French themed engagement cake and cupcakes..

Paris, the most romantic city in the world. Just imagine, wandering through the streets of Paris, finding yourself under the Eiffel tower hand in hand with the man of your dreams. And then he drops down on one knee and asks the one question most girls wait their whole life to hear. Then there are tears, congratulations from strangers and a gorgeous ring. Romantic, huh! And no I’m not currently reading a Mills & Boon novel; this is how events actually played out for my ‘sister in law’ on a recent trip overseas. Lucky girl! And very well done Rob Dog!!

And then comes the engagement party, French theme. Lucky me was asked to make the cake! Now, because I am among friends here I’m going to be perfectly honest. While I was thrilled and honoured to help with the party I was also crapping myself. For the first time ever I would be making a cake that would be seen and eaten by people other than my family, who by law must tell be how excellent, amazing, great, lovely and exceptional my work is. I had to get this right, for fear of screwing up the whole night with a crappy cake!


Four weeks out I started on the Eiffel Tower topper for the cake. All went well. Three weeks out, start the cupcake stand. Two weeks out I started on the cupcake toppers. Again, all went well. Four days out, start the cake. One day out, make the cupcakes. All good. Until the day of said party. Cakes packed and in the car, Eiffel Tower topper in its box ready to be assembled at the venue. Jump in the car, head down the street, take one last peak at the tower topper and.. it snapped. Holly crap. Back home, grab royal icing, attempt to glue back together, jump back in the car, head out again, get on the M5.. it snaps again. There are now three pieces to the tower. F##K!!!!

(Cupcakes. I hadn’t told the bride-to-be about these and as luck would have it she had decorated the venue with the word ‘Love’ and their initials ‘N&R’ aswell. Everything matched! Now that’s women’s intuition at its best!)

My worst fear had come true. Not a word was spoken during the car ride, except for when my gorgeous boyfriend looked over at me and said “It’s ok, you can scream if you want, I won’t tell anybody”. What would I do without him! But for some reason the cake gods were smiling down on me that night, and I managed to glue the damn thing back together. Phew!

It was a great night, lots of socialising, photo taking, and eating, drinking and general merriment.
Big congratulations to the gorgeous couple, Nads and Rob Dog. And here’s to a life time of happiness together!