Four hundred guests, four tiers, and a function room whose air conditioning was switched on at six for a seven o'clock start. That last fact changed the entire cake.
We had quoted buttercream and we withdrew it. Fondant over a ganache base is more work and costs more, and it is the only finish that holds a clean edge in a room sitting at thirty one degrees for two hours. The flowers were fresh, wired and pushed in at the venue rather than at home, because a wired flower in a cake in a car is a flower that has moved by the time it arrives.
The cake travelled as four boxed tiers and four boards, and was built on the table it was served from, starting at four o'clock. Dowels in every tier except the top. Forty minutes to assemble, then left alone.
It was cut at half past nine and it was still square. The bottom tier fed a hundred and eighty people on its own.
