7.08.09
My dear friend Mollie Stone’s daughter was married May 30 at
the Charles Morris Center. For those who don’t know Mollie, she is Savannah’s grande dame of
wedding cakes, my neighbor, and one of the most generous women I know. Mollie has been making wedding cakes for Savannah brides long
before I ever thought of cake decorating let alone making a wedding cake.
Several years ago, on
a busy Friday in May, we had an electrical fire at the shop…Mollie was the
first to come by and with her help, all my orders were filled without
incident. When I heard Mary was getting
married, I knew Mollie would want to make her cake, so I volunteered to deliver
the cake and set it up. I was happy to
be able to do something for someone who has been so helpful to me.
Mollie made it very easy for us! She had each tier boxed, labeled, and
doweled. All we had to do was place one
cake on top of the other and pipe the border.
The florist was to decorate the cake with fresh flowers.
At the Morris Center we were directed
to the cake table and the set-up began. Here
is the cake after we finished: I think
you will agree it’s a beautiful cake.
Imagine my amazement when I saw a picture of the cake as it looked at the reception:
What happened???? Why
did the cake end up looking like the leaning tower of Pisa? My first thought was that the internal
supports failed…and in a way they did.
I’m no physics whiz kid but I know enough to know the cake was properly
doweled so it should have stayed straight up in the condition we left it.
I kept looking at the two pictures hoping to find the
answer. I’ve been making wedding cakes
successfully for over 10 years. I know
every possible way you can support cake tiers.
I know what works and I know what doesn’t work. The way Mollie doweled her cakes was one of
the most reliable set ups you can use.
So why????
I put the pictures down and walked away. After a few minutes the “Ah Ha” moment
happened. Have you figured it out yet?
Look closely at the tablecloth in each picture…in the first picture the
cake linen is white. In the second
picture the cake table has brown burlap overlay on it. The only way the cake can be on the table
with the brown overlay is if it were moved after being assembled. So there was my answer. Picking up the assembled cake caused the
tiers to shift thus compromising the internal supports which resulted in the leaning
cake. All it took was some clumsy,
inexperienced worker to ruin the centerpiece of the wedding reception and the
person in charge not paying attention to detail. Why in the world anyone in
their right mind would move a wedding cake is beyond me…overlay or no overlay…it’s
just a bad idea…and now you can see why.
For my brides who read the blog my advice to you is to make
sure everyone at the reception site knows that the cake is not to be moved
under any circumstances and I can promise you I will do the same.
For my cake decorating colleagues who read the blog I advise
you to do the above and ALWAYS take a picture after you set-up the cake. As they say, “A picture is worth a thousand
words.” And isn’t it uncanny that the
screw-up at the wedding of the cake maker’s daughter would be the cake…go
figure.
