making the cake...

[rainbowtrout]

So I really, really want to make my own wedding cake. It''s pretty much my only "wedding fantasy" I''ve had for any length of time.

Has anyone done this? What tools did you buy? Did you go insane or was it fun?


I don''t want fondant so much, I want it to look deliciously edible and be chocolate on the inside. I saw a Martha Stewart Weddings one that was devil''s food with white buttercream icing--yum!

 

[MissAva]

I have not made my own wedding cake, and to be honest the idea terrifies me, but you might find help here Wilton Wedding website, they have step by step instructions and a discussion forum. I hope this helps!


I have used the little fake erings on friends engagement party cakes, they always go over well!

 

[Tiffany1976]

My mom used to/ makes the best wedding cakes. There is alot to it. Usually she makes the cake part about a week before and freezes it, because otherwise there is to much to do. Buttercream is THE beest frosting. You can actually take cake decorating classes, and the most beautiful cakes (imo) are decorated with real flowers. Pick and choose stuff from Martha''s book. The pictures are beautiful, but sometimes the directions she gives for projects are not realistic. They actually don''t work in the end.

 

[peonygirl]

I definitely think you could make the cake if you didn''t expect perfection and had the right tools. You''re going to need a lot of big bowls for mixing ingredients and big pans for baking the layers. My biggest fear would be transporting the cake from your house to the reception site. If you assembled it on-site, it probably wouldn''t be too bad though. Good luck, and let us know what you decide!

 

[flopkins]

well, a friend and I tried this, bc we were considering doing this. We used a Martha Stewart recipe from Julia Child or something. It was some kind of apricot filling... can't remember.

Let me tell you, it was a huge undertaking. It took the two of us three days (well, more like three nights) to make a cake for 50 ppl. Day one was baking the layers. Day two was assembling the layers with the filling and making the buttercream frosting. Day three was final assembly into tiers and frosting.

Let's just say it was very time consuming and also quite expensive, almost $3-4pp because we used really expensive ingredients, like the almond paste, butter, eggs, and cream. I think if you shop around for pricing it might be less, we just bought everything at the local supermarket.

The other major hurdle was that with regular home supplies it's very hard to make such large quantities of cake mix - we had to do it in multiple batches, which is what was so time consuming - even using a 11cup food processor, which is pretty much the largest you usually find for home use.

Plus, it didn't look that great. We weren't very good at the frosting... I would highly recommend taking a decorating class if you don't have much experience. Buttercream is yummy but also a bit harder to work with than something like fondant, which is easier to make look nice...

And I would also make the cake ahead of time and freeze it.


BUT. It tasted AWESOME. omg. it was amazing.

We made it for a friend's baby shower and everyone loved it.


ETA: You mentioned tools - I had to buy some Wilton stuff for spreading/shaping the frosting, which I didn't have, and a candy temperature thingy. But both things are useful and I've used them again afterwards.

I would also like to add my friend and I do a lot of baking on our own, so we weren't novices at baking in general, but the sheer quantity involved was what made it hard...

also, if you are going to try this, you definitely need a helper who knows how to do the frosting. Assembly will have to be on site and the frosting will need touching up. Unless you do the separate layers thing, that might work well. But I don't know how long you can refrigerate an already frosted cake, probably only a day (or two?) at most, so you would have to do a lot of it last minute. Also with buttercream (or any cream based frosting) you HAVE to refrigerate, so that's a logistical problem, which is why the whole fondant thing is popular.

Or maybe you can make a small one to cut that's decorated nicely and then just have sheet cake in the back, that would make things a lot easier.

 

[rainbowtrout]

Interesting--good to know guys. I think it will really depend on where we do the reception. If we do it all (ceremony and reception) and my grandparents house, I might attempt the whole assemble-on-site bit and make the big layer cake from scratch. Otherwise I might make a little cake for display (maybe a few tiers, but little ones) and then do the sheet cake bit.

I suppose I could also do cupcakes.

Anyway, I have at least a year to contemplate it, so plenty of time for a cake decorating class (which I wanted to do anyway)

BTW, flopkins, I thought 3-4 per piece was still better than the average catering of about 7-8 pp, right?

 

[flopkins]

rainbowtrout - the quotes I was looking at for cakes were in the $4-10 range where I am, so it''s not unreasonable by any stretch, but I guess I *thought* I would be able to save more money than that, like maybe $2pp. We actually ended up w/no cake at all, and served ice cream instead, but that''s another story...

I think it all depends how many total guests you''re looking at, and how much fun it is for you.

If you have a year I''d definitely do a couple trial runs to see how it turns out... then you''ll get and idea how feasible it is for you. I highly recommend a friend or two to help though! plus you''ll have very yummy fruits of your labor to share afterwards! hehe.

 

[AmberWaves]

I agree that it''s a lot of hard work, but it''s fun, too! Did you see the latest Martha Stewart Weddings? It has tons of cakes and fillings and icings, with recipes.. I was actually at a reception this weekend (nightmare reception- freezing cold outside, no heaters or tents!!), that had cupcakes, but the frosting got so cold it hardened- and didn''t taste so good. Also, I took a cake decorating class, and I loved it. SO much fun!! Good luck!

 

[rainbowtrout]

there will be about 50 people, I think. I''m trying to put out feelers now since I''m going to have to hit the ground running with planning when I get back from abroad.


Another thing that I thought might work was individual cakes for the tables so that you don''t have to stack the huge layers...


Amber: YES I saw that issue! The cake that just got me was the huge devils food one with white frosting and chocolate sauce. There was a little girl standing next to this huge yummy looking cake This was also the one with diamonds on the cover

 

[AmberWaves]

RainbowT: I LOVE the idea of different small cakes per table. That''s a great idea, and that way you can mix it up- taste wise!

 

[E B]

Rainbow,

I think the small, individual table cakes are the best idea! If you want easy frosting, here's an example of what we're doing:

Can you see how the icing looks sort of spackled on (it's kind of hard to see, but look closely)? We're going to have a cake iced like this, simple, but with two small butterflies on the second and top tiers (no flowers or cake toppers). I think it'll look classic, and in your case, probably much easier than fondant.