Purdey & Ian’s Wedding Dessert Tower

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Congratulations to Purdey & Ian for tying the knot. I had the honour of creating their wedding dessert tower to complement their theme colour blue and their quaint, medieval venue at Avalon Castle, Cockatoo. From the get go, Purdey and Ian wanted a tower; a tower filled not with cupcakes but individual desserts served in clear wine goblets (disposable versions). Black Forest was their choice of dessert following a tasting session with me and I found it delightfully apt that this continental dessert has medieval connotations owing to it’s Germanic origins so it was a very appropriate choice. However,  I didn’t want to make classic Black Forest which was chocolate sponge, whipped cream and sour/maraschino cherries. I was after something more decadent that still stayed true to the chocolate cherry combination so the end result was a base of pastry cream, chocolate mudcake, luscious belgian milk chocolate ganache, black cherry compote and sprinklings of white and dark chocolate curls and shavings.

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Crowning the tower is a top cake – a chocolate mudcake with vanilla italian buttercream covered in royal blue sugarpaste surrounded by a gold satin ribbon border. A bespoke sculpture perched on top -it is to date, my most challenging sugarpaste piece. Initially, the brief called for a horse since Ian was ‘knighted’ Sir “Stallion King” by his close friends from his uni days. Purdey in jest, showed me a photo of a knight topper and the light bulbs went a-blinking in my mind – robust horse, gallant knight in shining armour with his queen; although you could say the resulting topper was a modern representation (chuckles) of a bride queen/princess with her knight. Every inch of the topper apart from the bride’s dress (lace) was constructed out of edible materials, sugarpaste, chocolate paste and the frame of the horse was a base of rice puffs set with melted marshmallows, butter and golden syrup. A little Rottweiler pup represented their dog Roxie. Post-wedding, I have removed the topper, reattached it on a cake board, sprayed it with food glaze and it will serve as a display piece for many years to come (well, unless Roxie gets to it :P)

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The wedding ceremony was beautiful, intimate and laidback, set in a picturesque venue albeit a fair distance to travel for me and J. It took us close to 90 minutes one way with 3 or so casualty desserts from the winding road. But fear not, I was prepared and we had spares. Phew! Thank you Purdey and Ian for letting me be a part of your wedding. J and I would like to wish you a long and happy marriage – Long live the King and Queen! 😛

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Table Setting

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The castle’s coat of arms on a shield

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The married couple taking a stroll on the castle’s front lawn

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