Ramblings of a Cake Maker: purple butterfly wedding cake

Mr & Mrs W were hitched in April 2012. They had a fabulous purple themed butterfly wedding and a good time was had by all!

They decided to have their special day at The Bridge Inn Walshford, just outside of Wetherby. Mrs W had me putting organza swags up on the morning whilst the groomsmen hovered around looking dapper and my daughter sashayed around in her flower girl outfit.

As Mr Mc was an usher, that kinda left me to my own devices for most of the day, so instead of hiding in the background, I made new friends! I sat down for the ceremony with my new "friend" and for some unknown reason developed the dreaded "inappropriate giggling". I couldn't actually explain why, but a sharp look from Mr Mc put me firmly back on track... just in time for the ceremony to start... Cue my little princess looking nervous coming in leading the way for the big bridesmaids, and then... The Bride herself... Nothing to giggle about here, because she looked stunning! Well done Mrs W!

Mr & Mrs W didn't have many clear ideas about what kind of cake they wanted. They knew they wanted heart shaped, and they knew they wanted white, purple & silver... That's it. So, I surprised them instead!

My ego was pumped that day! most of the guests approached me asking if I was the cake lady. To which I sheepishly replied "ys" and as the day went on, my head grew and grew with the compliments, and I suddenly became a diva by the end of the night....
"Are you the cake lady?"
"Yes I am! Would you like a business card? Oh no, sorry I have run out. Probably because of all the interest I have generated with my masterpiece! I make cakes don't you know?"

I think the wine also contributed to my new found confidence too :-/

However, swiftly moving on... The butterflies. As I mentioned before, I love patchwork cutters, and I bought a set of the butterflies, ladybirds and bees set to make the butterflies. I made bodies out of petal paste and wired them up. I then cut out the butterflies from the same paste and left to dry on some card I had made into a concertina so that the dried in more of "V" shape rather than flat.

After 48 hours I dusted them with some lustre dust in varying tones of pink, blue, lilac and purple. I then held them over a bubbling saucepan to steam them so that the colour set. Oh and I painted the bodies with a dust/rejuvenating spirit mix in a golden yellow.

I then left them for another 48 hours as the steam would have softened the wings a little and I didn't want to start adding the detail onto soggy wings as I would have had an outstanding amount of casualties!

The detail I added involved mixing rejuvenating spirit with appropriately coloured lustre dusts in tones of violet and indigo. I added edges to the wings, spot details and anything that took my fancy really... I also added a bit of purple glitter here and there for a bit of sparkle!