Made a trial run and it was so good that 8 WOMEN polished off a 3" high 10" cake in one sitting - no kidding. Used the marble rum scented cake on epicurious as the base cake, with a rum flavored simple syrup to keep it moist. I baked one cake in a 10 pan, then when cool, cut off the top to get a nice flat base and split the cake into two layers. I made a rum flavoured chocolate mouse as the filling between the layers then froze the cake for a couple of ours. I used my buttercream frosting recipe with vanilla and rum (double quantity) and did a crumb coat followed by 20 minutes in the fridge, then piped the roses. That was a bit of a challenge. The ones on the side kept falling off. Finally got them to stick by pushing in a little with the bag but then I lost the wrist movement so they didn't come out so well. The top was fine but as Tracey says, spacing was an issue. For the shower cake I am planning on doing the OUTSIDE ring of flowers first then filling in the center. After all that, I forgot to take a picture of the finished cake but my kids were yelling that it was better than Cake Boss LOL (and they love him so much my 11 yo DS called to order a birthday cake from them - thank Gd he didn't have my cc LOL and couldn't really place it but that's another story) Here's my frosting recipe: 10 oz. butter, room temperature 1/8 tsp. salt 20 oz. icing sugar 1 Tbsp sour cream 1-2 tbsp. flavoring, vanilla, lemon, rum etc beat butter on low for 1 minute then gradually increase speed to 10 and beat for 5 minutes. Dump in entire amount of sugar and stir to incorporate. Add sour cream and flavorings and beat on med-high for 2-3 minutes. Switch to whisk and whisk for 8-10 minutes on high. it pipes borders and stars etc like a dream, but to pipe rose petals etc, either chill down your piping equipment or fill your piping bag with the buttercream then place it in the fridge for 5 minutes, this just solidifies the butter enough to pipe stiffer roses or more detailed work - if possible place cake back in fridge - 20 mins is sufficient to set the shape - it's not necessary, sometimes there isn't time, but it certainly aids in the portability of the cakes

Woodie, I'm so happy to see you here again, I miss you! Sol, I'll help for Sam's wedding. My cake baking skills are nothing close to yours but I could mix batter or bring the mojitos or SOMETHING... Thank you, everyone. I was pleased with the way everything turned out and doubly pleased that the fondant bow made it there intact. The hearts inside the cupcakes. OK, I hate to admit that it was actually easy, I'd love to fib and tell you it was all difficult and technical. Bake a sheet cake layer of red velvet cake, cut hearts with a small cookie cutter, it has to be small enough to fit down inside the cupcake. Put a spoonful of batter into the cupcake paper or pan, set the heart into it and fill with batter, making sure the heart is covered with batter. Bake again, check for doneness slightly toward the edge. The only trick is that you have to mark the cupcake so you know which direction to cut or you just have a red glob visible from the side view, LOL. This would work with bunnies for Easter, trees or bells for Christmas, Shamrocks for St. Pat's, whatever strikes you and you have a cookie cutter for. It was actually more difficult to get the Snickers bars not to sink into the bottom of the cupcake, we had to eat a couple of batches before I figured out to freeze the candy before plopping it into the middle of the unbaked cupcake. It was a difficult job, but had to be done. (grin) I did have some dedicated volunteers that helped me with that one..... Annie

I know that but it's no fun to see her drag her kids into it. I'd love to grab her, shake her or pound her head against a wall and yell "look what you are doing to your kids!!" " Don't you care????" and I know that I can't. Her relationship with her kids is her business but it doesn't make it any easier to watch. If she had called me, that's one thing. But, she involves SD by asking me through her daughter and she does that a lot. She's also got SD very excited about the wedding and SD brings it up frequently. I could be wrong, but I believe she has created a fantasy in SD's mind that everything will be wonderful when she marries BF... they'll be a family & she can go live there with them, etc. but that isn't going to happen. The craziest part of all, she HATES when SD and I get along. (more insecurity about that) but the more she ignores SD, as time goes on, SD turns to me more & more. I not only spend more time with SD, but I talk to her, I listen to her and even though she has an attitude with me, she knows she can count on me when she needs me. As she is realizing that, she has less attitude with me and we are actually becoming closer because of the way BM treats her. That only upsets BM even more, but instead of giving SD more attention, she has chosen to give less time & attention. It's really sad all the way around. I've also noticed other things she does to mimic our (DH & me) life. We ride ATV's, she went out & bought new ATV's for everyone last Christmas. We went to San Francisco for a weekend, she was going to do the same. We have an SUV, she went out and bought an SUV as soon as she moved there, even though her BF has a mini van that would accommodate all of them. She already had a new truck that her mom repossessed a few weeks ago. We've gone on a few cruises & now she's talked of wanting to take a family cruise. It's really humorous at times. She has no job, her BF's motorcycle & his kids dirt bikes were repossessed, her mom took back the truck she signed for because BM wasn't making the payments, they are about to be evicted & she can't or won't pay the $216 a month in support or any of the medical bills, but she is planning a grand wedding & all these trips. I think it's all in her head & she wants to create an illusion that she has a perfectly wonderful life. I'm not sure if she sees reality slapping her in the face... or if she just pretends it isn't happening. It will go away?

I had to read this twice. Looks like from the second post that the OP did not encourage the family to attend the wedding - the 'adult' part of her simply decided not to push the issue and agreed not to attend, herself. Dirtunder, are you upset by the events, or are you upset by the silence? Sometimes the elephant in the room left undiscussed is far more painful then the event itself. At any rate, we all benefit by setting emotions aside and by learning how to talk to our families about what upsets us. BTW, is anyone talking about the fact that brother is an alcoholic and had (has) sexual boundary issues? This seems like a forest through the trees topic to me.