29 August 2013

It's a nice day for...

So, here we go. Some details :)

Cake!

Like I said in comments, bottom was rich fruit cake, chocolate and Brandy. Lots of Brandy. Really, lots. I reckon I could have set my breath on fire!

Top was chocolate sponge with chocolate and raspberry filling, in two places - so, three bits of cake, two layers of gooey choccy raspberry. Not that I got to try much, as a certain cake-devouring boy was there..

Anyway, we had a bit of a purple theme, but we didn't want anything too....showy.


There you go.

We got married in Oscar Wilde's old club, Kettners... famed for it's risque parties, once! It was lovely. Perfect. A beautiful room for the ceremony, then a bar and larger area for after. And there's an 'apartment' where John, Mycroft, Murray, Sherlock and I all got prepped and changed and ready. It has a secret entrance!

Everything was just...amazing.

Here's the Champagne Bar -


:)

85 comments:

pandabob said...

that all sounds and looks amazing and I can understand Sherlock being eager to eat the cake :-)

Thanks for sharing details of your perfect day, you're very kind :-)

Greg Lestrade said...

That's okay - you won't get every detail ;)

The place was stunning. As soon as we went there I loved it. Perfect mix of casual but with enough presence for the occasion!

Joolz said...

The pics of Kettners look gorgeous, I'm sure it was just perfect and the apartment looks fabulous, I love all that old style - I'm sure certain younger members of the party were also thrilled with having a secret entrance.
The cake looks amazing too, almost like an elegant top hat, totally in keeping with the decor. Thank you for giving us an insight into your special day, it's lovely to be able to share your joy with you.

Are we allowed to ask if you also followed through with the purpleness, John, after admitting that Greg did... ;)

pandabob said...

I am so very glad we won't be getting every detail Greg ;-)

Getting married in a place that feels just right is lovely :-) I still can't stop smiling at you two being so happy :-D

Small Hobbit said...

The cake looks and sounds wonderful. As does the whole wedding. Thank you for providing us with the details we need know.

Greg Lestrade said...

I admit I was quite jealous of anyone who can ice a cake so perfectly!

Feel free to ask anything you want - just be prepared for us not to answer it ;)

pandabob said...

Right now I'd admit to being jealous of anyone who can get a cake out the tin without it becoming crumbs ;-)

John H. D. Watson said...

It was delicious, too. (both cake and champagne)

Greg Lestrade said...

AnonyBob - what sort of cake? What sort of tin?

Greg Lestrade said...

(sorry, being nosy because I haven't baked anything for ages...)

Danger - it was lovely. As are you :)

pandabob said...

sponge cake in a motorbike shaped tin, its now a serious motorbike crash on my counter although it tastes quite nice ;-)

REReader said...

Oh, wow, what an absolutely perfect place for your wedding!

And that cake photo and description is making me very hungry, chocolate and raspberry, oh my! :) I love that it's so tailored, just right!

Did the dogs take part in the dancing? :)

Greg Lestrade said...

Bike tin? Excellent choice! You can always say it's my old bike after I came off it. Just add a patch of strawberry jam nearby that's me ;)

Is it a metal tin? Non stick? What did you do to it? Butter it? Flour?

Twenty questions this is, now ;)

pandabob said...

yep bike tin, Tiny has good taste ;-)

I did think about the crash thing but I'm sure your bike couldn't have looked this bad!!

Its none stick, apparently, and I put butter and flour on it but it really didn't work. I'm just glad I gave myself the morning to have another go :-)

Greg Lestrade said...

definitely never trust a non stick tin - I always grease and flour them too!

Sorry it didn't turn out...sounds like you did everything right. You can get all elaborate and swill melted butter around, then sugar and flour...but that's probably going a bit far!

Good luck :)

pandabob said...

I might try the melted butter in the morning and if that fails I'll buy a toy motorbike, make a flat cake and stand it on it :-) she'll have a toy to play with afterwards as well that way :-)

Thanks for the advice, its nice of you :-)

Greg Lestrade said...

No problem. And good idea on the alternative :)

John has just grabbed me and told me I am not about to bake scones... honestly, I haven't cooked anything for ages. I bet I can persuade Sherlock to bake after work tomorrow ;)

Small Hobbit said...

If you have a flat cake you could ice a circuit or road on it for the motorbike. And use chocolate sprinkes for tyre tracks.

pandabob said...

I'm sure Sherlock will be happy to bake tomorrow and even happier to eat the baking afterwards but I'm guessing John has better ideas for this time of night ;-)

John H. D. Watson said...

The impulse baking has to stop somewhere...and that place is after 11pm.

Greg Lestrade said...

ha, all right, I won't attempt to instigate any baking after 11pm ;)

(unless in an emergency).

John H. D. Watson said...

I would never stand in the way of a baking emergency.

Greg Lestrade said...

:)

I'm really going to miss Mycroft. And the dogs, sort of.

John H. D. Watson said...

Me too. I can't believe school starts so soon.

Greg Lestrade said...

does baking things for him to take with him count as emergency baking?

John H. D. Watson said...

I think it does. Do you?

Greg Lestrade said...

definitely. Although I will try to be organised enough to do it pre-11pm.

Who asked when the boys were back? Mycroft on the 3rd, in the evening, Sherlock on the 6th.

Sherlock is both happy Mycroft is going before him because 'it's not fair Mycroft gets more holidays' and sad, because his last few days will be Mycroft-less.

REReader said...

That was me who asked--thank you!. I can see it would be hard for Sherlock to know how to feel about the staggered school returns. His birthday is coming up soon, isn't it?

rsf said...

That cake barely looks real. But it certainly sounds tasty. And Kettners is a beautiful venue -- it sounds interesting even without a secret entrance!

I can't believe school is almost ready to start. It HAS started here, for some of the schools. I already have kids coming in to do homework. Where did the summer go?

Greg Lestrade said...

RR - yeah, not too far away now.

RSF - flown by, but also feels like the boys haven't been at school for an age.

Anonymous said...

pandabob - you might try lining the pan with plastic wrap. For a tin with lots of shape I find that works well.

Baking Anon

Anonymous said...

That cake looks so damn delicious...I'm drooling just looking at it.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, I meant parchment paper, I just finished a molded ice cream cake for a birthday tomorrow and had plastic on the brain.

So plastic wrap for cold or low-temp cooking (approx. 250F), parchment paper for higher temp baking. I know it's finicky, but worth it's worth it, usually.

Baking Anon

Greg Lestrade said...

Plastic wrap like cling film? Never heard of doing that.

I think baking paper is too difficult to put in a shaped mould. But maybe I'm just not patient enough ;)

pandabob said...

Thank you for all the advice guys but I've wimped out and bought a flat cake and some toy bikes, she'll be happy to have toys to play with as well as cake I'm sure :-D

Good luck with your day Greg, I hope there are no more random questions for you to face.

John, Sherlock, Mycroft have fun with making the most of the last Friday of your holidays :-)

Joolz said...

I tend to use foil to line my tins as it's a bit more malleable than baking paper and then I butter all round it too to help peeling it off after.

Maybe as long as you get the two wheels in more or less one piece, Anonybob, you could stick it all together with extra icing between - it's worked for me before when I was making a teddy bear and one leg decided it didn't want to play nice! :)

And if it is for today, can I say Happy Birthday Tiny. :)

Joolz said...

Oh sorry, just noticed your reply in the time it took me to write that, sorry Anonybob. I'm sure Tiny will love having extra toys to play with too.

Hope everyone has a great day.

pandabob said...

Thanks Joolz :-) the party is tomorrow and her birthday's next week so I might possibly give some of the suggestions a go for her actual birthday :-)

Greg Lestrade said...

I would have loved either of your cake options when I was a kid!

I once made a disastrous cake for Nicky. Not only did it not work, but mum spanked my hands too!

Joolz said...

Oh no! Were you spanked because it went wrong or because you had made it at all.

What a shame, I would have loved for my brother to have made me a cake when we were younger, no matter how disastrous it was, so it was certainly a well intentioned effort on your part, and I'm sure Nicky appreciated how lucky she was to have such a great brother . :)

pandabob said...

I'm sorry you mum reacted badly to you making a cake for Nicky but I'm more sorry it didn't work because it sounds like a lovely thing to do for your little sis :-)

Greg Lestrade said...

I think because I made it at all.

Nicky really wanted a cake, because she'd been to other people's parties and had cakes. We used to get iced buns, sometimes, but that was about it.

I copied the recipe out of a book, then tried to do it really fast, while Mum was out. But I didn't know anything about cooking then, so I thought if I put the oven on really hot it would cook faster. Actually it burnt around the edge/top and was still liquid in the middle, so when I tipped it out it just went everywhere. She smacked my hands with the wooden spoon.

Nicky still ate the tiny portion that was between blackened and liquid ;)

pandabob said...

That is such a lovely story Greg, not the your mum bit but the fact that you would do that for Nicky and she would try and eat it. You're an amazing pair you and your sister! :-)

Greg Lestrade said...

Nicky's been exposed to more than her fair share of my cookery disasters! (I'm sure her immune system is all the stronger for it.)

REReader said...

Aww, that was a beautiful thing to do for Nicky! I'm sure she treasures the memory. :)

Joolz said...

What are brothers for if not to test you to your very limits.

I'm sure Nicky and Harry would both have to agree with that...

;)

Kestrel337 said...

What a lovely thing to do for your sister, whether it worked out or not.

I used to do my sister's cakes, Pandabob. They nearly always were along the lines of what you are doing; I'd bake and frost a flat cake and then cover it with plastic horses and sprinkles. Novelty candles or candle holders used to get a lot of play, too.

Unknown said...

hmm, I don't think I would put cling film in the oven at any temp, I don't think that it's an inert enough plastic to want to have it in contact with hot food!
I'm so glad your early cooking experiments, and your mum's reaction, didn't put you off cooking entirely. whew!
School is definitely starting around here, when I did errands this morning I had to stay well away from the nearby university campus. Long lines of cars coming off the highways, packed to the gills.
S

Greg Lestrade said...

S - nah, I mean, I wasn't interested in cooking early on. Used to live on takeaway and beans on toast.

But once I had my own place I enjoyed it. Found it relaxing.

rsf said...

I had older sisters who decorated the cakes my grandmother made for us. They were really beautiful. Which made the year that I tried to decorate the cake for my brother stand out. In my defense, he thought gray was a perfectly acceptable color for frosting -- especially since he was the only one who wanted to eat it!

When you started cooking, Lestrade, did you have a particular book you used, or did you just experiment?

Greg Lestrade said...

Experimented, but I went to the library if I wanted to try to find some specific type of recipe. Also asked people, if I ate something and really wanted to be able to make it.

Now I use the internet a lot.


On the way home, John, boys.

Sherlock said...

GREG

Greg Lestrade said...

YES

Sherlock said...

it's just funny saying it and John's trying to call you it but it's a funny word because it starts and ends the same.

Anonymous said...

Is it possible that Sherlock has taken to the drink?

Greg Lestrade said...

Sugar rush more likely ;). I'm about to find out, anyway

REReader said...

And? :D

(To be fair, almost any word sounds funny if you say it enough times!)

Greg Lestrade said...

Dunno. He was bouncing around and sharing a carrot with his goos when I got here.

Anyone else see the sunset? It was amazing. Purple and orange, so intense! We took the dogs out just to look at it.

REReader said...

Sounds like just happy. :)

I love a strong sunset!

pandabob said...

We had cloud rather than a sunset but yours sounds lovely, I'm glad you had chance to get out and look at it :-)

Are you having a good evening? I hope you're managing some relaxation :-)

Greg Lestrade said...

John looks knackered, so I can only assume Sherlock has been 'happy' all day ;)

John H. D. Watson said...

Extremely.

rsf said...

My mother used to have us see how many times we could run up and down the stairs in five minutes when we were that happy. (My personal best was 17 both ways.) Of course, I was competing with my brother, so it took me a while to catch on.

Greg Lestrade said...

I'm off Mon-Weds next week. See Mycroft before he heads off, take him back to school...then a day of Sherlock realising however unfair it is that Mycroft gets longer holidays, he still misses him when he's gone.

John H. D. Watson said...

Do you want to do something on Monday? Maybe take a ride somewhere?

REReader said...

A practical woman, your mom, rsf! :)

I see you have it all planned out, L. :)

(Hey, Wednesday night is the start of Rosh Hashanah!)

Greg Lestrade said...

Yeah, that'd be good.

Should do a bit of research on Nicky's wedding gift to us, too - see where we can go on a full day of off roading. Was thinking maybe up to the Peaks? Spend a long weekend or something, go riding for a day?

John H. D. Watson said...

That sounds great, yeah :)

Greg Lestrade said...

And...if we want to go on a honeymoon, we could, y'know, talk about that? Although I'm fairly sure we're not allowed to go anywhere nice or exciting without Sherlock.

So we'll have to go somewhere horrible and boring ;)

John H. D. Watson said...

I'll start a list of horrible and boring places I'd love to go with you. (We could definitely go to the allotment if it had a bed - he's declared it boring about seven times today.)

pandabob said...

Why would you go anywhere nice and fun on honeymoon? it's not like you're intending to see much of the place is it? ;-)

Greg Lestrade said...

I'd love to go on a week long bike trip somewhere in Europe or something... but I fear all that riding might, err... not be good for other kinds of riding! ;)

Greg Lestrade said...

Danger - allotment's got lots of beds! Veggie beds, raised beds, flower beds...

But I think we'd be arrested if we started spreading our seed there ;)

Joolz said...

Could you maybe split half and half and go somewhere with the boys for a couple of days and then they could maybe go off somewhere with their mum and you two could enjoy the rest of the time on your own - hopefully that might placate everyone. ;)

John H. D. Watson said...

L - bike trip to somewhere in Europe, a couple of days to recover, and then the ride back maybe?

Greg Lestrade said...

Sounds nice. I mean, we could go anywhere. Could get to Prague or somewhere in a day of riding hard, or a couple of days taking it easy.

Or the seaside, or...well, loads of places!

Nicky said...

I'd forgotten all about that cake - attempted cake, I should say.

I remember sharing my jelly babies that Nan gave me with you in your room, when Mum had sent you up there and I felt bad.

Greg Lestrade said...

I remember that too :)

I want a day off. Two more days...two more days.

Greg Lestrade said...

Have a good party, AnonyBob :)

pandabob said...

Thanks Greg :-) have a good day at work :-)

Greg Lestrade said...

Ta. Stunningly sunny today, so grumpy I'm not out with the boys.

Day was brightened by a young PC panicking so much when a colleague hit their panic button that the ran out of the toilet without...adjusting their clothing. Very dedicated, obviously, but...not ideal ;)

Anonymous said...

Ha! Not as drastic as this, I suppose: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/may/15/pink-underpants-us-army

Ella

Greg Lestrade said...

No, not that bad! And I'll never be too unkind to anyone reacting to a panic button. We've all been 'on enquiries' when that's gone off. It's a horrible feeling!

Joolz said...

That's a better choice than the phrase I was thinking - my mind went instantly to 'on manoeuvres', but maybe that was a bit close to the mark. ;)

Olli said...

Ella, the combat underpants seems like far too convenient a photo... I think it's a setup!

Nicky, you have an inventive brother. Now I want to hear lots of little-Lestrade-kids stories. (Are you the big or little sis? I've forgotten.)

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