There are points in life where relationships slowly change.  As with my Momma and I, we were Momma/Daughter until I finally “grew up,” and then one day, I realized we were “BEST FRIENDS”!  The “Best Friends” part of our relationship was the majority of our lives, but I wish it could have gone on forever.  By the time she reached 100, she was my child, and I was her parent…she had her sharp mind until the end, but still, our relationship had totally switched!  She relied on ME and looked up to ME like a child does a parent.  This cake was made for my firstborn daughter, who is, at this point in my life, my best friend!  Making this wedding cake for Jaime and Cliff was so special for me!

 

              When we were preparing for their wedding, it was a VERY rainy Fall!  The venue changed from the “Hay Meadow” (which had about four inches of standing water), to “Their Front Yard” (which, before the wedding, was also standing in water), to being held in Jaime’s brother, “Rusty’s home”!  While the weather was constantly in her mind, Jaime had to make sure her dress, as well as the four attendants and three little girls' dresses, was ordered and fitted.  AND the guy’s shirts!

               Jaime fixed mason drinking jars for each member of their new family and filled  them with a different colored sand, which was unique for each person, and they  were to be poured into a large mason jar during the ceremony.  She also got  two mason drinking jars, two clear candle holders, and some clear glue for me  to fix their toasting glasses.  Jaime tied and glued a strip of the camouflage fabric around the toasting glasses and glued a duck hen on her glass and a duck drake on Cliff's glass.  For her flowers, she chose each one’s  birth flower.  She and I went shopping for the flowers at Hobby Lobby and  had so much fun being together!  We then met at my Momma’s house and made  the bridal bouquets for Jaime and her four attendants, as well as boutonnieres  for Cliff, his Best Man (their son Casey) and four attendants.  Also,  corsages for the Minister, Mothers, and Grandmothers, AND boutonnieres for the  Fathers.  The boutonnieres were made in Shotgun Shells, and the bouquets,  corsages, and boutonnieres were all bound with “Hay Twine” left over from my  Daddy’s OLD square baler!  My precious husband, Steve, and I had been  looking at an arch for our Angel Garden; this was the incentive we needed to  make the purchase.  He bought the arch for them to get married under,  which Jaime covered with the various birth flowers and ivy.  She also  intertwined tiny lights throughout.  My Aunt Bill made butterflies for  Jaime’s daddy’s and my wedding so I took them to Jaime for her to use as  accents at her choosing.

               Jaime bought wooden signs for the Little Girls to carry and wrote on them what  she wanted burned into the wood.  I used my woodburning tool to burn over  her writing.  She also bought a small bale of straw to use as the Ring  “Pillow,” put a piece of camouflage material at a diagonal across it, and tied  it on with some of "Daddy's" hay twine.  Along with that, she bought a toy Pink Shotgun!  Dakota carried the sign that said, “Hey Cliffie,” which was  tied on the “Ring Bale,” and the wedding rings were tied on with a little hay twine.  She also decorated Dakota’s sign with Dakota’s birth  flower.  Jayden’s sign said, “HERE COMES MS JAIME,” and she held it by a  loop of hay twine.  It was also decorated with her birth flower.  Juli’s sign was decorated with her birth flower and said, “RUN, AND I’LL  SHOOT!”  Her sign was tied to the barrel of the pink toy shotgun with…you  guessed it, “hay twine!”  "Thank you, Daddy!"

 

              “The Hunt Is Over” camouflage four-tier wedding cake was a new experience for me.  I had never covered “half” of a stacked cake with edible paper.  (More on that in a minute!)  To date, this was the largest cake I had done.  Every cake has its challenges and obstacles to overcome, but you just have to think of it as a learning opportunity!  Jaime had already told me what she wanted, so ALL I had to do was create it!

 

     Day 1:  It’s time to bake!  I baked two 10-inch, two 8-inch, and two 6-inch vanilla cakes.  While they were baking, I made the Buttercream Icing.  After the cakes were baked and cooled, I torted and crumb-coated each one and put them in the fridge to chill a little.

     Day 2:  Today, I iced them with the Buttercream and smoothed the finish.  Now, it was time to cover half of each tier with the camouflaged edible paper.  Well, it shouldn’t be a big deal, BUT…  It was Fall, and the weather was nice and cool (WET but nice if you’re inside).  I am a fairly frugal person most of the time, especially with the air and heat in the house.  With it being Fall and cool outside, I turned off the central air and opened the windows.  A great feeling for me UNTIL I tried putting the edible paper on the cake… It stuck to my fingers and tore and was on the verge of being a disaster.  I tried putting it in the freezer for a minute and putting my hands on an ice pack, but that didn’t help very much.  Well, “a Cake Decorator does what a Cake Decorator has to do” …TURN ON the AIR!!  After the central air pulled the humidity out of the house, ALL was GOOD!!  I VERY carefully covered the Groom’s half of each tier with the edible paper without too much trouble.  Whew!  Disaster averted!

     Day 3: Steve took the unfinished cake, all the stuff to finish it, and me to Rusty’s house. He then went back home to finish preparing pulled pork to use in sliders for the wedding reception, which was finger foods.  I put wooden dowels in each tier to support the one above it and stacked them, being very careful to NOT mess up that edible paper!  Then, I took more Buttercream and made a BARK texture on the “Bride’s” side of each tier.  After that I did a shell border around the bottom of each tier: Vanilla Buttercream shells on the Bride’s side and Chocolate Buttercream shells on the Groom’s side.  Now it was time to roll some white fondant pretty thin for the drapes dividing the Bride’s and Groom’s sides in the front and back of the cake and attach them with a little Buttercream.  The last thing was to place the wooden cake topper on top of the cake and do a shell border around it.  When I was finished with the cake, Jaime and I had a little very special time together!  She had me do her makeup!!

 

               I am so proud of my daughter, Jaime, and the way she perseveres through all of  life's challenges!  Jaime is a loving, gifted person who can do anything  she makes up her mind to do.  She is very talented, working with her mind  as well as her hands.  I am also very proud to have “another son” in  Cliff!  I couldn’t love him more if I had birthed him!  They live on  the farm near me, and that is the most wonderful feeling!  To see her joined with such a GOOD man was a blessing straight form Heaven!  He is a loving, tender-hearted, hard worker and a great provider for his family!  Jaime has four children (1 son and 3 daughters), and Cliff has one daughter,  and they each accept the other one’s children as their own.  To see this  family interact, you would never know they are a “blended family” … the kids respect both parents, and both parents tend to each kid's needs equally.