Pat & Tom's wedding cake

August 1975

This was my first major wedding cake and it was almost a disaster. I delivered the cake in sections in cooler boxes since I had to keep it cold due to the butter-cream frosting. I arrived at the hall really early planning on building it and doing the final decorating. My plan was to finish it in time to race over to the church where the wedding was taking place. When I arrived at the hall all the lights were out and it was warm. The manager of the hall came in to inform me that there was a total brown-out in the NY metro area with the hall being affected. NO lights, NO refrigeration, NO air conditioning and the temperature getting closer to expected 96 degrees. I decided to wait till the last minute to put it all together. Within half an hour of people arriving, I started to build the cake. As it went up, the heat started to affect its stability and I ended up having to prop the whole thing up from the back using knives and forks. As long as you did not look at the back it looked pretty good. Barefoot, in shorts and a t-shirt and completely drenched in sweat, people started arriving. Since everything was off, no cold drinks, no ice, other food issues and still no hope of air conditioning, I suggested that we eat the cake first since the butter cream was not going to last any longer. It tasted great and we successfully got through the most important part of the meal.