50th anniversary – family create a golden wedding cake

A golden wedding anniversary is always a special occasion and a time of celebration, 50 years of marriage is a huge milestone and one certainly deserving of a very special celebration cake.  I created my first golden wedding cake  for my  ‘Celebrate with a cake‘ book. However when my parents decided that they were going to celebrate their own golden wedding anniversary with a party for family and friends, I knew that no ordinary cake would do…the cake had to be very special, different and unique. BUT at that stage I had no idea what it would look like!

My sister suggested that as this was a family celebration, why didn’t we get the family involved, so we did. The cake itself was baked, as are all our big family fruit cakes, by my mother using a recipe we have had in the family for many years – the one that is published in many of my books. My task was then to cover and stack the cakes, but what colours to use? I didn’t want to go with the obvious gold option so after a bit of pondering, decided on colours to compliment both my mothers outfit and the golden decorations that we planned.

We organised a couple of decorating sessions, with my daughter in charge. I provided her with sugarcraft moulds and cutters and gave a very quick demonstration on how to use them. She then gave instructions to everyone as to what she wanted them to create, the results she attached to the stacked cake. I found it fascinating to watch the cake changing and evolving as she worked. Interestingly my daughter was doing this having just returned from spending her summer in Italy, I don’t know about you but I certainly think that the decorations she added have a Italian baroque feel.

Eight of us were involved in creating and decorating the cake including my niece’s, the youngest of whom is not quite 3, my husband who has never done any sugarcraft before and is now an experts on moulds and my strapping 17 year old son, whom I’m sure wouldn’t admit how much he enjoyed helping! On the cake itself we included my parents initials, the year of their marriage, a fish – my parents surname is Bream, a cat – at anyone time, my parents have had at least two of these, a couple of bunches of grapes and bottles of wine – my father loves his wine, plus lots of flowers – as flowers and plants are interests they both share.

Interestingly for me the resulting cake was one that I would probably not have designed myself, however the result was stunning and reflects everyone that created, it from the elaborate decorations on the base tier to the simple gold butterflies around the top.

The 8th September 2012 at Stevenshill in Shropshire was a beautiful sunny day perfect for a party in the garden, slightly warmer, I’m reliable informed, than in was in Kirby-muxloe, Leicestershire 50 years ago. AND as for the cake, well it was much admired and everyone  that  had been involved seemed thrilled.

Happy Baking and Decorating
Lindy