The story of the wedding cake (day 3)

Hurrah! The exciting day of construction and decoration has arrived!

1. I inserted dowel rods into the bottom two tiers to support the tiers to be placed above them, so that the sponge would not have to take the weight.  

2. I then inserted a long dowel rod through the centre of the bottom tier, which would act as a central skewer, keeping all three tiers securely together...

... then lowered the middle tier onto the rod...

... and then added the top tier.

I offset the tiers slightly to the back of the cake, so that there would be slightly more openness to the front of the cake.

3. I then made the final touches to the finish of the icing, smoothng and polishing it well.

4. Finally, the most fun part: decoration! Red and gold are the traditional colour for Hindu ceremonies, so I started with a sheer red ribbon to the bottom of each of the tiers, as this was a good way to tidy the joins between tiers without using piped royal icing. I thought this would give the cake a more contemporary feel.

5. I then started to add the gold leaves and red roses, using an edible glue adhesive. Some of the larger, heavier roses were more difficult to attach in this way, so I used royal icing. This seems to give a more sturdy hold even than purpose-made edible glue.   

6. I made a small mound of roses and leaves on top of the top tier, and then a small bunch of roses on opposite sides of the bottom two tiers - nothing too symmetrical, as I preferred a more natural look.

Here is the finished item.