Off Topic: A Wedding Story

Since Portia shared her and Jin’s  wedding photos and story I thought I would (maybe rehash?) write about the wedding that I helped make a cake for.

This was probably about 20 years ago when my dear (and now sadly departed) friend Sue decided that for a friend’s wedding that she would provide the wedding cake.

And that I would help.

At D&D. Me on the right, Sue on the left in front.

Now this wasn’t a burden on me since Sue and I had spent years cooking together. As a matter of face we met when she hired me for my first job out of college, in the pastry department at Dean & Deluca in NYC. The wedding would take place in a resort in the Poconos, slightly off season. and Sue was going to use the kitchen of a friend in Brooklyn to bake, decorate and assemble the cake, and I would ask the friend in NYC I was staying with if we could use her car to transport us and said cake to the resort.

So we would be back in NYC, baking, shopping, and hanging out. Heaven. Now, I wasn’t really looking forward to asking my friend to use her car: A teensy Honda that would be pressed into service to take Sue, her husband and child, me AND a wedding cake. I knew it would be disaster, but I did ask my friend. Phrasing it so she could easily decline. Which she did. Which turned out to be a good thing: the car rental agency we booked in mid-town Manhattan had given away everything by the time we got there save a Harvest Gold Cadillac sedan, which had ample room for our little group, their luggage (which was ample) and the individually boxed layers of the cake.

rolled fondant

Which in itself took days to make. Ours was a well equipped but not commercial kitchen, so baking the layers was in stages. Then the cooled layers needed to be soused with sugar and booze (necessary to keep them moist for days), frosted, covered in fondant (also for moisture retention) and boxed up for travel. Decorating would be finished in the hotel room. If you ever get the idea that you can finish decorating a multi-tiered wedding cake in a hotel room in the Poconos, especially using Martha Stewart ideas, gum paste, and your car keys, let me save you a world of hurt and tell you to rethink that idea. We had to. Luckily we did have ingenuity, piping skills, and fresh white flowers to save the day, the cake, and us from double homicide. The cake turned out, the bride was happy, and we were left with a nice glass of white wine trying to figure out a way to cram a lobby full of Heywood Wakefield originals into the trunk of a deVille.

Not the actual car, but close.

A car that I would buy in a heartbeat if they still made them. Now, I do love my sporty little roadster but lordy that Caddy was POSH. Not snippy German luxe like a Mercedes. No. This had about 6 acres of harvest gold leather swathing every surface that wasn’t covered in zebrano wood or chrome. It glided over NYC potholes and turnpike expansion joints like a magic carpet. While it didn’t pitch and yaw like the my Mom’s did, the ride, the quiet, and the comfort still whispered “why are you going so fast? It’s not going be any to nicer there. Sit back and relax” while also saying “this may be a livery car so I don’t care if I kill you” to people in Audis who don’t want to let you zipper merge. I hated giving it back.

I love New York. To visit. It was wonderful on those autumn days running around the city to places to buy stuff (who knew there was an entire neighborhood devoted to baking supplies? Only in NY..) Taking the subway, just running around feeling coolly competent in your NY persona. Knowing that in 5 days you will be back in your LA place, with the car in the garage and the 3 Trader Joe’s a short stroll (or drive, this is LA after all) away. 

Have you ever made a wedding cake? Driven a big old Amurrican sedan? Want to? Share in the comments.

Photos: Mine, Pexels, and Wikimedia Commons.

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