Adventures in Baking :: Wedding Cake Practice (parts 2 & 3)

Well, I did it!  I finished the practice wedding cakes (finally) tonight!  You can see the pans I used here, part 1 of my practice here, a few extra notes and pictures here, and well...this is the end!  I call this part 2 and 3 because I worked on them Thursday night and tonight, but I forgot to take any pictures or write about most of those in-between steps.  It mostly involved making buttercream, making fondant and unseccessfully stacking the tiers!   Thursday night it was very late when I worked - I had to wait to work on them until after the kids were in bed and I was really tired when I started, and well...I was getting pretty stressed about it, so blogging and taking pictures was not at the front of my mind!

Anyway, by the time I rushed through finishing them up tonight, the cakes were just that - rushed.  But overall, I'm happy with the results.  Ariel (my almost sister) was undecided between buttercream or fondant, so I did one of each.  Here is the buttercream (poor sad little whop-sided thing)...

The buttercream cake turned out okay, but I was pretty disappointed with my work.  First off, it was very uneven and I didn't get the layers centered.  Second, the underlying icing was not smooth - at all.  Bottom line - I don't know how to make it smooth and perfect and pretty.  Lastly, I was just so tired and hurried by the time I got around to the fondant ribbon that I just got downright lazy with it.  Oh yeah, and the buttercream I used for the scrollwork was getting way to warm by the time I finished, so it was messy.  It's not a pretty sight.

The fondant covered cake is definitely my favorite, and I'm pretty sure Ariel has chosen it too!  The fondant is whiter than buttercream, smoother than buttercream, and just prettier over all (in my opinion).  Here it is...

It helps that I did this one first...so, I the fondant ribbon was neater and the scroll-work less sloppy.  Besides, the fondant just looks classier and I actually got the tiers centered and even on this one (by the way, she wants the squares slightly turned...so that's on purpose)!  I made my own fondant for this cake (probably will for all cakes)...it's Marshmallow Fondant.  And it's yummy!!  If you've ever had the 'bought' fondant - it's well, flavor challenged.  But Marshmallow Fondant is delicious!  It's just marshmallows and powdered sugar and water...but it's pretty and smooth and just wonderful.

Really, from a distance, both cakes looked pretty good...but up close - the fondant wins by a mile!

OH, and the White Wedding Cake Recipe that I used - it is perfect!  I might go with all egg whites to get a truly white cake, but it tastes great, it's really moist, and it's really dense and heavy, so it holds up to the weight of the fondant...

So, that's that!  My brother asked me tonight if I was going to do a full-size cake before the wedding...ahem, NO!  That would be a lot of cake - a lot of work - and well, I'm just not doing it!  I may regret it, but I'm pretty confident that I'll be able to pull it off without a full-size practice run!  In the meantime...these miniature ones were lots of WORK fun and just so darn cute!

So what do you think (be gentle please)?  Any suggestions?  Great tips or tricks?  I'd love any help I can get from experienced cake people!