Black and White Wedding Cake with Gumpaste Calla Lilies

This is probably ranks among our best ever cakes, in my opinion at least.  It is from a while back, but every now and then I run across something that needs to come out of the archives.  This was a cake that I absolutely adored. 

For the sides we just used the lace technique for the top and bottom tiers, and put some black scrolling on the middle tier.  White sixlets (wedding section at Hobby Lobby) were used in the piping around the bottom and top of each tier, plus the middle of the middle layer. (Hah, middle of the middle).

I made gumpaste lilies using the cone shaped forms from Wilton, the Wilton Gumpaste mix, and a lily cutter (basically a glorified heart shape cutter).  All you do is cut the lily shape, roll it out thinner if needed, wrap it around the form with the point side toward the wide base of the form, and wet the edges and stick together.

They can, and should, be made days in advance. Gumpaste needs at least 24 hours to dry.  I also dyed some yellow and made little centers to go in them.  You can buy the plastic ones if you know for sure that little kids won't try to eat them.

The cake is on a three tier stand that is easy to remove the layers, which is really helpful if someone there has to cut it.  Taking a cake apart is no fun when it is a stacked cake.  I like stands like this from a decorating standpoint as well because it gives you another dimension in the top of each layer to decorate, which I find more visually interesting. The back is wrapped in white tulle to make the stand attractive.

Happy crafting!