A promise fulfilled

If you remember I wrote this post about the promise I once made my daughter many years ago that I would happily make her engagement cake. Tom proposed to her at the summit of Scout Kinder in the Peak District on 11th December last year. We were due to have a family celebration the following weekend but this was cancelled due to the heavy snow we had during the coldest winter the UK has endured for 30 years.

They decided they did not want to miss out on a celebration and last weekend they finally held their party to which I took the promised engagement cake.

Well here it is................

My theme was red hearts on a white cake.

I spent days cutting out a multitude of different shaped hearts so that I could have a play with some designs. I also decided that as well as a central plaque I wanted to make a heart "explosion" which would come out of the cake. I attached sugar paste hearts to wires which I then "corkscrewed" using a pencil. Some hearts were also painted silver with edible food colouring.

Now whilst working on this I had one of those "light bulb" moments and decided that to make a permanent reminder I would add a  special twist to the cake...I would make a precious metal clay silver heart pendant which would match some of the icing hearts I made. I had great fun making this at home, rolling out the clay and firing it with my blow torch.

I then polished it and added a silver jump ring.
Here it is next to one of the icing hearts.

I tied a red ribbon to it and hid it amongst the "explosion " heart spray I made.  I also bought a silver chain to hang it from.









The evening before the party I made up my traditional (and very simple) all in one sponge recipe. It was left to cool overnight and the next morning I sliced it open and sandwiched it together with a thick layer of home made vanilla butter cream and my favourite shop bought raspberry jam. I like strawberry jam with a plain vanilla butter icing but Milly loves raspberry so that is what I used. I never scrimp on my fillings as I like my cakes to taste as good as I hope they look.

I then had the task of putting my plan together.Luckily it all went well and after a few hours concentrated work it was finished.

If you look above you can see the silver heart hidden amongst the heart explosion.

I then put it carefully into a cake box (always essential if you are transporting cakes anywhere) and we drove down to Essex with it in the boot of the car.

Milly and Tom were delighted with their cake and Milly was so touched by the special pendant. We had a wonderful party and everyone enjoyed getting together to celebrate their engagement. I nearly forgot to capture the cake cutting moment so apologies that the photo I took is not brilliant. Tom was wearing a hat as it was a "hat and slippers" party -  it is not his usual apparel! And yes together with that lovely dress Milly really is wearing slippers!

Milly spoke to me the next day and said she had been wearing her pendant on the chain and loved it. I think my idea of a reminder in silver was good as by then there was also virtually no cake left.........she is the biggest fan of her Mum's home made cakes ;0)

Wishing the pair of them a lifetime of love and happiness and here's to 28.7.12

Bye for now,

Jane x