A and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary on Monday. Seriously, where does the time go?! I do not understand how an entire year has passed since we said "I do" and shared our first dance. I feel like the luckiest girl for getting to spend the rest of my life with the great guy - my best friend - by my side!
We decided to stick to traditional first anniversary gifts, and so we exchanged paper gifts for our first anniversary. A gave me a beautiful framed copy of our wedding invitation. I may have dropped a hint or two that this would be a good idea, but he did an excellent job selecting the mat, frame, and museum glass. I gave A a notebook that I'd customized to create a personalized bucket list. We're always talking about what we want our next adventure to be - from planning a picnic this summer, to taking a trip to New Zealand, to buying our first house - and I thought it would be fun to have a place for us to document our ideas.
After we exchanged gifts we toasted with a special bottle of champagne and crystal champagne flutes (both were wedding gifts) and dug into the top tier of our wedding cake. I love the tradition of saving the top tier of the cake to enjoy on your anniversary, but I'd been warned that it wouldn't be any good a year later. Friends and family had warned of everything from freezer burn to stale, cardboard flavor, so we took the first bite with very low expectations. However, the cake was just as delicious as we remembered it! We were thrilled to discover that, in a few easy steps, you can freeze the top tier of your wedding cake so that it will still be totally delicious when you cut into it on your first anniversary!
How to Freeze the Top Tier of a Wedding Cake
- Place the cake, unwrapped, in the freezer for two hours so that it firms up.
- Remove the cake from the freezer. If the cake is resting on a cardboard cake board, carefully remove the cake from the board and place the cake on a flat surface (like a cutting board). Wrap the cardboard with aluminum foil and press flat. The foil will prevent the cake from absorbing the taste of the cardboard. Carefully return the cake to the wrapped cake board. If the cake is on a plastic cake board it's okay to leave it as is.
- Wrap the cake and board tightly with two layers of plastic wrap.
- Wrap the cake and board again with two layers of aluminum foil.
- Place the cake on a flat surface in your freezer.
- Remove the cake one day before you plan to eat it so that it has time to defrost.
- Carefully unwrap and enjoy!
Gina says
Congratulations! My husband & I did the traditional anniversary gifts, too!
Allison says
Thank you, Gina! Congrats to you and your husband, too 🙂
Cher|cherthatdish says
Happy anniversary!! I love the bucket list idea, it's a very sweet and personal gift, customized for two. Perfect! And gosh I can just imagine what it's like to taste your wedding cake a year after! Doesn't the beautiful memory just flood back with the cake? Awwww 🙂
Allison says
Thank you so much, Cher! I spent forever trying to come up with a good gift, and I was so excited when I finally came up with the bucket list notebook 🙂 And yes, you're totally right, the cake brought back so many memories. It's been a very sentimental week for us reminiscing about our big day and thinking about everything that we have to look forward to 🙂 Your sweet note means a lot!
xx Allison
Cher|cherthatdish says
Awww, at a loss for words but very happy for you, Allison!