Daily Foglifter: The Royal Wedding cake had 900 sugar-paste flowers and the Groom’s Cake used 35 lbs. of chocolate.
So I watched the Royal Wedding. I wasn’t going to. In fact, I was going to make a point of NOT watching since I was tired of hearing about it. I’m not English, I’m not especially interested in weddings, and I’m not keen on the idea of getting up at ungodly hours to watch television. I’d made up my mind. Until I started reading a bunch of blogs and discussion forums about it. Everybody was looking forward to it. So I bowed to the peer pressure and I watched it. It was beautiful. The church, the dress, the music–all of it. I was so caught up in it that I took my kids to school almost an hour late. I had to see the kiss on the balcony, right? I’d watched the entire thing and I was going to miss that so my kids could get some learnin’? Not happening.
Despite my reluctance to watch the wedding, there was always one aspect of the whole thing I simply had to see. The cake. I could only imagine how beautiful and intricate it would be. I was not disappointed.
8 Tiered Masterpiece
Royal Wedding Cake Top View
An added bonus! Prince William had a groom’s cake!
Prince William's Grooms Cake--Chocolate Perfection
Coincidentally, I made a wedding cake this week. It wasn’t anything like the perfect specimen above, but it was an entirely different kind of wedding. Much more laid back and informal, as you can see by the cake.
Ball and Chain Wedding Cake
Yes, that is a ball and chain. I love it.
Perhaps you are wondering how one would make such a super awesome cake topper. Well, you’re in luck! Here’s how!
First, you have to decide if you want a cake or a rice crispy treat sculpture. For the sake of stability, rice crispy treats are more practical. A ball cake weighs a lot more and I had to drive the cake to the venue, which was an hour away, in a car with my five kids. Definitely rice crispy treats.
Then, follow the directions on any marshmallow bag or Rice Crispy cereal to make the treats.
Rice Crispy Treats
Then, you shape it into a ball, as tightly packed as possible.
Rice Crispy Treat Ball
Stick it in the refrigerator to harden, remove, and ice with buttercream icing.
Iced Rice Crispy Ball
The next step is to roll out black fondant. This doesn’t look very appetizing, but it is delicious! It’s dark chocolate fondant and it is heavenly.
Dark Chocolate Black Fondant Rolled Out
Then, cover the rice crispy ball.
Rice Crispy Ball Covered in Black Fondant
Now we have the basic ball, it’s time to do the chain links. Do this by rolling pieces of black fondant into ropes and cutting uniform pieces.
Black Fondant Ropes
Link these pieces together, with the ends lightly brushed with water or fondant adhesive to make the fondant pieces stick together.
Ball and Chain Links
Add a hand-crafted fondant manacle, and there you have it!
Ball and Chain Cake Topper
Later this week, I get to make another cake. I’ve gotten a lot of business lately and in addition to bringing in a little extra income to feed my ravenous children, I don’t have to think of new subject matter for The Blog. Life is sweet.
“Affianced –Fitted with an ankle-ring for the ball-and-chain.” ~Ambrose Bierce from “Devil’s Dictionary.”
Momfog 
You are sooooo smart!
I overslept the morning of the wedding. I had convinced myself it wasn’t worth watching – I mean, America won the war, right? So we have no obligation! But I got sucked in. I kept hearing my mom talk about Princess Diana’s wedding, and some girls I babysit for were having a royal party complete with mommy’s old prom dresses, tiaras, and tea cups. And then I overslept.
Luckily my uncle taped it all in anticipation of the ladies of his house oversleeping, too. I have yet to watch it though. Unfortunately gettin’ some learnin’ always has to come first during finals.
Beautiful cake by the way! It’s so creative. I love the idea of rice crispies to hold shape!
Thanks! Yes, you should definitely get some learnin’. My kids are in the last weeks of school and the only thing they missed was probably a movie. Tests are done, now it’s time for fun. Ah, elementary school.
It really was a beautiful wedding. I think it would be a nightmare to actually have that kind of wedding, but it’s nice to look at.
I love your cake posts! Mmmm. I’m also very glad you watched the wedding. Did you see me? It was such a fairytale! I, too, searched for picture of the cake for awhile before I found some. Deliciously wonderful.
Hmmm, I must’ve missed you. Definitely a fairy tale. Kate (we’re on a first name basis now) was absolutely gorgeous.
Wow, you really are genius. As I read I was planning to ask if the Ball and chain were edible. Then I kept scrolling and Lo and Behold!! Thats amazing.
I not only did not watch the wedding, I only read 3 wedding topics. 2 of them were satire so they dont count.
That grooms cake looks to die for.
It’s good form to make as much of the cake edible as is possible. It makes it easier to serve without having to make an announcement. “Don’t eat the flowers! Don’t eat the….” It’s entertaining to watch people cut into a tiered cake. Someone always finds the wooden dowel rods that keep the layers from crushing one another and they always do a double take and get a look on their face like, “Why is there a stick in this cake?” Uh, there’s a stick there so it stays beautiful and not a delicious pile of cake debris.
Tell me you at least saw the dresses? Beautiful. And the hats? Ludicrous! 🙂
I totally set my alarm for that wedding. I had been trying to explain to my kids what the BFD was about it, told them about Diana’s wedding, was all “Princess? Fairy Tale? Happily Ever After?”. They stared at me blankly. Then the night before I heard #2 repeating my speech to the little ones. Day of the wedding, they gradually got up with me on their own, one by one, and we watched it together. It was AWESOME! However, your cake? That’s FRICKIN’ AWESOME!!! Seriously, you are gifted and I love it!
Thank you! My kids didn’t get the wedding either. The 8-year-old girl appreciated the prince/princess part but was completely bored by the singing.
I read some of your blog and wow. I can’t imagine being thrown in the deep end with five children all at once. At least I got to add one at a time. Of course, they are nothing alike. With every new kid comes a new challenge. Good luck!
Here the wedding was in the evening – or should I say, it was evening here when the wedding was on!
WHERE did you find pics of the royal cake??? I’d wondered about it!
Loved the wedding. SO different to Charles and Diana. Kate was relaxed, confident. I have every confidence in them to “make it”. Loved the dress. Hated Diana’s dress, didn’t think Fergie’s was much better when she married Andrew.
LOVE your cake! Now you are getting orders? That are paid for? WOO HOO!! You will have a home business up and running before you know it and be hiring staff to meet the demand!
I found the cake pictures the way I find everything–GOOGLED it. I love Google. 🙂 I feel irrationally optimistic about the success of their marriage, too. It might be wishful thinking, but the wedding was perfect and I would love to see these two restore my faith in real life fairytales. I think the world needs more romance.
Yes, I’m getting orders. I’ve have a cake a week for the entire month of May. That’s six weeks in a row with a cake order. I would love to be able to make it a steady income, especially if I could hire somebody to do the actual baking and icing prep. I HATE that part. I just want to decorate! 🙂
He looked VERY much in love. Not that she didn’t, but he just looked totally smitten!
Love your Ball and Chain cake which takes “for better or worse” to new heights. You are so clever and good luck with your cake empire! Keep cooking, and writing!
I can’t take credit for the idea. There’s a lovely cake decorating site called cakecentral.com Cake decorators are kind enough to share their ideas.
Living in Australia the ‘wedding’ hours for me were much more civilized I’m so glad they could accomodate me like that ! LOL
I’m not a royalist either, it was strange it was like something compelled me to watch it, I did think ahead though, I avoided getting too saturated prior from the media and taped it, then i simply fast forwarded through the boring bits which I admit for me was about 95% lol
Highlights for me, the dress, the coaches and of course ‘That’ Cake… good god, it would have taken so many days/weeks with teams working on it, I would have been absolutely terrified to move it!
I love your ‘Ball and Chain’ cake Fogs, it’s always nice when people want to step outside ‘the box’, well done!!
The kicker is that there were TWO Royal Wedding Cakes, in case something happened to the first. Wonder what they did with the other one?