Making My Wedding Cake Part 1

Never one to do things by half, I am actually having 2 weddings this year.  The official legal stuff is happening in Blackpool (where my Grandma lives) at the end of August and then it's off to Spain for the ceremony and breakfast at the beginning of September.

The original plan was to have one wedding cake, this would be for the Spanish event.  But two factors have brought us to the decision that we should also have a cake in Blackpool.  Firstly, my Grandma is unaware of the wedding in Spain and the wedding in Blackpool is as much for her as it is for us, so should mirror a normal wedding as much as possible.  I shall have a dress, Dave will have a chance to wear his kilt (because it will be too hot in Spain for the kilt), we're having a small party afterwards and now we're having a cake!

Secondly, Spanish cake is quite different to British cake.  In Spain, the cakes are sopping with syrup or booze and come served with fresh fruit and cream.  There are, of course, British cake-makers living in Spain, though unfortunately not close enough for us.  We were, however, lucky enough to find a Spanish-American lady who makes the beautiful tiered wedding cakes that we love, but she is not au fait with the traditional fruit cake.  Therefore, to have the kind of wedding cake that you can freeze until the birth of your first born, we need to make it ourselves.

For our fruit cake, I used a great Waitrose recipe that I've used for a number of Christmases now.  It is always moist, packed full of truit and tastes fantastic.  But, you have to start early because it regular feeding with booze.  In fact, when I get back from the wedding in Spain I shall probably need to start the Christmas cake!

The recipe calls for the cake to be fed every few weeks with Drambuie.  I have chosen to feed mine with Amaretto.  It's my wedding, I can do what I want!  I intend to spread cherry jam on the cake before icing it to achieve a cherry-almond flavour, which is a delicious combination.

The next challenge will be decorating the cakes (with the help of one of my many cook books!)  But I won't have to do that until a few days before the August wedding - because I like to make things easy for myself.