5 Layers for 5 Years

5 years...wow how the time has flown by. It seems like just yesterday Randolph and I were getting married at the Middleton Place Plantation in Charleston, SC. Our wedding was outside, it was approx 97 degrees and to say it was hot is an understatement. It was HOT, humid & sticky, sweat was pouring and bugs were everywhere...and when I say everywhere I mean in every single layer of my wedding dress. But I wouldn't change a thing about that day. It was at a beautiful venue in our favorite city and we were surrounded by our friends and family and wonderful memories!

Over the past five years so much has changed, but I won't bore you with all the details of my life the last 1825 days! Today we are just going to focus on cake! Ah yes, good old wedding cake, the other love of my life! Who would have thought five years after enjoying my 4 tiered round yellow butter cake with butter cream icing wedding cake (was that enough cake terminology for you in one sentence!) that I would now not only be addicted to indulging in a slice of cake almost daily but also in baking and decorating them too!

I was excited to try a new decorating technique with this cake and just love the end result. Using a Wilton tip #18 I piped on rosettes in rows all the way around. Tip #18 is a star tip so you just start by squeezing out a star and then gently rotate your piping bag while squeezing icing clockwise to 9:00, on to 12:00, then 3:00 then 6:00 and finishing off the circle. Super simple!

And since we are celebrating the big 5 year marker a 3-layer cake just wasn't going to do. 5 years = 5 layers of cake right? I wanted to make us a cake that reminded me of our wedding cake, only not nearly as large. Immediately I thought of Sweetapolita as the perfect place to find an amazingly delicious cake recipe. Afterall, she is the queen of beautifully decorated layer cakes. I made her Yellow Buttermilk Cake and oh my it is delicious, moist and buttery! Since her recipe called for a chocolate fudge icing and I wanted a more traditional buttercream I decided to go with this Marshmallow Buttercream frosting I found on Jessicakes. This icing is light and fluffy and I love the sweetness from the marshmallow cream! These two recipes paired so nicely together and I would highly recommend both of them!

Since our wedding was outside I decided it was only appropriate to take these cake photos outside today, temps in the high 90s, I'm dripping sweat while trying to get the perfect shot, flies are swarming the cake, buttercream is melting...it all makes perfect sense right??? Then my little fly friend landed on the cake for his afternoon sugar fix and I just couldn't resist snapping a photo! Let's just say after this mini and very rushed photo shoot today I have a new found respect for wedding photographers, especially my poor photographers that had to be tormented in the Carolina heat 5 years ago snapping hundreds of pictures for my special day!

And just in case you were trying to envision what my wedding cake looked like from my ramblings above...well wonder no longer I have searched my photos and found a picture of us cutting the cake!

Happy Anniversary R! Looking forward to our road trip this weekend filled with camping and our final destination at the Middleton Place for a few days! Love ya!