Super Bling Diamond Wedding Cake

Earlier this spring, I met with a very girly-girl bride named Kassi.  She had a lot of ideas but her main inspiration was a page from a David Tutera book.  There was one wedding in particular that she really loved and wanted to model her entire wedding after it.The cake pictured in the book was perfection to her and she didn't want to change a thing about it.  Who am I to argue?


So with the cake design already decided, she then chose cake and filling to match the outside of the cake.  It was white cake with VERY pink strawberry buttercream. She wanted the inside of the cake to be just as pretty as the outside.  Isn't that cute?

The cake, as you can see, is fairly simple, so the cake only cost the base price; there were no additonal charges for "art fees".  However, the bling and those mini diamonds were not cheap!  I used 7 yards of 4-row rhinestones at $24 dollars/yard.  That's $168 dollars!!  I got them at Bead and Trim, not only because they were the cheapest, but I have dealt with them in the past and been very pleased with their customer service.  I got the diamonds at Diamond Party Confetti and Hobby Lobby.

We made a very pale pink vanilla buttercream for the outside of the cake and then carefully started placing the rhinestone strips on the cake, making sure not to squish the icing into the rhinestones and then piped the dots.  As it became room temperature, the top border of rhinestones began to scare me a little.  I was afraid that they were so heavy that they might start to slide down the cake.  I added several 2-inch pieces of floral wire in between the rhinestones around the cake just to make sure there was plenty of support.  Better safe than sorry, right?

The best part of this cake was during the delivery to the Grandview.  Several guests were already there and many of them commented that the cake "looked just like Kassi".  I thought that was one of the best compliments a baker could get!

For the record, the pages I got from Tutera's book did not credit the original cake designer.  If someone knows, please leave me a comment and I will give proper credit.