My First Wedding Cake And I Am Terrified!!!!!!
Decorating By karebere Updated 14 Aug 2006 , 8:38pm by karebere
OK so I have a good friend who is getting married the second week of August and she asked me to do her cake. I thought she was just trying to give me a compliment so I told her that I appreciated it but I didn't think I was up to that level yet. She finally talked me into it and so I think we are doing a 6" 10" and 14" rounds on the floating stand. She is having fresh red roses in her bouquets and going to use them on the tables as well. She wanted to use these on the cakes so I guess that is a bonus for me not to have to do anything to intricate. She asked to have the cakes done in the basket weave and even though I have never done it, I think I could pull this off. I really like the look of the contemporariy basket weave by Martha that kittiskakes has in the articles and I am sure she would love it as well. I was wondering if anyone besides kittiskakes has tried this and is it really difficult? I mean could a newbie do it? She also asked me to do some sheet cakes to help feed the rest of the guests. Great but if we are using real roses on the actual wedding cake can I do this on the sheet cake as well? I am terrified that I will ruin her day if the cakes don't turn out. She told me that one would have to be pretty shallow to be upset at something like that but I am still terrified. I want it to turn out good not only for her, but maybe it will drum me up some more business. If anyone has any other suggestions please feel free to share. She is very open and she says "a smiple girl" so I know what ever I want to do will pretty much be OK with her. Sorry for the long post but I really need some input! 
TIA
Karrie
Well, after viewing your cake photos, I believe you will be fine! I have never done the new basketweave, but the regular one is very easy to do. And it's true, that when they use real flowers for the wedding cake, it does let some of the pressure off of us decorators. Good luck!
The sheet cakes do not have to be decorated with roses, like the main cake. Just add a simple border. You won't even have to bring them out of the kitchen unless they start running out of cake.
Just practice the basketweave in advance, that will take away all your worries.
Maybe you can do a test run, if it is financially feasible for you. (Use the cheap powdered sugar and butter, no flavorings etc) I did this for my first wedding cake that I did last year. It relieved a lot of the pressure and uncertainty. Good luck!
Oh I wish I would be asked to do basket weave. Don't panic because in a basketweave if you make a little mistake, it won't show as much. Also I did fresh flowers too and it made cake beautiful. Just practice on flat surface first, then doing the sides of a cake. Sides were the hardest part for me.
Your cakes are beautiful ! And the basketweave will cover any mistakes you make....... just practice so your lines are fairly straight, and you shouldn't have any problems at all.... Make sure you pipe a shell boarder or something around the top and bottom.... that too will cover any parts that might not meet or something..... And make sure if you put the stems of the flowers into the cake,you wrap them in plastic wrap first.... You and the cake will be GREAT !
Thanks so much for all of your suggestions. I am still feeling a little overwhelmed but you all have made me not so terrified. I think I will practice the basket weave on a round cake or two. I can always get rid of cake even if it is not so good looking!!! I am sure you all know what I mean by that 
! I may even get brave and try the cont basket weave. Thanks for the tip on the rose stems being covered wtih saran wrap first, I would have never thought of that on my own! ! ! ! ! Thanks again everyone! The wedding is not until Aug but I will let you know how it turns out.
Karrie
I recently did my first wedding cake. It turned out fine, but I will definitely do some things differently next time. Here are some things I would suggest:
Don't bake and decorate on the same day.
Make sure to buy two large cooling racks for your 14" cake. One to cool on and one to flip onto. (I didn't think about this one and had to put a bunch of small cooling racks together and boy, was it a task!).
Use flower nails as heat conductors, instead of a heating core. They leave very small holes and work better, in my opinion. Use one or two in your 10" round and three or four in your 14" cake.
Bake on 325 degrees, especially for the 14" cake.
Make sure to have some cake circles on hand so you can flip each top cake onto one and then slide it off of the board onto the bottom cake(ex. 6" on 6" for a two cake high layer). You can probably use your hands on for the 6" and maybe the 10", but you'll definitely need something to help you on the 14" or the cake will fall apart. Trust me, I almost had to rebake my bottom layer because I hadn't thought about larger cakes needing more support in the middle.
Make your icing ahead of time and refridgerate or freeze it. You can also do this with the cakes if you have space. (Oh, and if you place the cakes in plastic wrap shortly after you flip them out of the pan, they stay much moister because the moisture being released from the cake goes back into the cake. You can leave them on the counter this way or put them in the fridge or freezer.)
I would definitely practice the basketweave ahead of time. It's not hard, but you'll feel more comfortable that way. Also, I would do a practice tier of the wedding cake ahead of time. Just use the 6" round and practice on that.
Also, if you have freezer space, you can ice your tiers ahead of time and freeze them. Then, all you have to do is place them on the counter the day before to defrost. I recently experimented and this worked fine (no freezer taste or other new flavors) with buttercream, cream cheese buttercream, and crusting cream cheese icing.
If you don't have freezer/refridgerator space, definitely give yourself two separate days of decorating time. That way, if your arm gets tired doing the basketweave, you can take a break and go back to it. Remember that a buttercream or cream cheese buttercream cake can sit on the counter for up to 5 days in a 70 degree temperature. I would only leave them on the counter for two or three days, but I've tried the five day time scale and it was fine.
I don't know about you, but since I don't do this as a profession, my arm muscles don't have the endurance to do extensive decorating on three cakes one right after the other. By the time I did the brush embroidery on the side of my third cake for the wedding cake, my arm was really tired. I decorated them one right after the other and I won't do that again.
Hope this helps!
I am so sorry to everyone who had to read my post four times! I tried to post that comment two times this morning and the site was acting funny and told me it didn't go through both times, so I sent a pm. I just got online to take a peek and not only did the comment post, but it posted four times and the website won't let me delete the extras. So sorry, everyone!
Have faith in your ability. I too was asked to do my first wedding cake last year for a cousin and I really stressed to the max., but then calmed down when I realised she didn't care what the end result looked like, she just wanted my to be a lasting part of her special day, anway things turned out all ok as I am sure they will for you. Best of luck and remember this is a fantastic site with lots of helpful and caring people.
Anna
OK So I did my first wedding cake and it really turned out beautiful 
. Sorry to be vain but I was so worried that it wouldn't work out. I am pretty pleased at the way it turned out. I could have used anoher right hand before I finished the basket weave on cake # 4 (a 14 inch square for extra servings)(cramps ugh!). Luckily the fresh roses/flowers hid my not so smooth areas on the top. The bride was extremely pleased and that is what really counts. I do have to say that my poor almost 2 year old daughter probably heard "don't touch that" way to much in one day for her taste! Thanks for all of the tips and suggestions all of you were willing to send my way!!!! You helped me be a huge success!!!!!
Thanks again You Are All The Greatest
PS
The top layer is golden vanilla /blueberry filling
second layer is golden vanilla/cream cheese pudding / blueberry filling
bottom layer is devis food/raspberry cream cheese filling
14 square was golden vanilla/caramel apple filling
Oh and the bow is a decoration on the wall behind the cake !
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