The Great Wedding Cake Project. . .purchase phase

So, there is still great indecision throughout the land about Tabitha and A.'s wedding cake (all on A.'s side. If it were up to Tab, she would have picked one of my original designs.) However, I figured I'd go forward with a post about the next phase of the project: the purchase phase (dun, dun, DUNNN!!!!)

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know I love wedding cakes, and that I even have a little plan for a side business involving baking. So, I know I need a lot of equipment to get this done. After research, I know exactly how much equipment, and that is a f@#kton. Yes, that is a proper baking term. Exhibit A: " . . . then add a f@#kton of flour, and stir until your arm falls off."

So, to further the education of my readership in the fine art of trying to bake wedding cakes, giving up and running to Jewel at 3am the night before to buy muffins, here is a short list of products needed to start the endeavor:

-1 large cake leveler - for leveling the tops of each tier, and splitting them into layers for filling.
-1 cake lifter - the surface you decorate the cake on is not its final resting place. This is for lifting the cake without getting finger prints all over it.
-1 wide glide rolling pin - This is the extra-wide rolling pin you need for rolling out large circles of fondant. Your normal wooden one ain't gonna cut it.
-1 set of 20" rolling pin guide rings - these are slipped onto the ends of your rolling pin to make sure you roll your fondant to a uniform thickness.
-1 roll and cut mat - This provides handy cutting guides for fondant circles that will fit your tiers.
-2 packages Ready-to-Use White Fondant
-1 Floral Collection Flower Making Set - This has all the cut-outs you need to make gum-paste or fondant flowers. Not all the tools you need, of course. Those are coming.
-1 Fondant Shaping foam set- This is a little square of smooth pink foam that you press your flowers into to create soft indentations and give them a 3-D effect. Nobody likes a flat flower, after all . . .
-1 10-pc Fondant/Gum Paste Tool Set - These are all the little ball-ended, hooked, pointed, rounded little tools you use to round and feather and shape your flowers. Yeah, it even gets more ridiculous.
-2 packages Ready To Use Gum Paste - Yeah, you can make your own. But, why?
-2 Non-stick 3-Tier Stackable Cooling Grid - Because I can't just cool these tiers on paper plates anymore.
-1 Decorator Preferred Round Pan Set - included is a 6", 10", and 14" pan.
-2 Heating Cores - Any cake 10" in diameter or more needs this metal heating core to make sure it bakes in the center evenly.
-1 professional turntable - This seems superfluous, but think about trying to turn a 14" cake on your own without it.
-1 easy glide fondant smoother - even the guys on Ace of Cakes use this. 'Nuff said.
-icing colors - depending on what colors the cake is going to be, I'll need multiples of these to tint the white gum paste and/or fondant.
-1 set of cardboard round separators - these go between the tiers, to provide support.
-wooden dowels of varying heights - each tier gets at least four to support the weight of the tier above, and one long dowel gets hammered through the center of all three tiers.
And, finally:
-1 pack of 24 disposable decorating bags - My Martha Stewart Cake Decorating set comes with a few, but not nearly enough for this.

Okay . . . so, if any of y'all have it in your heads to make your sister's wedding cake, or a friend's, or even your own to save money, take a look at the short list above. All together, the items on the list clock in at around $400. It's a good thing my sister only has to pay for flour, sugar, and eggs . . .