I've been married to Drew for almost 2 years. That, to me, seems like a long time. But 30 years? Wow! I was so happy when I was asked to make this cake. The best part was the total creative freedom I had, due to the fact that I was given 48 hours notice to make the entire thing.
So I googled "30th Anniversary cake" and found out that it is the "Pearl Anniversary" and found a really awesome cake as inspiration as well.
This cake was super duper easy! I know I haven't posted a tutorial on covering a cake with fondant yet (funny story actually) but if you are not fondant savvy just at the moment, you can cover this cake with buttercream and use fondant for the pearl topper.
We're making: Pearl Topper
You'll need:
- 30 pieces of wire (slightly stronger than floral wire) cut to various lengths (3 inches to 7 inches)
- white floral tape
- 30 balls of white fondant, various sizes
- pearl luster dust or spray
- vodka or lemon juice (if using luster dust)
- soft paint brush
- Set wire aside.Cover wire with floral tape. (There's really no easy way to explain this. You just have to do it.)
- Mix about a teaspoon of luster dust with a teaspoon of vodka or lemon juice and paint onto fondant balls. Allow them to dry (about 2 hours). This will give your "pearls" a nice glossy shimmer (see photo below). As you can see from the cake above, I also had various sized circular cutouts on the cake. Those were also painted with luster dust.
- When your cake is ready and the pearls are dry, begin putting the pearls on the cake. One at a time, take a pearl and place it on a wire, then put it into the top of the cake. This is where the various sized pearls and wires come in. You just have to play with it to get it to look right. Yes, this is trial and error, but don't rearrange too much, or else the top of your cake with look awful by the time you are done. If this happens, you can pour a little white royal icing in the center to hold it all together and cover up any imperfections.
- Place a few un-wired pearls around the topper and glue to the cake with icing.
- Finish the cake with a string of pearl garland (found in the wedding section at Michael's).
And viola!!!
I hope you enjoyed the tutorial. Have a fabulous week!
With love, Ev