Today I'm sharing a few different 50th Anniversary Cakes for you! These vary from fondant to buttercream - some very simple and some more detailed. All are elegant and perfect for the golden anniversary.
Let me tell you about this top one first. Have you ever done more than an hour's worth of cake work in 20 minutes? Haha!! That's what happened with this 50th Wedding Anniversary Cake!
First, I had terrible insomnia the Thursday night before it was due. For me that meant being awake til nearly 4am that Friday morning.
After finally dozing off, it felt like I blinked and my alarm went off at 8am. I hit snooze and when I woke again, it felt like it had only been a few minutes. A glance at the clock told me it was 8:20am.
I flew out of bed and got to work. The cake was not too complicated so I was confident I could still finish the cake before the noon pickup (although I'd be cutting it close).
But a few minutes later when I got into the kitchen, I realized I was wrong. It was 9:20. 😲 Apparently my eyes were a little fuzzy when I looked at the clock in my bedroom. I started scrambling, but I didn't panic. After running through everything in my head, it was still doable.
At least until the client texted and said she was ahead of schedule and would likely be there to pick up the 50th Anniversary cake closer to 11. Uh-oh.
Aaaaack!!! I always give myself WAY more time than needed to finish a cake and this time I had messed up! Doubt started to creep in and I wasn't sure I could finish on time.
I knew I should've got up at 2 or 3am and worked on it when I couldn't sleep. Rarely do I ever wait to start on a cake the morning it's due. But this time I had and gosh, it was gonna kill me.
We kicked it into high gear and started yelling for the kids to help me. One of the boys started looking for ribbon for me (to wrap the board). Another ran to the shed for the box and taped it up. My daughter was making pearls and as soon as she had them done, another son was spraying them gold.
My kitchen was chaos with 5 of us working on different aspects of the cake!
When I knew I wasn't gonna make it to meet her by 11, I called the client and told her I might be a few minutes late.
50th Anniversary Cake
When the cake was done, I snapped 5 pictures (I usually take 10x that many), dropped it in the box and hit the road. By some miracle, I met the client at 11:12am and she'd only had to wait a few minutes... whew!!
I have to say, considering everything, I was really glad to have successfully finished this 50th Wedding Anniversary Cake. Bonus... the client was super sweet about the whole thing and she loved the cake! I was also really happy with how it turned out and grateful that my kids were here and able to help me.
But man... I had to come home and take a nap after that ... haha!
Have you ever had a close call like that? I'd love to hear in the comments.
Here are some details about the cake:
- It was vanilla bean cake with vanilla buttercream.
- The tiers were 6" and 9" round baked in my favorite Magic Line pans.
- It was covered with homemade marshmallow fondant.
- I used a large diamond cookie cutter to make the quilted pattern impressions.
- The pearls were made with First Impressions pearl mold.
- My son sprayed the pearls and the "50" with Wilton Gold Color Mist Spray.
- The 4mm white sugar pearls were the final touch - glued on with sugar glue.
See other anniversary cakes...
This 50th Wedding Anniversary Cake is a combination of rustic buttercream and edible gold sequins. It also had a topper that I added for the last pics:
Next up, a fondant covered 50th Anniversary Cake:
This anniversary cake was hand-painted gold fondant patterns and gum paste magnolia flowers with gold centers. This was a favorite of mine!
This small buttercream anniversary cake was beautiful and easy and I even have a tutorial for making the gold shimmery roses here.
Tamarah
I was stacking a topsy turvy cake on a Friday night about 10pm when I dropped the middle tier! After momentary freak out (read: sitting on the kitchen floor sobbing) I pulled off the fondant, managed to save the cake so no re bake, recovered and had to let it sit until the morning. Up at 6am, called in back up and was still finishing it off when the customer arrived at 830am (half an hour early). She had to watch my friend (another caker) and I finish it off and take a couple photos before I pushed her and the cake of nightmares put of my house!! Never never again!
Margaux
Thanks, Rose! Your cake looks beautiful!
Rose
Thank you!
Laurie
Hi. New to all this. May want make a wedding cake down the road. So how do you get the cake layers so tall? Do you use really deep pans or do you make each a double layer?
Thanks
Rose
Each tier is 2 layers of cake (about 2" tall) plus about half an inch of filling in between.
Kate
It turned out beautiful! I love reading your stories about baking adventures. 🙂
Rose
Thank you Kate!!
Valerie Brownlee
Beautifully decorated cake which looks like it took hours and hours to make because of the quilting and pearls!! I would rather have a rush decorating cake than a cake where the fondant and buttercream won't cooperate -- it seems like everything that can go wrong does.
Rose
LOL - agreed! Thank you!
Laurie
What cake or cupcake stand do you like? I bought an acrylic one but it is very unstable and the bottom broke off where the screw went they the plastic when I moved it.
Rose
Honestly I have dozens of cake stands and a few different cupcake stands. I use different ones for different cakes or displays.
Liz
Such a beautiful cake...Thank you Rose for sharing your stories and beautiful pictures with us. Did u also make the fondant number that morning or was it made and dried like your tutorial?
Rose
I made it that morning. Since it was going to be glued on the side of the cake, it didn't need a long dry time! Thank you!! xx
Tesha
Hi Rose, the cake looks so awesome. Were the pearls and border individually made or was a mold used?
Rose
Thank you!! I used the First Impressions pearl mold - it's linked up in the post 🙂
Diana D
Holy moly! It was a good thing your kids were able to help. It turned out beautifully. I would have been on my own melting in my own tears if that happened to me! Did you at least have the cake baked and crumb coated the night before?
When I was just starting, I made a soda can cake. It took me forever because I was new to everything. When boxing it up, I dropped the cake on the floor and there was no salvaging it. I called the client and luckily, the cake was just for her, her husband (his birthday) and the kids. She was very gracious and let me deliver the cake the next day. If it had been for a party, I think I would have thrown in the towel and never taken another cake order again!
Rose
Wow - Diana - I'd have been a mess too! Yes, I did have my cakes baked, filled, frosted and ready to decorate, thank goodness!
Reshmi Das
Can I use whipped cream instead of fondant?