Last November, I was out for drinks with my co-workers/friends and after a couple of glasses of prosecco, my friend Mel asked me to make her wedding cake and I said YES. Whoops. I SWORE after last time I was out of the wedding cake game, but a few things made me agree:

• Mel is super chill (my #1 criteria in a bride-to-be)
• She already had a picture of what she wanted and it looked identical to the last wedding cake I made, so I knew I could do it (two tiers, simple decor, plus a dog – which I’ll get to later)
• The wedding would be in July at an event venue in downtown Toronto (this is what I forgot to ask last time I made a wedding cake, which is how we ended up on a farm in the middle of nowhere on the hottest day of the summer with no air-conditioning)
• They wouldn’t be slicing/serving the cake at the reception (so no need to worry about how many people it would feed; Mel just wanted it for the “moment” of cutting the cake)

I followed all my same notes from the first wedding cake I made, but the funniest thing happened when I talked to Mel about flavour options (because I told her to think outside the box of just vanilla/vanilla): she said it caused the biggest disagreement between her and Mike in all of their wedding planning process! Apparently Mike wanted Funfetti which Mel told him is for kids birthday parties and not a wedding (ha!) so they eventually decided on a Vanilla Bean Latte cake (vanilla bean cake/coffee buttercream). I suggested we do the small top tier as Funfetti and the bottom tier as Vanilla Bean Latte so everyone would be happy. Mel also didn’t tell him, so when they cut into the cake at the wedding the Funfetti would be a surprise – so cute.

And now here’s Marvin, Mel and Mike’s dog. Apparently this is a “thing” (Mel saw this on Pinterest) where you get a little model of your dog made and set him on the side of the cake so it looks like he took a bite out of it. I decided not to worry about that until the whole cake was baked, assembled and decorated, and then made a 911 FaceTime call to Danielle to figure it out in real time. First I tried two forks, but didn’t like the marks the tines made, so just used two little spoons to scoop out the bite. I was happy with the way it looked, but didn’t have enough crumbs, so just crumbled up a piece of bread and put it in a plastic bag to add once we got on-site.

My friend Heather agreed to be on transpo detail once again (in her words “It’s tradition!”) and drove us to the venue* while I sat in the backseat holding the cake box. We had a super smooth drive, found parking right outside and dropped off the cake with no stress or fuss. It was the easiest drop-off yet!

Mel was so happy with the way it turned out and also said the cake was delicious (they brought it to her mom’s for brunch the next day). Overall a huge success!

*Berkeley Field House Event Venue went bankrupt and suddenly closed in August, leaving many couples scrambling at the last minute to find a place to get married (not to mention losing their deposits!). What a nightmare – so relieved this didn’t happen to Mel – but super sad for everyone affected.