I told her I would, and I also told her that no bride should be making her own wedding cake on her wedding day, so I would do it. Yikes!
The bride, naturally, had very specific ideas about what kind of a cake she wanted: four layers, white cake flavored with lavender, lemon curd between the layers, whipped cream frosting, decorated with flowers. The couple wanted a cake topper that was "a mushroom with a leaf stuck to it" (from a poem that was part of their ceremony.) She had brought the needed ingredients and supplies with her, but there were some significant omissions, and of course I am pretty particular about what I need to cook and bake. And I refuse to serve anything that isn't wonderful.
OMG! Bake a wedding cake in a few hours, without any notice or preparation, in a strange kitchen with no control over the equipment, supplies, & ingredients needed, or ability to go to a store, for a kind of cake I have zero experience or familiarity with!! HOLY COW. THIS IS NUTS!
I got up at dawn and could not find a mixer, cake flour, baking powder, or a bunch of other things, and I was freaking out. But my niece helped me, we creamed all that butter & sugar, found some corn starch to create cake flour, found the baking powder, and whisked all those egg whites by hand. Steeped lavender in milk, made lemon curd, and beat mountains of whipped cream.
We did it! a four-layer lavender-flavored white cake, with lemon curd in between. Held the layers together with bamboo skewers (saw that on Martha Stewart once). Slathered the whole thing with vanilla whipped cream, and decorated with wildflowers. Topped it with a marshmallow mushroom with a leaf stuck to it.
