It all started with an innocuous text. We were approached about making the grandest of luxury wedding cakes the most exclusive of weddings, in a venue that is considered to be arguably one of the best palaces in the world.
Now the Palais Lichtenstein in Vienna has been on our bucket list of venues we would love to work in, ever since we saw the gold and white image of its high baroque ballroom online. To be in the running for making the cake was such an honour in itself. To be finally chosen to make the 20 tier ultimate baroque luxury wedding cake for what may be the wedding of the year was such an incredible feeling, considering the very stiff competition we faced!
We knew the cake had to be special and fit in with the aesthetics of the pure white and antique gold the bride had in mind for her wedding and of course the incredible palace .
THE VENUE
In 1694, Prince Johann Adam Andreas I von Liechtenstein bought the unfinished building in the heart of the city’s 1st district as his family’s principal residence and proceeded to build a monument to power and wealth.
The still privately owned Palais Liechtenstein is a collection of palaces. The wedding we worked on took place at the Liechtenstein CITY PALACE, situated in Vienna´s inner city. The palace was renovated for almost five years at a cost of €100 million and up to 500 workers a day. Held to be the first major building of the High Baroque age in Vienna, nothing prepares one for the sheer opulence and drama inside the building.
The entrance hallway of the palace is in the purest white and looks like a grand wedding cake. As we ascended Vienna’s most dramatic baroque staircase with its Giovanni Giuliani cherub sculptures and stuccowork by Santino Bussi it got grander still!
We then got to the second floor and we were hit in the face with the most lavish and dramatic gold and white ballroom we had ever beheld. In fact such is the sensory overload with the amount and differing shades of gold and detail, we realised that photographs could never do enough justice to the sheer opulence of the room.
THE FLOWERS
We were reunited once again with the floral empress Karen Tran who transformed the main ballroom, the music room, the ceremony room, the party room, corridors and entrances into the most amazing floral wonderland. She used the largest scented white roses and orchids to create incredibly tall and huge arrangements, the coolest orchid trees and very rich low floral runners.
THE CAKE
At Elizabeth’s Cake Emporium we are renowned for creating baroque wedding cakes and this cake was right up our street. The inspiration for the shape of the 20 tier, 10 feet high luxury wedding cake came from the royal wedding cake of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge which was created for their 2011 wedding.
The design and decoration was however based on the excitable kaleidoscope of gold male cherubs, gold swags, gilt adornments and garlands, scrolling tendrils, candelabra, the pattern on the vaulted ceilings, floral motifs and even the elaborate patterned parquetry of the floors of the palace ballroom.
To achieve the high baroque and rococo look, we created a number of custom made silicone moulds specifically for the cake. Creating custom made moulds is a time consuming process requiring lots of skill and it shows the lengths we are prepared to go to in order to personalise our luxury wedding cakes.
The results of a particularly intricate mould can be seen on the cake tier showcasing a pair of cherubs holding aloft a cascade of flowers. The base tiers were 12 in total with an overall width of 4 feet.
We also made thousands of sugar roses, sugar orchids, gilded sugar leaves, sugar berries and sugar butterflies.
The utterly delicious cake flavours included Champagne and Strawberry, Triple Chocolate, Chocolate and Valencian Orange, Cookies and Cream, Vanilla and Caramel and Luscious Lemon.
It was particularly gratifying to received a very warm hug from the groom and the most generous feedback from the very beautiful bride. The cake was very much admired by everyone, with the General Manager remarking that it was the largest and most opulent luxury wedding cake the palace has ever seen!
If you would like us to create a the grandest of wedding cakes for you, email us at info@elizabethscakeemporium.com or give us a call on 07958069116
Huge thanks to the incredible Enrique Manzano of Manzano Images (www.manzanoimages.com) for the beautiful images.