Retroactive Post 1

Dear Friends,

Okay, okay, so I'm cheating a little. For those of you who have been checking for new blog posts, only to be sadly turned away month after month, you might be confused to see this new post dated May 15. Don't worry, it's not you, it's me. My last real-time post was back in March, but a lot of time and events have passed between then and now. So I decided to go back in time and write separate posts to catch you up on various events, rather than writing one giant post to cover the past 6 months. Now without further ado, let's look back at a very special day: May 6, 2017.

This was the day when our friends James and Hetty tied the knot. When they initially approached me to ask if I would be willing to make their wedding cake, I was both honored and frightened. I had only made one wedding cake previously, and if you remember, that cake cutting ceremony ended with the knife blade breaking off and clattering horrifyingly across the floor in front of the dumbfounded guests! Not an experience I would look forward to repeating (wince), although I comfort myself with the notion that it was the fault of the defective cake knife rather than the cake. I eventually said yes to the happy couple and found myself volunteering not only to make the cake, but also to do the entire dessert table.

Many hours of labor and lots of love went into that table. I drove my neighbors crazy with the noise of my mixer powering through 16 batches of Swiss meringue buttercream. On the plus side, I sure did learn how to maximize my efficiency with making SMBC. I learned that the egg whites and sugar can be heated in the microwave in 10 increments of 30 seconds each, instead of on the stovetop. I learned that the mixer must be wrapped in cold towels or ice packs and must be placed in front of a strong fan in order for the hot meringue to cool down within a reasonable time. And I learned that despite all those measures, each double batch of frosting will still take an hour to make when your kitchen is being heated mercilessly by the southern California sun.

I baked about 150 cupcakes, although only a little more than 100 were deemed shapely enough and actually made it onto the dessert table. Due to time constraints, I had to bake them in advance and individually wrap each of them in a double layer of plastic wrap. Somehow, after the shedding of sweat and tears, I managed to find space for all of them in my freezer. I even had to sacrifice those Costco frozen pretzels that Philip likes so much. Sorry hubby!

Then I piped swirls of frosting onto every one of those cupcakes with my aching hand. I ordered, picked up, and trimmed the roses and greenery. I baked, assembled, and decorated the cake, all 10 layers of it, and poked boba straw-encased rose stems into the cake. I spent several minutes freaking out that they didn't look right, and several more minutes frantically patching the rose-induced holes with more frosting. All of those cake stands, decorative boxes, and mason jar candle holders came from home, painstakingly swathed in many layers of bubble wrap. I packed everything into boxes and coolers and made multiple trips down and up the stairs to jam them all into my little sedan. Then I transported them to the venue, sweating like a pig the whole way because I was certain that the cake or cupcakes would fall over at every speed bump or stop sign.

Once at the venue, I grunted and heaved my way through tearing open all the boxes and setting everything up on the table. I was supposed to have time during the cocktail hour to finish setting up in the reception hall. Unfortunately, no one foresaw the tsunami of Korean grandmas and grandpas who would come pouring into the reception area 45 minutes early and start uncovering the buffet food containers themselves, much to the horror of the wedding coordinators. I had to run to the kitchen to get the cake and practically throw it onto the dessert table in front of the guests. Dozens of the guests finished eating before they had even been told they could start, then proceeded to help themselves to the centerpieces and make their getaways before the wedding party had even entered the reception. I had to ask the caterers to help me defend my own vases of flowers from the roving hordes of marauding Korean grandmas, as they were trying to take those too! Those old first-generation Korean-Americans are my parents' people, and I have great affection for them, but they can be frustratingly unruly as wedding guests. I even heard some non-Korean guests watching them with utter consternation and asking, "Is this normal for a Korean wedding?"

So that's how I found myself maniacally racing about to finish the dessert table, all while practically body-checking some sticky-fingered Korean grandmas out of my way. As graceful and pretty as the bride was, and as stately and dignified as the ceremony was, the process of setting up the dessert table was anything but! Yet despite all of the pre-reception hoopla, the dessert table managed to stay intact until the cake cutting ceremony, which was romantic and lovely. James and Hetty enjoyed bites of moist vanilla cake with silky vanilla swiss meringue buttercream, and everyone could feel how much they loved each other and how special this day was.

As night fell, with the cake cutting ceremony over, I was finally able to take a moment to relax and reflect on the day. Lots of people came to tell me that they loved the dessert table, and seeing the smiles on James and Hetty's faces, I felt that it was all worth the effort. Would I do it again? The answer is a resounding maybe! Haha, maybe if I can bring myself to recruit some helpers next time instead of trying to do everything myself, which is my default tendency. In the romantic spirit of a wedding, I do want to say a special thank you to my husband Philip for putting up with the type-A personality frenzies I tend to work myself up into when I'm obsessing over a cake. As with most couples, there are times when we wonder what in the world we've gotten ourselves into with this whole marriage thing. But 99.9% of the time I'm thankful to have you by my side, patiently moving the heavy boxes of cake stands and mason jars when I screech that you put them down 2.5 inches too far to the right. In exchange, I put up with your love of bringing home things you found on the street in front of homeless encampments, and hoarding them in multiple piles that are organized by a system that only you understand. After all, marriage is a partnership, and it's worth all the hard work; lots of hard work; so much hard work! =P

Thank you for sharing the sweet life with me.

Blessings,

Michelle ^_^

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