste flowers and leaves and wafer paper leaves...that had segments of the bride & groom's favorite cartoons!

• The body of the spider was made out of modeling chocolate, because that medium is so easy to sculpt!. Once dried, it was accentuated with diluted edible paint. It's legs were made of fondant, and each one had a thin wire inserted, for added strength, specially during the transportation of the cake.

• The Spider web, was made out of melted Marshmallows, an original technique developed by the super talented Carrie Sellman, creator and editor of The Cake Blog, you can see her awesome cob web cake here!
  

Finally, I would like to share with you something about these photos that I took. 
I consider myself a novice, when it comes to photography. In terms of the technical aspect of photography, I'm an infant. But I think I have a good eye for it. 
After all, I spend SO much time working on these cakes...that I know their good and bad angles, their pristine sides and their faults!
All these pics were taken with my Nikon D7000 camera, on a semi-manual mode that favors the aperture...which is the only thing that I know how to control well :) 

A few weeks ago, I took a Craftsy class called "Beautiful Cake Photography" that blew me away. 
It was clear and to the point, and gave me basic tips and the confidence to taking my cake photography to the next level. I am now ready to start taking amazing photos of my cakes!

Thank you for taking the time to read these lines. Feel free to ask me any additional question you may have, or just to leave a comment. I'm just a click away and would love to hear from you!!!
Always best,
I