I need advice from those of you who have made wedding cakes. I promised my sister that I would make hers. She keeps saying, "are you sure, you may be too busy as time gets closer". I really, really want to do this for her. One of the things she said to me was she didn't want stale cake at her reception. She didn't say it with an attitude, but she also didn't want me making it a month in advance to avoid the stress of baking and decorating. I can't believe that professional bakeries make the cakes the day before the reception, or maybe they do. Can someone kindly give me a timeline. I will be involved with attendance at Church rehearsal and the dinner (attending not providing anything for), so that eliminates one night (probably Thursday before a Saturday ceremony). Any guidance you can provide will be sincerely appreciated. Thank you, Cassie

I'm guessing that you want to know when to bake your cakes?
Depending on the amount of time you may/maynot have for a sat wedding bake cakes wednesday (cause you're at the church thurs) wrap well.. then on friday morning torte & fill let them sit a few hrs then ice and decorate, stack friday night

hth

My normal schedule for a Saturday wedding.
Monday and Tuesday bake, cool, torte, wrap, freeze
Wednesday continue baking or day off (yeah right.)
Thursday, pull cakes out of freezer, fill, wrap, let settle overnight.
Friday, frost, decorate.
Saturday, deliver.

You could even bake them Monday or Tuesday and freeze them.

Take them out to thaw on Wed. nite before you go to bed, or bright and early Thursday morning. Keep them lightly covered with plastic wrap! Torte, fill and ice on Thursday. Decorate on Friday. They will be fine.

Or for a more pressed schedule: freeze until Thursday nite. Take them out to thaw before you go to bed, then fill, frost and decorate all on Friday.

I supplie the cakes for both of my siblings weddings last year. They were both 4 tiered cakes. For my brother's I baked and made fillings all day Wednesday and Thursday ( I would have liked to start sooner but we had to fly in and thn track down my cake supplies that I had sent by courier and hadn't been delivered yet when I arrived.) When I say all day I mean from 9 am to 1 am each day. I spent all day (8 am to 2:30 am) Friday filling frosting and decorating. I delivered the cake Saturday immediately after my hair was done and assembled. The flowers were missing so I went ot the ceremony did the reading and rushed to the family pictures and rushed to the reception venue with the flowers to place on the cake and still ended up with an audience that actually clapped when I finished placing the last flower. ( a little embarrassing). I did have to take a break on the Friday to attend the rehersal dinner. It was a crazy week but everything turned out great in the end.
For my sister's wedding a few months later I thought I would be smarter. I baked the cakes about two weeks before the wedding and leveled torted, wrapped really well and froze them. I also made all my fondant and painted my pillars etc. Then on the Tuesday before the wedding I removed the cakes from the freezer to thaw and on Wednesday and Thursday - I filled, iced and covered in fondant and decorated and delivered (it was a Friday wedding. I did have numerous interruptions though as I was part of the wedding party AND the wedding planner. I was desperate to have the cake delivered on Thursday night so I ended up skipping the rehersal dinner. And I had to attend the bachellorette on the Wednesday night as I was supplying the cake and was cohost. I did manage to do it.

I will tell you though -- both cakes tasted equally fresh and moist. Frozen cakes do not taste at all stale as long as they are wrapped properly and noone has to know you ever froze them as long as they are thawed by the time of the cutting. Just plan out your time. Do what you can in advance and it will go well. I would have had plenty of time for my sister's if I hadn't had so much involvement in the wedding itself and as it was I ended up having a great time with my new sister in law and the matrn of honor as they decided to be my assistants!

I just knew you wedding cake bakers would come through and help me. I guess my biggest fear was the freezing and how long I could do that without having a "stale" cake. I can only thank you with words for your help, but please understand how much I appreciate your knowledge. Cassie

Froze my sister's wedding cake for 2 weeks. Wrapped in plastic wrap, freezer wrap, and foil (multiple times). LOL. Can never be too careful. Defrosted Thursday to decorate on Friday. I am still (1 year later) getting compliments on how good that cake was.

Freezing only helps the cake not detracts from it when done properly. Just don't tell ya sis.