Rehearsal Party and Groom's Cake

Let me just start out by saying this is all a learning process for me.  I have only taken 4 Wilton classes, but I have searched the net and read tons of books for tips and techniques to help in the process.   Smoothing buttercream onto a cake is still my nemesis, as well as making fondant look smooth and not so lumpy. 

What I do very well is make things taste yummy!  My cakes can be homemade or from a mix (but I use my own directions, never the ones on the box).  On the flip side, my icings and fillings are ALWAYS homemade. 

Which leads me to the yumminess I created this week!

These were baked for a coworker of mine that got married this weekend.  She wanted some of the fabulous red velvet cupcakes for her after-rehearsal dinner gathering. 

My oven, probably being original to my home (yes, we need to upgrade the kitchen), is not the most reliable when it comes to temperature control and smaller items like cupcakes and cookies.  What I have found are these wonderful foil cupcake cups made by Reynolds.  They work beautifully, and I have not had a scorched cupcake since I began using them. 

My coworker also wanted a groom's cake.  She wanted a devil's food cake with an oreo buttercream filling and cream cheese icing.  The decorations were to be Georgia Tech related.   Now, I have made oreo buttercream filling before.  It is always super good.  For some reason, this time it turned out better than ever.  No difference in my recipe.  I have no explanation. 

I had some difficulty with the decorations in the beginning.  Because it was a groom's cake, I didn't want it to be all girly.  I was trying to get some yellow and black rhombi on the side of the cake (think argyle socks). That did not work out too well due to the process needing precise measurements, a perfectly flat sided cake, and a less ambitious design.  So, I ended up pulling it off the cake, making a new batch of icing, and starting over (at 10PM).  Here is what I ended up with.

Originally the GT and Buzz were royal color flow.  They did not dry in time to put on the cake.  So I had to cut them out free hand from fondant.  It actually looked better in fondant anyway.  The oreos were left over from the filling.  I tried to give it a wax melt look with the yellow icing.  Some of it worked, some not so well.  All said and done, I think it turned out well.