50th Anniversary Cake... the full story.

It's taken me a full week to get myself together after the saga of the 50 cake. Never have I been so stressed, panicked and depressed as I have about this cake. If ever there was a time I thought I might give up this cake decorating lark, it was making this cake.

So, where did I get to? I put the pretty lace border around the bottom of the cake. Then, because I had to hide the join where I'd covered the top of the cake and then the sides, I put another lace border around the top. Then I decided - and G-d knows what made me do it - to paint them gold. To tie in with the golden anniversary, I guess. OMG! What a mess. It was awful! My husband is very supportive and encouraging. But he kept coming in, staring at it, then walking out. And I was getting more and more frantic. I didn't know what to do.

I've often said we're soul mates, because sometimes we do things, separately, but at the same time. In this instance, as I got up from typing a message on a cake decorating forum I use - asking how hard it would be just to recover the cake and start again - he came in and said to me ' Would it be too much to just recover the cake and start again?'. So I knew that this was obviously what I had to do.

He helped me to remove the cake from the cake board. This in itself wasn't easy, because it had been royal iced in place! I had to be careful not to break the cake (because it was a number 5, it was more delicate than, say, a round or square cake... easier to break!) With the cake, came a load of the icing from the board. So between us, we delicately removed the icing and marzipan from the cake and whilst I recovered the cake, he patched up the cake board. It wouldn't be seen, so it wasn't important that it was patched up. Thank G-d it was a rich fruit cake... I never would have been able to do it with a sponge.

HOWEVER, then another 'disaster'. When I put the cake back onto the board, because I'd re-covered it in an ever-so-slightly different way than how I did it the first time, it was one or two millimeters smaller than it had originally been. And this meant that where I'd painted the bottom lace border gold and there were flecks of gold on the board, you could see it. And you could see where it had been patched up.

I literally paced around with my head in my hands, chanting out loud 'What am I gong to do? What am I going to do?' Then it hit me. I mirrored the lace boarder that was on the bottom of the cake, onto the cake board.

I still didn't know what to do about hiding the join around the top of the 5 cake. I knew I couldn't put a lace border on it, because it would have been too much. So I just did a simple line of piping. I was in two minds about whether or not to pipe around the 0. It was so simple and elegant with such nice lines and a nice shape, that I worried about ruining it. But it had to match the 5. So I did. And it was fine.

So, finally, the end result was - I think - a very elegant, under-stated 50th wedding anniversary cake. There was a single white rose that I'd edged with gold, with a couple of gold leaves. The inscription was piped onto the cake and then painted gold. And the gold ribbon around the cake board also gave it a lift.

It was bloody hard work getting there, but I did get there in the end. I was finally happy with the cake. And, more importantly, the anniversary couple were thrilled with it!