So...wedding Cakes Take "very Little Time" Ha
Decorating By Chef_Stef Updated 19 Feb 2007 , 6:13am by Chef_Stef
Let's just pause for a moment while I rehash EXACTLY how much time this last "simple" IMBC 6, 8, 12" cake with just ribbon around the bottom took me.
Bear in mind I bake everything fresh from scratch, no freezing, and I use my Imbc fresh from the mixer...
(inhale...)
Thurs baking: From 11:45 a.m. to 3 p.m. and again from 5:45 to 6:50, so, around 4 hours
Friday I started making IMBC fresh at 9:30 a.m., torting, filling, chilling, crumb-coating, icing, smoothing, and cleaning up all day, and I got done at about 8:20 p.m.!! Then this morning I got up and spent another hour working on more smoothing and putting on the ribbon border. Thank GOODness it wasn't a piped cake or it would have been an all-nighter. I whipped too much air into the first batch of IMBC and had a heck of a time smoothing the 12" square, plus squares are hard for me anyway...and I'm out of practice, so what is that? --12 hours, plus time to cut ribbons and pack a "travel kit"!?!
Today: Left at 10:45 to set up, stood around waiting for florist and extra tablecloths before setting up, home by 1:45 p.m.
Total for simple iced cake with no decorations: 4 + 12 + 3=19 hours+
so basically 20 hours, not counting pricing, emailing quotes, phone calls, and stop at a gas station to buy a camera because one of mine is in the shop and the other is out of film.
Where's that article about it only taking a couple of hours to do a whole wedding cake? I'd like to talk to her right about now.
Oh goodness! I hope you have a good relaxing weekend now that its over!!
I am doing my brothers Wedding cake which is a "simple" (hahaha) stacked fondant cake with ribbon on bottom due on a Saturday (March 31st) and I told my DH that my MIL will have to watch my daughter for three days because Im starting on it on Thursday. Well, actually i will be making the Fondant a few nights a week for that whole month but I figured it will take me a LONG time. I hope I can even make it to the wedding!!!
Do you have a really small oven? 4 hours to bake 3 tiers sounds like a long time. With the right pan configuration, this cake would fit in my oven in just two bakings. 
Regardless, it's a great illustration of how involved these can be! I'd luv to post this on my wall so clients could see how it works!
homecook
That is sad... so how much did you make per hour?
I also find squares to be a pain in tha booty. SO I charge extra to make them.
mpc
mypastrychef I have officially decided you are my unofficial cake queen! How did it not occur to me to have an extra charge for square cakes......... I think I will be updating my cake matrix now. Double bonus, I love using excel so this gives me an excuse to update.
mypastrychef I have officially decided you are my unofficial cake queen! How did it not occur to me to have an extra charge for square cakes......... I think I will be updating my cake matrix now. Double bonus, I love using excel so this gives me an excuse to update.
Nooo! ...You are my Queen haha. Thank You!
I am making a wedding and grooms cake for a top 40 radio personality "Bristol" and she said on the air that I was her cake goddess. That was a really weird comment to me. If you only knew the truth... I am sooo goofey and I laugh at everything. I don't know how I have any business do they really take me serious?
I want a copy of the matrix?? 
if you don't mind.
Even adding $.50 per serving I still sell alot of square cakes and some of the price conscience brides sckoot back over to the rounds... easier for me!
mpc
mypastrychef I have officially decided you are my unofficial cake queen! How did it not occur to me to have an extra charge for square cakes......... I think I will be updating my cake matrix now. Double bonus, I love using excel so this gives me an excuse to update.
Nooo! ...You are my Queen haha. Thank You!
I am making a wedding and grooms cake for a top 40 radio personality "Bristol" and she said on the air that I was her cake goddess. That was a really weird comment to me. If you only knew the truth... I am sooo goofey and I laugh at everything. I don't know how I have any business do they really take me serious?
I want a copy of the matrix??
if you don't mind. Even adding $.50 per serving I still sell alot of square cakes and some of the price conscience brides sckoot back over to the rounds... easier for me!
mpc
Seriously, you want a copy of my matrix......... I would be super honored! Can I be your official groupie? I prefer goofy people, who wants stuck up snobs to work with? If I was getting married again and having someone else do my cake (I made mine) I'd much prefer a fun loving person.
I immediately added the extra charge for square cakes to my matrix, I'll send you the Beta version that has that. I'm hoping I can get some brides to scoot back to rounds also!
uh oh, now i'm nervous. i have two birthday cakes to make soon. i've never done a wedding cake, so i can't commiserate.
I also find squares to be a pain in tha booty. SO I charge extra to make them. mpc
really? I prefer square cakes and try to talk my brides into choosing them! My most frequently requested cake is the one labeled "Square - askew" in my photos (page 2). A square basketweave order puts me in hog heaven! 
Do you have a really small oven? 4 hours to bake 3 tiers sounds like a long time. With the right pan configuration, this cake would fit in my oven in just two bakings.
Regardless, it's a great illustration of how involved these can be! I'd luv to post this on my wall so clients could see how it works!
I bake at home (hobby baker- the wedding cake is for a good friend) so i have just an average oven which fits a pan no larger than 14 inches. top that off with only having one set of rounds, one set of squares, its basically an alllll day job for me to bake on a large cake. i can do 4's, 6's and 8's combined. anything bigger and its one slow tedious cake at a time.
dream of the day when i'll have a business and a HUGE stainless steel kitchen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think it is fair to count the time they are baking. I am tied to the house and I need to check on them. I COULD (don't always) make the frosting and some decorations while they are baking. When considering my time, I won't consider the entire time baking, but a lot of it. Besides, if you were a bakery, you would have to pay your employees while they are baking and you have to pay all the overhead for that time too. My biggest problem is that like melysa I only have one set of cake pans. I've considered many times buying a second set. Someday I will!
i agree about baking time. i am totally tied down for that time frame. i too, will do other things if needed (icing, decorations, cakeboard etc) but even if not, i can not go run errands or other things. if i had several large ovens and several of each size/style of pan, in addition to a huge huge huge commercial mixer, i could knock out the baking of a 5 tier cake in a couple hours, but i do not...so i do what i can. i definately consider baking time a part of making a cake and if i ever get around to making any money, i will charge equally for my entire process.
I also find squares to be a pain in tha booty. SO I charge extra to make them. mpc
really? I prefer square cakes and try to talk my brides into choosing them! My most frequently requested cake is the one labeled "Square - askew" in my photos (page 2). A square order puts me in hog heaven!
That cake is really nice and I would still charge .50 more.
I bake in full sheet pans and cut the square to the size I need. Might be easier if I used the corret shaped pans.
But cutting boards and icing straight sides... 
it still harder for me than it is to hold the spatula against a round layer and spin the turn table. No corners to go over.
mpc
Just popping back in...the four hours of "baking time" was while they were in the oven in batches-- two sixes at once, two eights at once, and one 12" at a time...I was in the kitchen most of the time but not all, cleaning up, prepping for next batch, etc., so yeah, I didn't actually stand at the stove for four hours.
I just know I spent the better part of two days basically on my feet in the kitchen, one way or the other, and thought it'd be interesting to share that, so people aren't swayed by the "you can throw a wedding cake together in a couple of hours" articles.
It was all fun, but by the end of the second day I was ready for the hot tub!
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