Mission Wedding Cake: Initiating…

Let me tell you, friends… It has been one great summer for me! I am thoroughly enjoying being engaged to the love of my life and planning a wedding. What other period in one’s life allows you be 100% girly? I’m just drinking it all in! The only not-fun part, as you probably anticipate, is the budget.

As you can imagine, Austin and I are working our darndest to save as much as we can, but still throw a pretty rockin’ fete. For example, when we were researching cakes we were pretty astonished at the prices and wondered what in the world we could do… Enter MWC, Mission Wedding Cake!

You guessed it, for the next several months I will be using every opportunity to practice wedding cake making. Am I insane!? Maybe a little! Some wise people have advised me that it would add a lot of stress and it might be worth it to just shell out for a bakery-made cake. It’s not that I want to ignore them, but I’ve always been more of a “do it yourself” kind of person and I want to at least try it. Heck, I even love baking, so that should give me at least a boost in the odds of success, right!?

If worse comes to worst, and my test cakes turn out to be extremely time consuming, and/or terrible-tasting, and/or horrendous-looking, I might opt to get our cake professionally done, but until then it’s full steam ahead with MWC!

I’ll be chronicling my test cakes and learning process on this blog, are you excited?! I sure am! The best possible result would be that Austin and I get a homemade, delicious cake that adds a personal touch to our wedding, and that any of you readers out there might be encouraged to try this money-saving option for your big events and parties, too! That is pretty awesome to me, so I am ready to get this party started already. Hope y’all come along!

Let’s all say a little prayer that I at least have a bit more skill than the po0r soul who made this cake. More at the famed Cake Wrecks website. :)

Of course, I’m trying to be realistic here, too! Please don’t expect to learn how to make something like this:

You might be disappointed. Just maybe. ;)

The first test cake is coming up THIS WEEK! This is my To-Do List:

• Have a “consultation” (I get to pretend I’m a pro pastry chef) with Austin to see what flavors and fillings we think would be tasty for our guests.
• Research recipes, sizes, servings, and styles of cakes we like.
• Make a stop at a restaurant supply store to pick up some cheap pro tools! On the list is 2-3 new sizes of round cake pans, flower nails, cake boards, a leveler, and dowels.
• Bake, wrap, and freeze the cake layers.
• Make a filling and a Swiss Meringue Buttercream (this will only be my third attempt, hopefully my second success)!
• Assemble and frost.
• Present to the unknowing guinea pigs. :)

I predict that in the next few months, my family and friends will be inundated with cake! Birthdays, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Showers, parties, New Year… I will bake until either I master MWC or until MWC masters me.

*cue theme music*

– Ann

P.S. I have been reading Deb‘s wonderful series on a DIY wedding cake, and it has been enlightening! If any of you have experience in this arena, please leave a comment below! I would love to hear from you!