Gramm (Anna's fiance) arrived last week. Yesterday, our next wedding guest arrived -- Kara!
She drove the length of North Carolina to be here early because she's Anna's matron-of-honor. Plus, she's just wonderful to have around :)
As you see, Adam is in his apron; he's begun wedding cake baking this morning. I did a WalMart run for ingredients:
This cake is heavy in eggs and almond paste, and quite light on flour, so it's fabulously soft and light and delectable. Here's the first big layer:
It has parchment paper on top (well, actually, on its bottom, as he flipped it out of its pan onto the cooling rack). We were surprised that he turned it out so soon. Well ... after I took that photo, it quickly began to fall in the middle. We were quite sad.
Adam investigated. And look what happened -- the cake (so very soft) actually fell through its cooling rack. Nooooo!
It was a relief to discover the cake was not underbaked, because Adam would then have had to re-evaluate his recipe and cooking. As it is, we need a better cooling situation.
Of course, the tragedy is that now we have a big wedding cake (minus the marmalade, meringues, and cream cheese frosting, sadly) that must be eaten. We are up to that!
And Adam will bake it again, and I will probably dash back to WalMart.
Anna and Gramm went to the beach yesterday. They had no success putting up our sunblocker tent, so they were in the sun all day. Yes, Anna returned home with a hot red sunburn. She tans well, but this was quite a burn. Why do brides do this with such regularity before their weddings? I think they imagine a nice brown tan as part of their bare-shouldered attire.
Anna said, "Mom! I need green goo!" (that's Healing Herb Ointment to the rest of the world). And this morning her burn is only mildly pink, and doesn't hurt. Phew!
On to the wedding flowers! I'm studying my yard and wondering if some flowers will be in bloom by Saturday morning.
Will the hostas cooperate?
I had not considered lantana ... perhaps?
To my surprise the bee balm is flowering, but it might be too short for this wedding arrangement.
We have a large pink Knock-Out rose bush, but its blooms were a bit beaten by our heavy rains (which also murdered my baby's breath absolutely, boohoo!)
I'm watching my purple coneflower closely. Will it bloom in time?
Other plants are in full bloom right now, but who ever heard of putting cilantro in your wedding arrangement?
Or oregano?
Or pale lavender onion blooms?
Some flowers miss out on all the fun.
The dahlias are going strong; I'm hopeful.
The zinnias (above right) are so green, but where are the flower buds? I'm on tenderhooks!
I do have a few pretty sprays of eucalyptus.
And my new, long and drapey fern will be perfect.
We have elephant ears galore, in all sizes. Does anyone ever put them into wedding arrangements?
On Friday and Saturday, Mother and I will stroll around the yard, seeing what there is to use. I've never known a better person with the skill to take a few weeds and three sprigs of ivy, and make a pretty arrangement. She's a wizard.
Oh - one more birthday thing. I've been using this paint set for quite a while. 14 colors, which does limit the visual complexity of the paintings a bit.
So for my birthday Philip and Kara bought me more and better watercolors! These are Japanese paints.
They came in this beautiful box. It feels and looks so Asian - I love it.
And look at all those colors! There are even 3 metallic ones.
Now I'll have to think of what to paint with them. Writing my children's stories is helpful in this regard because the story dictates what pictures to paint, and I don't have to sit there with an empty head, wondering what vapid image to put on paper. When the wedding is over, and the summer has calmed down, I hope to write and paint more again.
Today Adam's mother arrives on a plane from Nebraska. She's been so excited and supportive with the wedding from the beginning. She and Adam have been plotting the cake and decorations. Wait till you see!
14 comments:
Oh dear! Too bad about cake #1. Hopefully Cake #2 will hold together better or there will be wedding trifle instead of cake. Not that I've ever found anyone who didn't love trifle. But it's not exactly the thing, is it.
Love your new paints. I'm sure they will inspire you to do great paintings once your life returns to normal.
happy belated birthday, and congratulations on another wedding right around the corner! The cake sounds delicious with marmalade, mmm, my favorite! Too bad you had to eat the trial cake ;) Hope you find a wonderful bouquet with a few surprises. I think herbs are perfectly okay, some of them have special meanings you could look up. Nice paint set too. Have a wonderful time with your family and on the special day. xo Deborah
Getting really close now. Oh no, too bad about the cake. Hope the next one turns out great.
Hope too that your flowers bloom in time for the wedding.
So much fun and excitement - I'm amazed that you can take the time to write... but I would probably do the same!!
I wish I could let you walk around my garden, too, and pick out some flowers for the wedding; I think it's wonderful that you are making your bouquets from what is right there. They will be the loveliest decorations.
M.K. how do you find the time to put together a blog post on top of all that you are doing? Wow!
GM, the rest of the cakes turned out well, except they are not very TALL -- rather like angel food, which needs pan sides to "climb up" to get height, these cakes also rely on eggs for loft, and the sides are far, far away from each other. But it'll be great. He had 2 more today. He's afraid of running out, haha. "There will cake for an army!!!"
That's a fun idea, to look up the meaning of the herbs/flowers. I like that!
The rest of the cakes turned out well, thankfully! Glad that part is behind us!
Oh, I'd love to stroll around your garden with you! I have been eyeing some pretty flower gardens around here with desire and thieving in mind, haha (just joking!) It will all come together. Plus -- I found the tiniest big of English ivy, growing against one of my pecan trees! I thought Adam had eradicated it all, but no!
I know that folks want to know, and I also know that if I put it off, I won't do it at all .. and then we won't have a record of any of it. We won't remember that Anna got a sunburn, and Adam ruined the first cake, haha. SUCH important things!!
That piece of wedding cake looks delicious! Oh, it sounds so busy there. I just know everything will be beautiful! I look forward to your every post.
I hope all of the cake baking and flower arranging gets smoothed out and everything is glorious for the wedding! Hey, I have that same set of paints! I like them! Enjoy all the fun! :)
Oooh, that cake looks nice- I'd help to ease the difficulty of eating it if I were there! Shame it didn't go well first time, hope it works out! Ha ha, bridal sun tan! I was the bride who wore a massive hat all the time and didn't want to stay in the sun! I like being paler but with my quarter-Greek, olive complexion, I was never going to be too pale!
Ooh, I can't wait to see which flowers cooperate!!x
Such a lot to do and so many happenings. I can imagine bouquets with lots of different things from your garden. I even like tall grasses. They can look lovely too amongst flowers. I look forward to seeing what you and Mother come up with.
I'm wondering if we could sample the first cake some way? It looks rich and delish! God bless your days with love and creativity and joy!
~Jody
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