Coconut cakes for 3 weddings and a birthday party

Birthday Coconut cake for Anne's grandma 

On Friday night we were invited to go our daughter in laws mom's house for a dinner party. Our daughter in law, Anne and our son Josh, came  into town earlier in the week for the birth of our first grandchild from our first born daughter, Joy.

I was asked to make a coconut cake. Anne's grandma was having a birthday and word was out she was waiting for this cake every since Josh and Anne's wedding.You cannot see in the picture but there are tiny pink pearl candies all over the cake. Grandma ate her cake enthusiastically and gladly went home with the remainder of the cake.

Joy and Tim 2012

Joy's wedding cakes

I  have had my share of making coconut cakes for our kids weddings. First to get married was our oldest daughter, Joy, in 2012.  I made three, 3 layer 10 inch cakes and a huge sheet cake. I took 3 Wilton cake decorating classes at Joann Fabrics 2 months before the wedding. I was not very good at baking or decorating a cake. Taking these classes gave me the confidence I needed to make these cakes. I had a great teacher who really liked to explain things in detail. The class was small, so I got a chance to really learn. We had a to make a cake every week, so I quickly learned how to do everything. I spend a ton of money on supplies, but it was well worth the investment, because I  have continued to make cakes since then. My husbands side of the family is quite large, so there is always some kind of party almost every month.


              I have made coconut cakes from scratch, but for weddings I like to use Duncan Hines coconut cake mix. I bought 6 boxes of the cake  mix. My daughter, Joy, helped me mix and bake the cakes. I didn't have enough room in my  house to make and store all the cakes, so i transferred everything to my husbands parents house which was vacant at the time. We followed directions on the box. We put the batter in two 8 x 2 inch round cake pans. I coconut pudding in between the layers and stacked the cakes. I made wilton frosting from scratch using this recipe. I made a ton of frosting because I had so many cakes to decorate and frost. I made the white flowers out of royal icing a week before the wedding.The pink cake was decorated using the ruffle technique using tip number 103. It took a little bit to learn how to do this. I practiced on other surfaces before attempting on cake
                   So we baked all the cakes, cooled them, leveled them, crumb coated them and wrapped them up to put in the fridge 2 days before the wedding. I started decorating the cakes the day before the wedding going into the wee hours of the night after the rehearsal dinner. I continued to decorate the cakes the day of the wedding all the way up to the time of the wedding.  
               I packed up all the cakes in the truck and drove and prayed all the way that they wouldn't shift where they were. It was a 30 minute ride to the wedding site and i went slower than normal in case of hitting an unknown pothole. I go to the wedding site and set the cakes up, changed my clothes, and walked in time for the wedding. Wow!;.
             When it came time for the reception I went over to the cake table to check out the cakes and was horrified to find the back side of the ruffle cake had completely fallen and was hanging by a thread. My classes had taught me to come prepared with utensils in case of repair. I carefully lifted the entire section and stuck it back to the side of the cake. wow..that was close.
 Here is the link for a tutorial on how to do the ruffle technique

http://iambaker.net/christmas-tree-cake-tutorial/
   

Josh and Anne's cakes  Jan 2014

                  For Josh and Annes cakes I again used the coconut cake box mix.  My friend, Claudia baked the cakes for me at her house. Once they were cooled and ready to transport, I brought them to my  house the next day to begin frosting. We also made 2 lemon blueberry and raspberry cakes
           I crumb coated the cake using the wilton buttercream frosting recipe. I set that aside for a half hour to set and stiffen. My daughter in law requested that I use Publix frosting on the outer layer of the cake. So I bought 2 one pound tubs of frosting and began decorating the side. I put icing in a bag with a 12 tip and made a vertical line of dots. I then used an angled spatula and and pressed into each dot and pulled horizontally about an inch and lifted the spatula off the cake. My son Jason and daughter Jessica helped me with this so it would get done quicker. After a row was done I made another line of dots and repeated the same technique. Here is a link for a youtube video for petal technique.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WASVWn4nN6w
                  I used burlap ribbon which i backed with wax paper with a glue gun and then stuck the ribbon around the cake with piping gel and frosting. I bought wood chip flowers I found at Hobby Lobby as the main flowers. Other flowers were made of burlap and lace.
I used this 2 tutorials as a base for what I wanted to do.
http://plectrumbanjo.info/flower-wedding-cake-topper/handmade-rustic-burlap-flower-wedding-cake-topper-set/
http://graceleecottage.blogspot.com/2013/10/a-simple-burlap-flower-tutorial.html

Josh and Annie Jan 2014

Jessica and Istva, South Africa, March 2014

                Now for Jessicas wedding, I ran into several problems. I wanted to take my cake supplies with me to Capetown, but my husband said we would buy what we needed over there. The day after we arrived we went shopping for everything. We got mostly everything except crisco which they do not sell there. I finally ended up using a similar product but the equivalents weren't the same and it was a nightmare for me to change from to liters, grams, etc.. Luckily, Francois, Jessica's soon to be father in law is a chemist and brought his mathematical brilliance to the table and converted everything for me. We all thought that spring release pans would work just fine.. well, I guess if they worked it would have been ok..but when we poured the batter in the pans, every one of them leaked. I was fit to be tied, because we were baking the cakes late at night. You see, in Cape Town in March it is very hot and still very hot after the sun goes down. My daughter's mother in law, Ree, saved the day and called a friend of hers that let us borrow some 10 inch pans which  worked out remarkably well.
              After the cakes had cooled I leveled the cakes with a knife. Somehow, ever since the flight to Capetown my cake leveler got bent in my suitcase. When I tried to use it in Capetown it would not level straight. Jesss's father in law, Francois, got out his blocks and put them beside the cake at the height we needed to level the cake. He then took a long serated knife and held it on top and parallel to the blocks and leveled the cake for me. He was such a big help. He had an interest in knowing how to ice a cake smooth. So he watched me do it once and then did it himself. I was quite impressed. Not very often you meet a man who has an interest in learning how to ice a cake.


              I was running out of time to decorate the cakes, so my daughter in law Anne, offered to help. That was so kind of you Anne.This was not her favorite thing to do and found it tedious to do, but willingly helped me. Thank you so much Anne. I would still be decorating the cakes if you hadn't helped.  Again, I used the petal technique on one cake and put fresh roses on top of the cake. The other cake we painstakingly put pearl candy beads all over the cake and topped the cake with a topper that has been passed down from my husbands mothers wedding. I had to help the bride out by making her a new skirt out of the same material Jessica's wedding dress was made out of. So that is the story of my coconut cakes.

the arrival of Baby James

Baby James, baby and mom, Rita and baby, Jessica and baby

Jason and baby, Dad and baby, baby James, Greg, baby, Tim

  My daughter, Joy, just had her first child on August 26th at 4:41 am. I thought perhaps she would deliver early, since all of mine were 2 weeks early. We began to prepare 3 weeks in advance in case this happened. As the weeks dragged by and we passed her due date, we began to wonder when he would be born.  8 days past her due date baby James arrived. Mother and baby are beautiful to behold. My daughter was a trooper and endured a long labor while her husband and dula stood by  her side.

All of our children arrived at different times to see baby James. Jessica, our youngest surprised me one week before the baby was born and flew in from Australia. Jason, flew in a couple of days before her due date and when no baby arrived he returned to work. He flew back in after the baby was born and stayed over labor day weekend. Our son Josh, and his new bride, Anne came in the day before Joy delivered and stayed a week. It was so nice to everyone here for this event. Yes, Rita's restaurant was once again open...but I secretly love it.

Now, on to the baby. It is so wonderful to hold this precious child.  Our last and 5th child, Jeremy, was only with us 5 days before he went to be with the Lord. It was a traumatic pregnancy, knowing full well that there was a problem with the development of Jeremy's brain. After his passing, I just could not hold another baby for a long time. It wasn't until 10 years had passed that I recieved healing for my wounded heart in this area. 23 years have now passed since we lost Jeremy and when I held baby James, another healing has begun to take place in my heart. It is a joy to hold him. I loved nursing my children.. that wonderful mommy drug that happens when you nurse puts you in such a peaceful bliss....holding baby james is much like that without having to nurse. I am at complete peace when i hold him in my arms and he is sleeping. Only our loving heavenly Father can orchestrate something like that.