Monday, November 7- The cake was a success

Weather at 5:30: 4' and clear skies, heading for a high of 10' and sunny!

If this is November, we'll take it. Saturday was a different story - wet snow and cold. Sunday was sunny and would have been a beautiful day except for the wind that made it much colder. But today will be lovely.
Well, Friday night, I baked the cake part of the project. Then Saturday when I got home, I got into putting it together. I must confess - I did have a bit of assistance. Brenda and Helena came over to supervise. They brought wine and encouragement along with them. It was a great night for me, really nice to have the company. They also washed dishes so that was a bonus as well.

The lemon curd filling was applied

So first step was to split the cake in two layers and fill the inside with the lemon curd. I can't wait to make this for Lloyd, it was SO good. Then it was time to cover with buttercream and put on the fondant. That's the stage I was at then the ladies arrived.

The butter cream went on next and then the fondant

Then I used a tracing wheel from my sewing supplies to put lines on to mark off the squares. A light brushing of pearl dust accented the lines and gave it a nice sheen. Then Brenda and Helena put the silver balls at the intersections of the lines. Meanwhile I worked on the figures. They had begun to sag a bit and while the boy was still usable, the girl really wasn't so I had to re-do that one. Once it was all assembled, we went into the living room with some nacho chips and salsa and watched a couple of programs on TV. When they left I checked the cake again and once more the figures were sagging. I then realized that the weight of the heads was adding to the problem. So I was able to move them off the cake and re-position them so the heads were resting more on the bed and not on the bodies. They weren't perfect but you got the idea. I also made the headboard for the bed, out of chocolate improvising with a mold that I had.

The finished project

Sunday morning I made a little 'book' to rest on the pillows that read "Our bedtime prayer - God bless Mommy and Daddy and the nice people who built our new playground" We completed the project with a little teddy bear lying on the pillows as well.

Sunday morning Brenda came over after church and helped me get it wrapped in basket wrap. Then we re-convened at the hall a little after lunch. No one could remember everything about last year so we had to reinvent some of our procedures. But we had a bigger kitchen and more stoves to work on this year so it was much better. Again the spaghetti supper was a success and there were lots of cakes for the cake auction. Most of the cakes sold for between $20 and $30  so I was thrilled that mine sold for $100. In the end it was Bernie who bought it after outbidding Dave Wakelin, but Bernie had a secret up his sleeve - he had a bidder on the phone who was going to pay for the cake. There was some sort of collusion going on but we won't question! In the end it was a very successful day and quite a bit of fun.