Doing a wedding cake from scratch on location for a destination wedding was a risk I wasn’t prepared to chance for a first attempt. I was also too afraid to bring one as I wasn’t completely confident that they wouldn’t try and attack it in the airport looking for drugs!! LOL! So in advance of the wedding the bride and I discussed designs that could be easily achieved on the plain white cake which was provided by the venue as part of their package. In the end she settled on having a ribbon trim that featured the colours of her wedding, dressed with a diamante brooch.

It was a classically simple but effective design which was very quickly put together on the cake which had to be kept in an air-conditioned room right up until the very last minute! At one point I feared they may even not allow me to have access to the cake – that would have been a total disaster!

For my next destination wedding cake, having done some research I now know that it is feasible to bring my own cake as long as I have access to immediate air-conditioned storage, particularly if the place is as hot as Jamaica which sizzled at an amazing 37 degrees on the day of the wedding! I think you can just about see the gloss on the cake as the sugarpaste began to melt! I do think however that the only type of cake suitable to bring would be a fruit cake which is preserved much more by the alcohol used in baking them. I am yet to consider whether I would bake and decorate a cake on site. Unless I was staying in someone’s home I doubt very much that this would be permitted anyway.

The wedding was beautiful and my top tip for you guests this time is to prepare for the weather AND the venue. Obviously, Tasha I hear you say! Maybe it was just me and a few other fool-hardy folk that hadn’t anticipated coping with sitting in 37 degree heat for four consecutive hours!!! Ok, so the hotel were excellent and attended to us as we flagged with ice cold flannels but I should have been wearing a hat and extra sun block! Also, stilettos don’t make for great footwear when you are walking on a lawn or even sand as the case may be!! Didn’t think of that – along with at least 12 other women I saw that day – including bridesmaids AND the bride too!! LOL! But all in all, as I said, it was a wonderful occasion – just beautiful and I felt very privileged to have been a part of it. See you next time for my final instalment telling you about the long haul home!