AI signed up due to making a wedding cake, I'm stressing as its my own. I thought I'd manage fine (do it a week before and freeze) however after reading LOTS of different things I'm feeling rather confused. Its my 1st tiered cake and at the minute the only good thing is that I have a year to practice! I'm not completely inexperienced with cakes but I'm definitely a novice where 3" deep cakes and tiering is concerned. Lol. Any help would most definitely be appreciated.
My idea is a 3 tiered cake, lemon on top, chocolate with orange cream in the middle and a plain buttercream bottom all white iced with a lilac decoration on top centre cascading down the side and lilac ribbon. I was going to dowel the cake with the long one going through all 3 tiers but I've read I'd have to use discs too? Are they absolutely necessary?? I've bought 3" deep tins (6,9,12) but having second thoughts after reading some other posts.. what's a flower nail and wax strips? I'm going to be doing a trial run soon but only two tier as there can't be that much difference in doing three. Am I as out of my depth as I feel right now?
Good thing you have a year to practice! Ok...instead of doweling I would highly recommend the SPS system. It is reasonably priced and very sturdy. There is a youtube tutorial for it. You Absolutely must have support discs between your tiers. You also need sturdy cake recipes..
A flower nail is explained here. It helps the cake bake evenly. I assume you mean bake even strips instead of wax strips?? They are great and keep your cake from doming so you don't have to cut off a lot.
Traditional tiers are 4". (2) 2" tiers...often sliced in half and filled (torted)
Since it is your own cake and you are the only one that knows your skill level, you are the only one that can say if you are out of your depth
Also how many guests are you expecting? How did you come up with those 3 tiers of that size?
Don't get stressed out already! You have a year...Why did you decide to bake your own cake?
AThank you for replying! Just looked up sps, I'd never even heard of it. It looks a lot sturdier than dowels.. I was planning on slicing the one into two. As for cake size I'm not quite sure, more for wow factor as we don't need the quantity. It's kind of a DIY wedding as we don't have a lot of cash, we've recently had a baby so only my hubby to be is working and I'm not on maternity as my boss wasn't pleasant about my having time off over an ectopic pregnancy and a miscarriage so I quit and caught before finding another job.. I shall look up flower nail next and yes I guess I did mean bake even strips lol sorry.. I think I'm letting myself get overwhelmed I always over think things. What sized tiers would you recommend we've got around a hundred guests so can go a lot smaller but I still want it to stand out. Something I can be proud of.
Wilton has a serving chart http://www.wilton.com/cakes/making-cakes/baking-wedding-cake-2-inch-pans.cfm those sizes will serve exactly 100 (good guess!) IF you go with 4" tiers. But not everyone will eat cake anyway. Depends on if you are comfortable going with less than 100 servings if you use 3" tiers. Also you need to cut the cake like this http://www.wilton.com/cakes/cake-cutting-guides/wedding-cake-cutting-guide.cfm. Wedding cake slices are not the huge slabs most are used to eating so if you don't follow the chart or a similart you will be short. The bake even strips help the cake....welll...bake even..lol. So I would not use a flower nail with your small tiers if you use them. I love them. Maybe the 12"....
AI thought I'd replied last night, mustn't have sent! Yeah, I'm hoping the fact that majority of guests are kids, my other half as 5 kid brothers and sisters, we've got 2 kids, we also have about 7 other children coming, that it'll go in my favour. However kids normally over indulge don't they.. Hmmm. I do feel a bit more relaxed about it, with special thanks to you. I think the 12 tin is the scariest part at the minute. I've done party cakes and decorative icing, made a golf gti once and my partner loved it. I love my plain sponge recipe and meringue butter cream. The lemon recipe I was given and tasted -yum! the chocolate one may be heavier than the plain so might have to switch them round. Another point is I've always used ready rolled icing to cover my cakes, I have a rather small kitchen and struggle making pastry for pies smaller than my cakes. Its either make it myself and do it in the dining room on a mat at the table or seam two ready rolled on the bottom and do a little extra decoration as most of the seam will be hidden. I've had the idea of butterflies resting or silver balls and decorate the 2nd tier in the same way. (sort of like a cross, it'd be too obvious if I just did it over the seam so if I do it at the 4 points of the circle, have to make sure bottom and middle lined up perfectly though)
ALol, thats not a bad thing! I've offered do my sisters 18th birthday cake so I've got something smaller to work towards, feeling excited about that one. My worse nightmare is that something happens to cake before wedding as my back up will be a vanilla sponge from asda or something. Everything else wedding wise I've got no worries, not yet anyway apart from losing weight to get in my dress, going be hard to do practising cakes as you just have to have a piece lol
AIm sorry about your miscarriage, I had a severe ectopic a few years ago luckily we caught it just in time (that's an entirely different story but it's hard and I'm sorry you went through that). It's great that you have so much time to practice, otherwise I probably wouldn't reccomend it. However, you sound very determined so try not to stress. Your cake sounds simple and elegant. I would start with a rough sketch and inspiration colors, the more you practice the more these will change. I think using two seemed pieces of fondant will be a bad idea (I've never seen fondant like that so I cant say for sure) but it would drive me crazy. If you are worried you won't be able to roll it thin and wide enough just skip it and use BC. Again, you have plenty of time to practice!
As it gets closer you'll have a better idea of how many guests will be coming. If you want that extra tier but don't need the cake you could decorate a styrofoam (dummy cake-also a god way to practice covering) and use that in place of a tier. Sps is great, spread your baking and decorating out throughout the week(s) of the actual wedding. Just work on baking, leveling, torting, and icing a smooth cake. I like to wrap my cakes in Saran and foil and freeze/refrigerate aft baking-this helps me spread my cake making process out as well as making it easier for me to do any carving. When I'm ready I'll pull the cakes out, let them come back to room temp slightly, while covered so condensation forms on my foil instead of my cake. I use foam core underneath each cake tier (you can use cardboard circles, grease proof boards, whatever), place a blob of BC (or ganache) on the board, cake layer, filling, cake layer, filling....
AAww hun, it's not easy is it? I lost a daughter of 6 montha in 2010 and two babies in '11, 1 ectopic and 1 miscarriage. We thought we'd had 2 miscarriages but I never got seen as I'd "been through it before" turns out the bleed was a haemorrhage from the last miscarriage and I was still pregnant. Then they didn't believe I was pregnant, said it was all in my mind and it was a phantom pregnancy. Never forget any of them though... Just plod on don't we.. Erm you kind of read my mind I came on to query freezing techniques so thank you Very much you psychic you :-D
AWell I tried out the lemon cake... Never again. The sponge was too wet and broke really easily. Whether it was because I did it in the 3" tin or not i don't know, I did follow the wilton guideline, the cake rose and looked lovely, did the skewers test, was all good. Left cake to cool, sliced it in half, no problem, it just seemed gooey. trial 2 of a new recipe tomorrow
AMy lemon cake was lovely! Couldn't have been more perfect. Had rave reviews and requests for more. So happy. I can't get Sps, too much in shipping so I've gone with wilko's hidden pillars. Hoping they'll be ok, watched the video 5 times. Had no melt downs yet. YET.. but I'm now really excited about finished project now. Going to practice tiering and put a piccy on of it. Hope I feel this relaxed when it's the real deal. My partners booked off two days to babysit our toddler so I can focus.. and go shop if I botch and need anything. My method of attack is be prepared for well anything lol. I have a list of absolutely everything I need so will do one shop, just for cakey things then I can't forget anything.. hopefully and with baby taken care of I should be ok. Still worried about freezing but I'm going to make my a cake just to freeze. All trial and error I guess. Sorry if blagging heads!
ADon't take this the wrong way but don't you think with all the money you are going to spend on tools and trial and error in the next year to prepare for making your wedding cake you could probably just pay some one to do it for about the same price and not have that extra extra stress on and around your wedding which will already be super busy with out making your own cake. If you want to do it because you enjoy making cakes and you WANT to do it then fine but from the sound of it you won't be saving any money in the end. Just sayin'.
On that note... Sps rocks my world!
Sorry to hear about your loss. We lost our first at 15 weeks preggers. It was tough times! It's amazing how often it happens and a shame people to talk about it more. Also, sorry your boss sux. I went on maternity and my boss didn't hold my job. I was told a week before I was scheduled to return to work that there was no job for me. Good times:)
Practice, practice, practice:)
AOh that's fine don't worry. You have a valid point but I have a large family so instead of buying presents I'm making cakes, which means I get the practice in and spend less money. I really do want to do it myself too and I'm looking forward to it for now lol. Sorry for your experience and you're right people should talk about it more. I locked myself away for ages, didn't get me anywhere but I found my true friends.
A[IMG]http://www.cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3308639/width/200/height/400[/IMG] So I get married Saturday and have just finished making my cake. Not bad for my 1st wedding cake if I say so myself tehee x
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