First Wedding Cake

I had an exciting week last week. It’s about WEDDING! Not sure about you but I am always very excited about wedding, especially when a friend or a family member gets married. Oooooh….what joy! A newly married life ought to be celebrated.

We have 2 lovely friends, Kelsey and Cole, who got married to each other last month…..how wonderful!! We knew them when they were just starting out as friends. We saw them grew in their relationship and into marriage. That’s the most beautiful thing of all. When I see all their gorgeous, happy wedding photos, my heart just feel so warm and so full of joy.

Kelsey & Cole went back to their country to get married as all their families and relatives are there. On coming back we decided to welcome them back with a celebration as a newly married couple. We had a pot luck in church for them. I cooked 2 dishes and made a wedding cake for them. It was the FIRST WEDDING CAKE that I made!!!….*BIG SMILES* The roses were the first time I put my hands to try. Really happy for my first attempt! Couldn’t even believe myself that I made those….hehe.

Never in a million years would I ever dream of making a wedding cake! One BIG ingredient is lacking in me…PATIENCE!….*wink*. But for 2 dear friends, I would happily give a try, putting my patience to a BIG test. I hardly ice my cake if ever I make it. The most is very simple butter icing. But this is going to be a wedding cake. It has to represent love. After much thought and courage, I decided to make a simple butter cake, cover it with icing and then add roses to it.

Apology for not showing the steps how to make the roses. It was late at night and my hands were too sticky and powdery to handle the camera. It was way past midnight and I was still trying to make the leaves. I managed to make 2 leaves but had to give up because my eyes refused to cooperate any longer. One more minute and I will be sleeping in my kitchen…haha.

When my 1st rose was made, I was so excited about it even though it looked quite bad. I ran and showed it to my girls. They said, ‘Wow!’ My girl said I will have to make her wedding cake next time! I bet she just trusted that with more practice, I will make better roses…*grin*. Immediately I went ‘WOW!’…haha. That’s so flattering……*big smiles*. I said ‘Of course! I will make 100 roses for your wedding cake!’ (without hesitation)…..*grin*. The hours passed and my girls had gone to bed but I was still in the kitchen. Making these roses is just no joke. I need LOTS of practice to make that 100 roses. I quite regret making that promise. Blame it on my BIG mouth!!!…*wink* But for my wonderful daughter, of course I will make for her if I can, even if I have to sleep in the kitchen a few days to make those roses…..*big smiles*.

The first thing I got up the next morning was to see how my roses survived through the night. Wow…they looked beautiful!! They didn’t collapse. The weather is dry here so they harden quite fast though still a little soft. By afternoon it was quite hard and I was able to put the whole cake with the icing and roses together. Very impressive….yippee…so happy!

We had the wedding cake that evening…..*BIG smiles*…a big surprise to many friends there! A joy to see the newly married couple cutting the cake. Really happy for them. I should have added some nice icing patterns at the base of the cake but I didn’t had time. I’m sure the next wedding cake will be better.

We had a lot of food as each one brought a dish or two. I brought a big dish of pork cooked with green beans, potatoes in sambal sauce. I also brought a big dish of homemade salted vegetables cooked with chillies and pork. And a big pot of rice too. Oooops…forgot to take a picture….*sigh*. I came back with empty dishes and pot. Very glad all went down well. So were other dishes made by my friends.

On top of food, we had Scottish dancing, commonly called Ceilidh. That must be the most fun dance that I had experienced since I came to Scotland. My friend, a wonderful Scottish friend taught us how to dance. This is the 2nd time she helped to coordinate and teach us the dance. She said that watching the CHINESE doing the Scottish dance is the MOST fun thing! Know why? Because it’s complete mayhem…just short of all falling into a big heap……haha. We all had a hard time keeping up to the lively music! Some were just standing and wondering, some were dashing in the wrong direction, some were out of beat, and some lost their partner and ended up with the wrong one…haha. But everyone was laughing and enjoying it. It was just such an awesome evening….good food, good fun and good exercise.

Scottish dancing is quite a high energy group dance. If you don’t have stamina, you will be flat out after a dance or 2. I play a lot of badminton so that really helped. I didn’t feel tired at all. But when I came back, I was just dead hungry. I had to cook instant noodles. I was still very hungry after a bowl of instant noodles. Had to make a big glass of chocolate drink to top up, together with some cookies. That was already close to midnight. Bad time to eat huh. But at least I could sleep well and dream sweet….*grin*.

Well, last weekend there was another wedding. My nephew got married. What a lovely couple! So happy to see all the pictures. But so sad I couldn’t attend. I had booked the tickets much earlier to go back at a later date. Hope to meet up with them when I go back for holidays. I wish I could make a wedding cake for them too!

I am happy to say that I learned quite a few things in cooking and baking this year. I think there’s nothing more satisfying than to learn something new every now and then, especially things that you never thought you could do. The secret is to be daring to give a try and not be afraid to fail.  Of course it requires some patience. I do need lots of it….*wink*

2 challenging desserts that I learned this year were the macarons and the many layers Indonesian cake. It was pure satisfaction at my own little achievement. You can read more about my macaroon adventure at My Big Fat Valentine’s Day and the cake at Classy Indonesian Layer Cake (Kek Lapis)

Hope you have fun cooking and baking! And don’t forget to eat healthy and have regular exercise. And of course include lots of smiles….*big smiles here*. They are all important for health.

If you love baking, there are lots of simple baking recipes in my Recipes section under Cakes.

And if you like to see how Scottish dancing, Ceilidh, is like, you can watch them on youtube. This is a dance that people of all ages can get involved. My favourite are The Gay Gordon (relaxing), Strip The Willow (high energy) and Dashing White Sergeant (average energy level)

Quote of the day……

“Look to your health; and if you have it, praise God and value it next to conscience; for health is the second blessing that we mortals are capable of, a blessing money can’t buy.”

- Izaak Walton

Keep Learning Keep Smiling

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