Hey everyone!

So after all this time helping brides with their big day, I am finally one of them! Yey!

I am getting married in March 2006. The big question - should I bake my own cake?

I want to say - "absolutely!" I help brides to be all the time with the how-to's of baking a wedding cake, etc. But my family, friends, and fiance all think I should not bake my own. Their reason - they say that I will be too busy, too hectic, too crazy at the time to worry about baking, delivering, and setting up my own cake. My fiance says "Look, I see how crazed you get when it's someone else's cake - I can't imagine how you'd be with your own! I don't want you to be that stressed on our wedding day."

What do you guys think?

they are right...you will be stressed, especially if something goes wrong!!!
i just finished this weekend making my sisters cake, and being bridesmaid at the same time. it was an effort to say the least. if you heave someone who can take over from you in set up and devivery, that may work for you....but have you hreard the many disaster mishaps that have happened. im telling you it is not worth ruining your day over

Personnally I would not recommend it eliviate as much stress as possible Let someone else do it your job that day is to show up and get married! I am sure everyone knows you make great cakes, but do not expect you to make your own. Congrats! Enjoy your wedding!

before you start even stressing about it now..find out if the site you have picked out for your reception allows you to bring outside cake..lol

Congratulation!

I thought I'd do my own last year and THANK GOD everyone talked me out of it. I thought I'd have plenty of time in the days leading up to the wedding...but you really don't and there's a million other thoughts in your mind besides the worry of having to make the cake!!!!!

I agree with mezle...it will be very stressful. You should be enjoying your few days prior to your wedding. Maybe you can make the topper portion or the grooms one, one that will not take you a long time to do. Just a suggestion. Congratulations in your upcoming wedding! Lisa

Congratulations! And no... I would not recommend it. You are just going to be too busy.

Hey PerryStCakes...good to hear from you again!! Haven't seen you on here for awhile!!

I have read a few stories where the brides have successfully made their own wedding cakes...but my advice......don't do it!! Now matter how far you plan ahead, how organized you may be, it's just to hectic. This is a big day for you and your groom...enjoy it, it goes really fast!!

BTW...congrats on your engagement!!

Miss Missey! I missed you! I have been crazy with all the wedding planning - it really is time consuming!

I've been so busy that I haven't been on Wilton's forum or this one much lately - but I'm back! I've gotten most of the details squared away by now (yey!) so now I can re-focus

Thank you all for your warm wishes and sound advice! It really helps me - I need your expert opinions!

(As much as I want to trust the opinions of my family, friends, and fiance, these are the same people that are willing to go into heavy battle over something as inconsequential as wording on an invitiation. LOL. I need sane people!!)

Love you all!!

if you have the time,,why not ? go for it ... as long as it won't add stress to you..

I also would advise against it. You have so many other details to worry about, the last thing you need is something huge like making your own wedding cake to stress over. I got married before I started doing cakes, but there is no way I would have been able to do it.

Congratulations and good luck!

I made my own cake. If you cover it with fondant as long as you choose a filling that doesn't need refrigeration you can make it a week in advance. The fondant stops the air turning the cake stale. If you want a buttercream cake why not make it in advance. Freeze each layer the just defrost and assemble on the day.
I loved doing my own cake it meant I got exactly what I wanted and I don't think anyone else could have done that for me

NO!!! NO NO!!!!
It's your big day..enjoy it. It will pass so incredibly fast you'll be sad at the end of the evening. I considered doing my own, but opted out. Just let yourself be catered to this ONE day.

Chalk up one more no vote. I was so busy before my wedding that I forgot to pick up my dress!! Now that would have been a disaster. There's just so much going on why not delegate as much as you possibly can?

(And congats )

Ok, so i'm not engaged yet, but do have a significan other that is the one and this is what I am planning on doing.

I don't want anyone else to make my cake, we have designed our cake and I want to make it. So our display cake will be dummy cakes with one real cake. This way I can decorate in advance and have it the way I want it. Then I plan on having another decorator I know and trust to make sheet cakes to serve, decorate the small cake, and set up the main cake.

In theory I think this sounds good, so we get the cake we want and less stress. But we'll see if it actually works this way when the time comes.

Just another idea.

Leily

I would have to say NO!! The week before my wedding I was a bit crazy, sane, stressed,emotional,happy,sad. My nickname was Sybil . Only because your wedding day is so special let someone make YOUR cake. An idea may be to make the top tier and you and your honey can share it on your 1st anniversary. One small cake to make and poss freeze ahead(?) would be way less stress than an ENTIRE cake!!
Congrats, Best wishes and good luck with your decision.
Michelle

I love all this input -- it really is helping me.

I did my brother's wedding cake, and let me tell you, because I was busy doing it I didn't get to help much with anything else, and I was dead tired during the wedding.

I think that there is so much going on already during the days before the wedding that you really shouldn't add another added stress.

If you really, really want to do it, why not do a display/fake cake (you can do it weeks before the wedding) that can be in the pictures. And get someone else to make you some kitchen cakes to serve.

I say, DO IT!!!!! I made my own. The only cautionary advice I have is make sure you have some time off to do it. My weddin g was this summer when I was off from school, so I found time to do wedding stuff and bake the cake. If you don't think you can handle it with your job, perhaps let someone else do it for you. Otherwise, bake your cakes in advance and freeze them. Then do your frostings a week ahead, and Thursday, assemble and decorate them...this may be relaxing to you and be a repreive from all the stress of the planning. They should be ready to go by Saturday, and all will be well!!

No! Do not even think you will have time to fit in baking, delivering and setting up your own cake. My daughter's wedding was in Sept. I did the cake, my sister and I did the flowers and deco, my mom helped us both with the catering. Boy by the time my daughter was ready to walk down the aisle I was so exhausted I could have slept for a week. Let someone else do your cake. It will even give you a chance to taste some of the competitions work.

ttb - good point - check out what everyone else is up to....
Sylvia Weinstock here I come! (OK, I can't afford her cakes, but no harm in a consultation - lord knows plenty of brides do it to me)

No! Do not even think you will have time to fit in baking, delivering and setting up your own cake. My daughter's wedding was in Sept. I did the cake, my sister and I did the flowers and deco, my mom helped us both with the catering. Boy by the time my daughter was ready to walk down the aisle I was so exhausted I could have slept for a week. Let someone else do your cake. It will even give you a chance to taste some of the competitions work.

I would have to agree with the majority here. Bad idea to make your own cake. I'm glad to see that you pretty much are in agreement with that. Besides, i see you are located in NYC. You have a great opporunity to check out some of the most renowned chef's around. I would be trying out Syliva Weinstock, as long as the consultation doesn't cost too much.

Mel

Why don't you design your cake...even make a dummy as your example...even bake the actual cakes and freeze them ahead of time...but have someone else execute the decorations while you run around doing bride stuff. I am available...I'm in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

I can duplicate anything...my husband says I would be a great counterfeiter!

I can see both sides on this one. Are you on a really tight budget??? Are you going to have some time off the week before the wedding??? Those are things you would need to consider if you decide to do it yourself. Also...if you do decide to do it...make sure you have a dependable person that can handle it carefully and deliver it to your reception.

Congratulations on your upcoming wedding.

traci

I would definately take adven68 up on her offer! Her cakes are some of the best I have EVER seen!

I don't think you could go wrong with adven68...her cakes are gorgeous!!!!

I did my own, and I'm glad I did. I even live in Ohio and took everything to Florida! It kept me busy and kept my mind off of other things that I couldn't control. And I knew it was good! Of course it was very small too.

I wouldn't do it becasue there is enough stress as it is the week before the wedding. All you need is one thing to go wrong and everything spirals out of control, you could end up with no cake. I just made a cake for my daughters baptism party and I was stressed and pressed for time I said I would never make another cake for my own party again. I might not get exactly what I want but hey its better than the stress and having nothing at all. Good Luck

Just a quick story about what went wrong my week....
My wedding was on the Sunday before Labor and the friday before I was getting ready to pick up my dress and when I looked in my contact lens case they were GONE! My moms foster child was playing with the case and lost my lenses I was hysterical I had to put everything off and search the city of Chicago for an optical that carried sample Toric lenses and had them in stock. Due to this I almost had the store where my dress was at close for the labor day weekend with my dress inside still. I had to try my dress on with a red puffy face from crying all day and on top of that I had my ugly glasses on trust me I wasn't feeling this wedding thing at all at that point, anyway thanks to Costco Optical I got my lenses that Saturday and the wedding turned out beautiful. Thank God I wasn't doing my own cake. One more thing, one of the lenses ended up tearing the first day of my honeymoon so I was wearing one good lens and one bad, yes It was horrible.

Sorry my stroy turned out longer than I tought. Anyway Good luckwith your wedding !!


Jackie

I think adven76 had a good idea abou the dummy. If your're on a tight budget, you could make up a dummy cake way ahead of time. Spend lots of time on it gettting it just how you want, then then week of the wedding make up sheet cakes to be cut and served. I make these types of cakes for brides for extra servings. They are four layers and when sliced no one knows it came from a sheet cake. This way would give you creative control, and a lot less stress.