That One Time I Made My Best Friend's Wedding Cake

Last year, I considered making my own wedding cake...... which is maybe the dumbest idea, ever!I gave up on that almost immediately. However, just six months after my wedding, my bestie Margie was getting hitched. Making my friend's wedding cake? Now that sounded doable.

I asked her if I could; she was totally game.

I had a lot of things working for me: Marge's wedding was small (only 46 people), local and she didn't really want a traditional tiered cake.

However, I suck at baking.

I love cooking. You can wing cooking. Baking requires precision, patience and the ability to follow instructions. I lack all of those things. Zoe Francois, on the other hand, knows what she's doing. She's a CIA-trained pastry chef, the lady behind the brilliant Artisan Bread in Five series, and also my neighbor. So I emailed her and asked if she'd help me.

God bless her for saying yes.

I got this... maybe.

Meringues are pretty darn easy to make if you have a KitchenAid mixer!

Perfectly imperfect nests of meringue.

The mess is so pretty, it's almost like we planned it!

She then asked me: Do you know what you want to make? As a non-baker and infrequent dessert eater, my ideas top out at apple crisp and English toffee. But this was for a wedding! I didn't want it to be just good, I wanted it to be fabulous. Partially because I love my Margie, but also because I am a show-off.

We talked flavor profiles, and I came up with pretzel-chocolate-salty-caramel and tart-lemon-berry. Zoe then whipped up some recipes, one inspired by this masterpiece. I thought: WOWZA! How in the hell am I going to pull this off? 

But that is why we need guides like Zoe in life; an expert to push you further than you'd ever think of going on your own. Zoe documented the process expertly on her blog (recipes included!). Something she didn't mention: I was terrified that I was doing everything wrong. And not just things I had never done before (like whip up a meringue), but things I'd done hundreds of times, like measuring a cup of flour. I have tons of confidence doing something alone, but as soon as their's an audience, I'm second guessing myself. Zoe is great and nothing but encouraging, so within an hour, I found my stride... which wasn't exactly baking like a pastry chef, but I was getting things done without overthinking it too much. Meringues are pretty darn easy to make if you have a KitchenAid mixer! The mess is so pretty, it's almost like we planned it!

I'd like to tell you that making this wedding dessert was easy-peasy.

But that is a lie.

Adding delicious cream to thin out the ganache.

You never know when you might need a blowtorch.

Here's how you get pretzel toffee crumble to stick.

I know you're eying those cake scraps. Yes, we ate them.

Ready for the ganache.

Messyin' up Zoe's kitchen.

Here's the final product: Ta-da! Pretty wedding desserts!

Ta-da! Pretty wedding desserts!

Pavlova with lemon curd and strawberry sauce.

Chocolate pretzel crunch cakes.

Each individual component wasn't difficult. However, when you add it all up, it's like holy crap. We made from-scratch lemon curd and strawberry sauce, meringues, a salted caramel sauce, three sheet pans of cake, ganache, pretzel toffee (plus a different pretzel variation that we ended up scrapping all together). It was ambitious!

Eeeeeeee!

What if the car was too warm and melted stuff? Or we got rear-ended? Or went over a bumpy road and the cakes toppled over? And the scariest thing: What if the kitchen screwed up the desserts I'd spent the last two days working on?My helper (aka the husband) and I got everything there in one piece. The kitchen plated the desserts exactly as I'd asked... even though the chef wanted to top my precious chocolate cakes with caramel sauce in a latticed fashion.

I said no way, Jose!

Easily my most panicked moment of the experience.The bride and groom adored the desserts, as did their guests. A few even said it was the best dessert they'd ever had at a wedding. I have to admit, I was blown away at myself. Just goes to show that sometimes all you need to do is try*.* And maybe have a friend like Zoe in your back pocket.

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Huge thanks to Zoe, as well as photographer Matt Lien. How great are those photos? Next time he takes my pic, I vow to not be wearing a big, boxy sweatshirt.Not my first ever Hey Eleanor kitchen escapade. There was the time I made mussels at home. Also, a rack of lamb and dove nuggets (from doves I'd hunted myself!). Cooking/baking is a great way to push your comfort zone. You probably won't die, the food will likely turn out better than you think, and if you screw up, you can always order a pizza!