Hi everyone,
I am making the wedding cake for my son's wedding, which is June 10. Yikes! as I've never made a wedding cake before. I am definitely not a pro at decorating cakes.... However, the cake the bride-to-be selected seems simple enough. The cake will be on the Wilton tall tier cake stand, so it's kind of like baking 4 separate cakes and setting one on each tier. Fresh flowers will be used, and the only decoration I'm adding myself is a shell border, top and bottom of each cake, and some scrolls randomly spaced on the sides of the cakes. The picture in the book looks very pretty, and I am fervently hoping my cake will be pretty too. 
It will live forever in the wedding photos!
ANYWAY, today I decided to practice and I baked two layers for the 10-inch cake. The instructions call for 2" layers, so that the finished cake will be 4" high. I filled the pans 1/2 full, with 6 cups of batter each, as the pan instructions said to do.
But the layers are about 1-1/2 inches high instead of 2". This is probably a dumb question, but can anyone tell me if the reason my layers are 1-1/2" high instead of 2", because I'm using a from-scratch batter, which might not rise as much as a mix?
OR...if I use 7 cups batter per 10"pan instead of 6 cups per pan.... will that make the layers 2" high? That would mean I should fill the pan about 2/3 full instead of 1/2 full?
Also one more question...when mixing a large batch of cake batter, say enough for a 14" pan, is it OK to triple the recipe and make it all in one big bowl? Or would that be too much to mix at one time?
Thanks for any help. I'm getting cold feet about this cake! What was I thinking when I volunteered to bake the wedding cake! I'm doing the groom's cake too, which will be for the rehearsal dinner. What WAS I thinking?
Linda
I read some posts before saying that you can add meringue powder to the cake mix and it will rise alittle higher. I don't remember how much though. I think a tsp. but not sure.
Are you torting the cakes and adding a filling? Maybe that will give you the heighth you would like.
Good luck!
~Josie
AmberCakes is right, if you tort the cake, depending on what you are filling it with, you may achieve your desired height.
It also depends on your recipe. Does your recipe produce a dense moist cake instead of a lighter, fluffy one? If you simply are not happy with the layer's height, then add 1 more cup of batter.
Also, if you are not feeling confident, I would suggest purchasing Dede Wilson's Wedding Cakes You Can Make book. It walks you through the whole process with great tips and her recipes are awesome.
Good luck.
I fill my pans more than halfway, and after cutting crusts off, is usually the perfect height. I never rely on it rising perfectly, I would rather it was too big than too small. 
I also mix up huge batches in my mixers, as long as it will fit at one time, if it saves me time, I do it and have never had a problem.
Patton, I have my first wedding cake on June 10 too, so I share your nervousness! Hard to believe it's only a month or so away!
I generally use scratch and find that they do not rise as high as a mix. If you fill your pans a little higher, it should be fine. As Ambercakes suggested, if you torte each layer, you will end up with three layers of filling for each tier, which will add more height. Most wedding cakes around here are done this way - plus it makes a really nice presentation on the plate.
As far as mixing three batches of batter at once - I've ever only done two. Scratch recipes can be a little tempermental and you have to follow the recipe to a T. I plan to do my 16" layer like an assembly line... have all the ingredients measured out ahead of time so after I make the first batch, I can start right in on the second batch. Plus, I think I'd make a heck of a mess w/ a triple recipe - the flour would be flying! LOL
Don't worry - you'll do great! I, myself, plan to pull an all-nighter that night - until very recently, i thought May 10 was a Sunday :'(
This is totally off topic, but how did you guys come to do paid cakes? I'm still at the point where I'm making ones and giving them away to prove/show that I'm capable of producing something someone might want to pay for (lol), but I would eventually like to do more than that.
I'm not neccessarily looking to start my own business per say, but I think you know what I mean!
Any tips on how you ended up there?
Thanks for the suggestions and advice, everyone. This has got to be the most helpful forum around! I will try torting (is that a word?) on one of the practice cakes I'm going to be making between now and the wedding, and I will also try adding another cup of batter to the pans, and see which works best for me and the wedding cake. I have a month to practice...so by June 10, hopefully, I will end up with a pretty cake that tastes great. The cake is on page 36 of Wilton Wedding Cakes, A Romantic Portfolio, if anyone wants to take a peek.
I'm icing my 10" practice cake now. It turned ened up being 3 and 1/2 inches tall--I really think it should be higher, but maybe it's Ok. It is dense and kind of heavy...but I love the flavor and mostly use this yellow cake recipe when I bake cakes. The recipe comes from The Well-Decorated Cake book by Toba Garrett--one of my favorite cake books.
Anyway...I find it fun and relaxing to decorate cakes...so that's what I must keep reminding myself, right? This wedding cake will turn out beautifully...even if it being baked by the frazzled mother of the groom.
Linda
My scratch cakes are never as high as the cake mixes. However after toying around with several recipes, I am sooo excited to have a vanilla cake that rises well, and tastes really good too. I'm trying to get everything over to baking from scratch. The only one I have yet to find is a moist, yummy, completely from scratch strawberry cake...maybe one day.=)
dolcesunshine20, is the vanilla from-scratch cake here in the recipe section? Also, do you have a really, really good chocolate cake recipe from scratch recipe?
Linda
No, I haven't written out my recipes as of yet. I'll see if i can get that to work. I have a killer chocolate cake!!!! Personally I love it! For some it may be too much chocolate though.
Okay, I just added my cake recipe. It's called Vanilla Bride's Cake. I'll try the chocolate a little later.
Thanks for posting the recipe. I can't find it though. I did a brief search for "Vanilla Bride's Cake" and came up empty. Hmmm...I probably did something wrong. Tomorrow I will look for it again. And I'm looking forward to the chocolate recipe too.
Linda
It is there and thanks for posting. I can't wait to try it, it looks good.
I can never get the search function on this website to work properly. You just have to click on the pages near the end under the proper heading and search alphabetically.
thanks again, can't wait for the chocolate recipe. I have a couple favorties, but they still are not perfect.
Okay, I just submitted the chocolate cake. I called it Killer Chocolate Cake.
Thanks for posting the recipe. I can't find it though. I did a brief search for "Vanilla Bride's Cake" and came up empty. Hmmm...I probably did something wrong. Tomorrow I will look for it again. And I'm looking forward to the chocolate recipe too.
Linda
Well, I'm looking for both the recipes I submitted and I can't find either one of them! I tried the scrolling alphabetically thing and still nothing. If you can't find it, Linda, just let me know and I PM it to you.
Sherilyn
Patton, I'm sure you will do a great job! If you still think the cakes are short, you can-
1. Tort them twice and fill with icing or filling-don't forget to make a dam for the filling. Just in case! LOL.
2. Or you can make 2 cakes then put them together, but ice and/or fill the cakes between them-so you will actually not be torting them at all. Yes, that's a cake word. LOL.
I hope that makes sense!
JulieBugg2000-usually cake orders come by word of mouth. To help it along- take a cake to work for the lunch room or office- Or if you have a child in school-take a cake to the teachers lounge and leave business cards (well not really business but your information). Leave them near the cake.
Don't forget-teacher appreciation week-it's this week here where i'm at in Virginia (USA). I even heard of some cake decorators taking cakes to there local fire station. Good luck!
~Josie
"Okay, I just submitted the chocolate cake. I called it Killer Chocolate Cake."
LOL, I love the title. It won't kill me though, right? 
Again, the search function does not really work like it should on this site. After you type in "Killer Chocolate Cake" and hit "search", it is #22 or around that number on the list.
Thanks again for posting. I will try this.
LOL, I love the title. It won't kill me though, right?
Ha ha!!! No, it shouldn't kill you, just any diet you or your clients might be on!!! Okay, I finally found both the recipes. Thanks for enlightening me!!!
BTW, these recipes are both in the larger version that I use for weddings and such. If you just wanted to try it, you should probably cut it in half.
Well my practice wedding cake 10" tier that I baked over the weekend did not turn out so great. I think I must have forgotten to double the vanilla, as it doesn't have much taste. And it is a bit dry. It has always tasted very good when I bake this recipe for an 8" cake. Oh well. I have time to practice before June 10 gets here. The icing did taste good though, so I won't have to worry about that.
Linda
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