Sorry I’ve been absent for a while.

I don’t normally like to apologize for not posting any given day because sometimes life just happens and I don’t want to start filling up my blog with dozens of posts that all start with an apology. But, at the moment I’m not sure how many more days are going to pass without me posting, so I thought I’d at least give you a heads up on what’s going on with me this time.

I have been VERY sick for the past couple of days. Something I ate on Friday sent my body into a rebellion. I haven’t been able to eat much of anything and even fluids are difficult to keep down. My hunger has returned now but eating still just doesn’t feel good.

I’ve been surrounding myself with various fluid options to keep hydrated…

Man, kombucha has been a life-saver. It’s really helping to replace some of the healthy bacteria that I’ve lost from not being able to keep food down. And Jeff has been making me a tummy-calming ginger tea with lemon and salt to replace electrolytes.

So for now, I’m concentrating on getting myself better for our trip to Seattle this weekend and refining our itinerary. I’m gonna try to get a few posts up before then but right now I’m just not cooking anything exciting or going anywhere fun to report about. I do have some fun posts scheduled for the week that we’re gone, so next week will be back on track regardless.

What foods or drinks do you rely on when you’re sick? No really, I need suggestions!

Thanks everybody for all your praise over the wedding cake!

It was really weird to get up every day this week and not start doing something cake related. I found myself pacing around a few times feeling like I was supposed to be frantically baking something.

Thankfully those anxious feelings have subsided…………….to be replaced by new ones! 😉

Jeff and I are approaching our first wedding anniversary on May 1st and we’ve been talking about taking a vacation around that time for months. The problem has been that we don’t have the budget to blow like we did on Japan, there aren’t too many places we’re interested in right now that aren’t on the other side of the planet, and I can’t get my passport renewed before we need to go so we can’t leave the country easily.

So, we’ve been trying to decide where we could have fun within the U.S. for a whole week.

Answer:  Seattle!

(source)

Seattle has been on our minds for a couple of reasons, it’s hard to explain why without this turning into a lengthy essay. So basically it’s that: we like the landscape of the Pacific Northwest, we like the culinary scene there, we like the eco-consciousness, we align more with the political and cultural viewpoints of the majority there, we like the public transportation and bike culture, we like the higher asian population than other parts of the U.S. which means lots of multiethnic food options and cultural experiences, we like the access to fresh sushi-grade fish, and we like that it’s a whole 5 and a half hours closer to Japan – you know, should we ever find ourselves living there and vacationing in Kyoto regularly. 😉

Also, we spent a week in Portland, OR two years ago thinking that we might want to relocate there someday for the same reasons listed above. We didn’t fall in love with it like we thought we would though. I felt so tragically uncool there all the time. So, we’re kind of auditioning Seattle in the same way, as a possible home for the far future when we don’t have kids anymore and want to travel to Asia a lot.

Maybe that sounds crazy, but I have never felt that in love with or attached to Georgia in any way. That, and my wanderlust has exploded in the last few years. I now feel like I could pack up my life and start over anywhere (with Jeff of course!) and adjust easily.

Anyway, we’re excited to spend time getting to know Seattle. I’ve started to put together a list of places we’re interested in and later I’ll form them into an itenerary.

We leave April 30th!

If any of you guys have been to Seattle and have recommendations for where to go, we’d love to hear em’!

If you’ve missed any of my cake baking adventures so far, check out these posts first:

• Welcome to cake-bakin’ week!
• Bake til you drop
• Wear your crumbcoat
• Star of the stripes

The wedding was on Saturday, and as you read this the bride and groom are sunning it up in Mexico for their honeymoon.

Jeff and I spent yesterday doing absolutely nothing. Pajamas all day. With a stressful week of cake-baking, trafficky travel, and wedding festivities – we were beat. Here’s how it all went down…

We arrived at the wedding venue, Tennessee River Place, to an amazing pastoral scene. Big fluffy buffalo and strutting geese dotted the green grass.

There was an intense storm the day before so the ground was still wet. The overcast sky meant that the wedding and reception would be moved indoors rather than at the riverfront.

I had the good luck of getting an entire industrial kitchen to myself to finish the cake. I completely underestimated how long it would take to finish up, so I was scrambling a bit to get it all done before I needed to go get myself dressed and ready.

The first thing I did was fix a few cracks and flaws in the fondant. The drive to the wedding site was unpaved and the gravel had the cakes sliding all over the place in the car. It’s amazing what a little vegetable shortening will do though. You can put a little on your finger and rub it in circles over a crack and it will largely disappear! I did that all over and with the exception of a few deeper dings, it smoothed out nicely.

Then I got to work on cutting and inserting the 4 support dowels…

I had to take those two on the right out again and cut them down to cake level. I also took the bottom cake layer off of its transport base and glued it to the decorative stand with a little buttercream.

I put the second layer on top, wrapped the bases in ribbon, and started postioning the topper accents.

I used some cut roses to make a floral crown to fill out the top. I just cut the stems short and angled and pushed them right into the cake. I fluffed the flowers up a little by pulling the petals open a bit.

And…………………………….wait for it………………….here it is!!!

And a close-up of that floral crown…

Squeee!!!! 😀

I left it in the kitchen and went to go get dressed. Jeff was not a huge fan of his groomsman outfit, but I thought he looked handsome.

About an hour later, it was time for the ceremony!

Yay! Another Tucker girl enters the family!

Everyone filed out and we headed straight into dinner.

We were served barbecue, but not some sloppy greasy hole-in-the wall barbecue, this was really nice and tasted great.

But who cares about dinner, you wanna see cake right?

Tada!

Isn’t Kevin’s groom cake awesome? It’s not even covered in fondant! I can’t believe they were able to get buttercream that smooth.

Here’s a close-up of mine again…

And then the part that I knew was coming but couldn’t prepare for, cutting it! I’ll admit that it was a little heart-wrenching to watch it get hacked up, but by that time I was pretty ready to move on to the part of my life where I don’t have to think about cake 24 hours a day, so I wasn’t too sad to see it go.

And it tasted great too. I love both of the recipes I used for the cake and for the buttercream. I’ve had so many wedding cakes with sickeningly sweet crusty icing and bland textureless cake.

Mine was a little firmer and thicker like a sugar cookie cake and had a delicious buttery flavor. The buttercream was soft and velvety and while it was certainly very sweet, it wasn’t a diabetic coma waiting to happen. 😉

The bride and groom loved the cake, which was all I needed to hear. I got many complements that evening and I was so proud. Last week while I was going crazy putting this thing together I was sure I’d never do it again. Now though, I’ve learned so many tips for how to make it easier next time that I think I could see myself having another go at it.

Thanks for following me on this journey! I have learned so much about this process and I’m really happy with what I did.