In September 2011 my wife Lindsay and I got married in beautiful location, Castle Lachlan on Loch Fyne. We had a wonderful day and meal. We only had a starter and main course as the wedding cake was for dessert. Being a pastry chef and constantly making cakes and desserts for others to eat and enjoy, it was a great feeling to make my own wedding cake, however I was unaware that my wife didn’t just want one wedding cake, she wanted three and a selection of macarons for wedding favours.

The cakes were a Raspberry Charlotte, a Milk Chocolate and Salted Caramel Peanut Tart and for the main cake a Dark Chocolate and Hazelnut two tiered entremet.

Here is the assembly of one of the cakes, one of my wifes favourites the Raspberry Charlotte. It was made up of layers of Raspberry Mousse, Biscuit Cuillere soaked in Raspberry Liqueur Syrup and Fresh Raspberries.

I wanted to do some really nice chocolate decoration as the cakes themselves were kept simple. I chose to do a white chocolate flower for the top of the main cake and large green leaves for the caramel tart. The white chocolate petals were created by piping lines of tempered white chocolate onto strips of greaseproof paper, laying another piece of paper on top and using your finger flattening out the chocolate, this was then rolled and left to crystallize. The flower was then assembled using tempered white chocolate and cooling spray.

As for the green leaves, this affect was achieved by painting red and green coloured cocoa butter onto acetate followed by a thin layer of tempered white chocolate and then a thicker layer of tempered dark chocolate to help support the weight of the large curls. The shape was then cut out using a knife and the acetate was wrapped around a cylinder tube and left to crystallise.

Below is a test of the white chocolate flower, the final one had a lot more petals to it and the final rolls of green leaves.

      

1. Jivara Milk Chocolate, Salted Caramel and Salted Peanut Tart with the Green Chocolate Leaves and a selection of macarons.
2. Raspberry Charlotte, Biscuit Cuillere and Fresh Raspberries.
3. Dark Chocolate and Bourbon Vanilla Mousse, Dark Chocolate Cremeux, Praline Feuillete, Toasted Hazelnut Dacquoise, Almond Sponge Cake, White Chocolate Leaf.

The macarons for wedding favours were; Pistachio, Raspberry, White Chocolate with Raspberry Pepins and Milk Chocolate and Passion Fruit wrapped in a cellophane bag with each persons name on a tag and used for place settings.