the pork pie wedding cake topper

It may seem like a complete non-sequeter to some that my first post in 5 months is a ramble about kosher pork pies.  Not so.  Firstly, in keeping with the porcine metaphor I made a real pig’s ear of upgrading my blog last October, resulting in what Jeanne called a misunderstanding with my blogging platform.  Nicely understated that.  The English would understand.  I, however was unable to comprehend the true extent of my incompetence, and was left blundering around in the blogging wilderness until the ever amazing Andrea took pity on me.  I tell you, the woman is a web code wunderkind.

Result:  I’m in from the cold and back posting again, with a few modifications and the aforementioned upgrade all nicely in place.  Thank you again Andrea.

Secondly, the pork pie is not really a pork pie.  It is the top tier of a 3 layer wedding cake, made of rich fruit cake covered in marzipan and hand painted fondant icing .  And I’ve been dying to post about it since before I crashed my site.

Remember 07’s menu for hope.  I donated a 3 tier wedding cake.  Well , it was won by a blogger in France, who gave it to her niece as a wedding gift.  I completed the cake just before I left England, bound for African shores, last October.

The brief was not to look like a wedding cake.  The bride wanted 3 individual cakes, incorporating jewel tones and an autumn theme.  After that she left it up to me.  Pretty brave of her really, as by the time she saw the cakes I had already left the country.  The other two layers are pictured below.  One I covered in autumn leaves and gold dust, and the other was a deep regal turquoise with berry brambles crawling all over it.

I was on tenterhooks waiting to hear from her, as I was really unsure how my slightly offbeat vision would strike her.  I can still feel the sigh of relief when I received this.

Ali, I’m sorry I missed your and Tom’s big day in November, but  I hope it was everything you wished for.  I am so glad your Aunt won the prize for you and I’m really pleased that such a good cause had such a happy ending all around. 

I coudn’t participate in Menu for Hope last year, but I fully intend to pull my blogging weight this year and pitch in again for Menu for Hope 2009.

In the meantime, the South African Blog awards are taking nominations now, so make sure you do some visiting and voting.  Jeanne was a winner last year and I’m heading over to her to see who is in the running this year.  Good luck to you all, and I’ll be round to visit soon.

PS.  I’m rebuilding my blogroll from scratch.  So if you notice you’re not on it, send me a friendly nudge and I’ll sort it out.

xx african vanielje

PPS. I’ve posted recipes for my fab fruit cake before, and you can check out my gallery for more pics of Ali & Tom’s autumn wedding wonder cake.

Happy Birthday to you!

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Darling Nor!

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with love from wet and rainy Somerset.

See you soon!