Three friends and a wedding.

I want to tell you about what was happening in my life exactly a year ago. A very old and dear friend of mine had decided to get married on August 20th 2006. Cath, the dear old friend, as dear as she is, is completely bonkers!she not only had started a new challenging job, she had undergone IVF for a much wanted baby, got pregnant and said baby was due at the end of June, yes, six weeks before the big day!
Cath asked me to be her ' Maid of Honour' which I was all too pleased to do, bit nervous, not too keen on too much attention, but hey! this is my old mate....
THEN, they ask us to do their WEDDING CAKE! three tiers, chocolate, carrot and small fruit.It's one thing making cakes for fun and enjoyment, but making someones' wedding cake? the nerves kicked in.
It has to be said that we were getting a bit of a name for ourselves and our late night baking sessions, Andy baking, me decorating. We didn't have a mixer at the time and Andy was a whizz at beating up the mixture. Midnight would find us in the kitchen beavering away, it was great fun.
Ebay came to our rescue, I'd longed for a kitchen Aid and this was just the excuse I needed, Andy wasn't arguing, he looked more worried than me!Aaahhh, voila , our fine friend, brand new and half the price, not red, but hey, we had to get our priorities right.
July found me in the library and book shops, looking for cake decorating books. Cath was having Roses and Freesias with variegated ivy. Everything was discussed over the phone, Cath lives in Wales and I live in England, I had to guess the colours, and bought the flowers from the flower stall to copy.
I found the most fantastic cake book in the library, so we were ready for the meg baking session of our lives, crumbs!
The thing to mention is that at this time we were in the thick of the school hols and we were the proud new owners of two gorgeous new baby kittens who were very lively and naughty.
I juggled my days with making sugar paste flowers and play dough with Poppy on the old scrub top kitchen table, while the kittens climbed and creaked their way into the table draw, my nerves were in tatters by the end , each day being a midnight/1am finish.
We pulled it off though, a hundred mile journey , down some ropey welsh mountain roads, on to the stands, GREAT! now just the Maid of Honour bit to get through and the guests EATING the cakes, Andy's turn to worry, would they taste ok?Yep, Cath and Jeff loved the cake, thank goodness.By the end of the day we were exhausted, we'd spent weeks working on the bloody thing and it was a VERY expensive wedding gift, but their worth it. Don't ask me to do it again in a hurry though.
P.S. I was amazed by how well the cake matched the wedding bouquets, lady luck was on my side. xxxxxxxxxxxxxx