Spanish Tiles

A friend of a friend was getting married soon! The bride-to-be's shower was to be held at an elegant Spanish restaurant, Mi Tomatina. Looking online, I found very little inspiration or help for the perfect cake. In the end I went with the Spanish theme and planned to match the invitation's design, but with brighter colors.

I decided on a square cake with handpainted tiles and gumpaste flowers. I started by picking carnations, as they are one of Spain's most famous flowers. I made red, orange and yellow carnations, following this video from Elaine MacGregor. I didn't, however, have the carnation cutter, so I just used a plain round one and cut little slits around the whole circle, just like Elaine did in the video. I was much happier with how these came out, compared to the only other ones I've made (for a Wilton class almost 2 years ago).

I then made the tiles out of a fondant and gumpaste mixture. I ended up with 23 of the larger tiles and 46 of the smaller tiles. After letting them dry for a couple days, it was time to "paint"! I handpainted each one, the tiles on the front matching the invitation. After working for about 2 hours on those five tiles, I decided to make the rest of the tiles using a less intricate design. After my flowers dried, the color faded quite a bit, so I painted them as well, which turned out much more vibrant. I liked the finished look, especially since the tiles and flowers matched better this way. What do you think?

I was just finishing up as my friend came over to pick up the cake, and the bride-to-be, Emily, was with her. She was so appreciative and loved the cake! Mission accomplished! This was probably the most time consuming cake I've done so far, and even though every detail didn't come out exactly as planned (which never happens anyway!), the result was worth it!

Congratulations Emily and Jeffrey!

Can't wait to see the wedding pictures!