I was married 20 years ago in May. On my wedding day, at the reception, for some reason I was given the thinnest little slice of my wedding cake. I remember that afterwards I felt bad about that. It was a lovely four-tiered cake of sponge cake with raspberry and cream layers, topped with sheets of white and pink marizipan, pink marizipan roses, and other pink or white decoration.

I was married in Prague, Czech Republic, but my husband and I have always lived in the U.S. My Czech sister-in-law froze the top of my wedding cake, which was a very small cake, no more than 6" in diameter. A year later (about 19 years ago), my husband and I visited my sister-in-law and her family, so she thawed the little wedding cake top and served it for dessert. The little cake would normally feed 4 people, but there were 7 people there that day. I, again, had a very very small sliver of the cake and felt sad. Later, in private, I complained about that to my husband. He told me I was being ungrateful since she stored the cake for so long. But as a one-year bride, I guess I felt a little greedy about my cake. I wanted a BIG piece.

For some reason this past Monday, I became obsessed with the idea of having a replica of my wedding cake, but as just a single cake vs. a multi-tiered one. I looked up recipes and felt utterly intimidated by the marzipan steps. The other steps were also extremely involved and time-consuming. I decided to ask a gourmet baker if they could make the cake. I didn't hear back from them. It was 3 days later, so I called and told them to forget about it. One hour later I got a call and they said they could make it, but without this and that, and such-and-such instead. They wanted $80 for it. I was not interested.

But I couldn't get this pretty pink rose-adored cake out of my mind. I contemplated recipes with anxiety. Should I do it? I have never worked with marzipan, and though I'm generally a good baker, I suck at rolling dough. Marizipan dough is a challenge. But what the heck! I bought the ingredients.

My lovely pink rose cake took me two days to make, because there were so many complex steps. I made the marizipan and the vanilla pastry cream yesterday. It took about 3 hours. Then today I made the cake, another element, rolled the marizpan (took me 3 tries to get it right), and even made a pink-hued "ribbon" for the bottom of the cake. I did make one marizipan rose with leaves, but saved that as a special gift for hubby. On the top of my cake I put fresh pink roses with fresh leaves. The whole effort today took 5 hours. It is the most ambitious cake I have ever made, and I love it! Hubby couldn't believe it.

I ate a very large slice of my replica wedding cake top for dessert tonight, and have many slices left. I thought I'd share this story since the topic dealt with roses. Roses are symbolic in many ways. See the cake I finished making today, along with a photo of my wedding cake.

P.S. This cake was so involved and time-consuming I would likely charge $250 for the sucker, if I was a baker.