Uga Cake

*Updated 05/2009 to include latest version of our Uga cake - the best yet!

e-mail mmg13@comcast.net for info about ordering!

Anybody remember the groom's cake at mine and Josh's wedding? If you were there, how could you forget? It stole the show.

Josh made this cake. And it's not just a cake. He got the idea to make a 3 dimensional bulldog for his groom's cake, but knew you couldn't just carve a cake into a bulldog. That would be nearly impossible. So, he carved a bulldog out of a giant piece of styrofoam. My brother was working at a sign fabrication shop at the time and was able to help Josh create an abstract bulldog form. He then had to shape it by hand to make all the curves and details. The last step was covering it with a liquid plastic that hardened (we couldn't just serve a cake on top of styrofoam).

Once the form was completed, on to making the cake. Mama helped with the recipe, but Josh and our friend Derrick pretty much made the entire thing themselves. They put me to bed at my parents' house the night before the wedding (Josh and I couldn't see each other past midnight... you know, bad luck). Then Josh, Derrick, Mama, and my maids of honor Miranda and Kiesha stayed up until the wee hours of the morning putting this cake together. It wasn't just a matter of baking the cake, sticking it on the mold and that was it. Josh made the mold so that it had a cut-out on the back of the bulldog, so that the actual cake could be set there. So they baked the rectangular cake and set it on the form. It then had to be carved and shaped so that it meshed with the rest of the dog. Then it was iced. He chose to just do the white icing, rather than trying to make the face, sweater and all that. One, because it was 3am and he had to get up and get married the next day. Two, because we generally prefer more abstract versions of things. Leave something to the imagination, you know?

Here is a picture of the cake once it was cut. See how the back is flat so you can just cut and serve the actual cake easily? Josh is so smart. :)

Like I said, this thing totally stole the show that day. So many people thought it was a statue. Others thought it was entirely cake and couldn't figure out how we did it.

Leading up to the wedding, some were doubtful that Josh was going to be able to pull this off. Even the guy that did my wedding cake said to me, "A 3 dimensional bulldog? Holy shit." And then he gave me his home phone number and said that if there was a disaster and it didn't work out to call him and he'd make us a groom's cake. He wound up putting a picture of the finished product in his photo album in his shop. He was impressed.

(By the way, if you ever need a birthday cake, wedding cake, groom's cake, or are just really in the mood for a good cake (and Mama is all booked up because our bakery is just booming ;) ), call Martin. I highly reccommend the Strawberry Chantilly, White Chocolate Mousse (my wedding cake), and the Paris Brest. Amazing.)

Anyway, so Josh pulled it off. Well.

A few days after our wedding, Mama was at a shower somewhere downtown Douglasville and was telling someone about the cake. Another lady happened to overhear Mama. She said, "I have been searching and searching for someone that does a 3 dimensional bulldog, because that is what my son wants for his groom's cake in a couple of months." Mama wound up walking the lady down to our house and showing her (the remains of) the cake. Yes, it was still sitting in the same place. Hey, we needed some down time after that big event, give us a break. It got cleaned up soon enough. And yes, our reception was at our house, for those of you who didn't know.

Anyway, the lady loved it and wound up renting the form from us. The wedding was in south Georgia, so we didn't actually do the cake for her. She took the form to a bakery in the town where the wedding was, and they made this for her:

After the wedding, the lady called me and asked if it was okay to give out my number to a couple people because they were interested in using the form. I said sure, and we wound up renting it 4 or 5 more times.

The next year, we made another cake for my cousin Carla's wedding. Again, we kept it more abstract, without the face and sweater. We were able to spend a little more time on theirs though, and added the grass and the Georgia "G" to the base. I really love the way it turned out.

So the whole point of me posting this (other than bragging on Josh's artistic abililty) is because the lady has called me yet again and we are doing the actual cake for her son's wedding on May 16th. She does want the face and sweater, so we're a teeny bit nervous about that, but we're confident that we can do it (and hopefully do an even better job than the other bakery did)!

Wish us luck, and I'll post a picture when we do it!