Steampunk Wedding Cake

A friend of mine was married on Halloween 2009. I made her wedding cake. It was a rich, dense chocolate cake with whipped ganache icing and raspberry filling. It was darn tasty.

The cake was covered with fondant, then I painted it with grey petal dust mixed with vodka, then dusted with silver luster dust. The gears on the sides were stamped onto the finished tiers by dipping real gears into amythest luster dust/vodka paint and stamped onto the sides.

The ivy is gumpaste. The leaves were cut out and veined with a tool meant for forming clay, then dried over various supports to create the curves and dusted with silver luster dust.

The roses were formed over the course of about three weeks from gumpaste, then dusted with gold luster. Each rose took between twenty and thirty minutes to form. These roses were my first attempt at gumpaste flowers.

The topper was formed from gumpaste and sugar, with the gears inside individually cut and painted. I've also posted a closeup of the watch.

The stand was actually three silver serving trays with the second and third tier elevated on candlesticks, to create the spiral movement and with the added benefit of being able to take the stand apart and use the components in the future. Loose petals were scattered on the serving table.

My friend was having a wedding subtly steampunk inspired. Thus the muted colors on the flowers and ivy, the metallics, the gears on the sides and, of course, the pocketwatch topper. There's nothing more steampunk than a pocketwatch.

The cakes took one afternoon to bake. The roses and leaves were formed over a period of three weeks before the wedding. The watch, and the final painting and assembly were completed over fourteen hours the day before. Total cost of materials: between $100 and $200.

tl;dr version: Look, a cake!