How I Made My Own Wedding Cake
Two weeks have passed since my wedding, and I am so happy that I made the wedding cake myself. However, this is not the best decision for everyone. Before you make your wedding cake, there are many things to consider.
MY LATEST VEDIS
In retrospect, it’s the only way I could imagine. Since we were engaged, I had been daydreaming of our wedding cake. In my head, I imagined something elegant, simple, and decorated with flowers.
I wanted to choose a design that was manageable and wouldn’t cause me any additional stress the week before my wedding. I wanted to be proud when I cut our wedding cake in front of family and friends.
I made our cake in advance, delivered it to our venue on the morning of the wedding and had a great time at our wedding.
I want to share with you the steps I took to make our wedding cake and my tips, just in case you are as crazy as I am and want to do the same thing.
Do a little math and plan.
I still have to get used to calling him that. My husband (who is still getting used to saying that!) and I love Funfetti cakes, so I made our wedding cake using my recipe.
I had to bake a large cake to accommodate all of our guests.
I used my cake size guide to help me decide on my options. In the end, I chose a combination that would allow us some extra servings.
Our wedding cake had tiers of 12 inches, 10 inches, 8 inches, and 6 inches. Each tier consisted of 3 cake layers, each about an inch high.
This size cake will feed approximately 134 people. I wanted to make sure that there would be enough cake for everyone (my slices are usually on the larger side) and also to have extras just in case someone wanted seconds.
Calculating how many batches of cake batter I would need to make required some math. My cake batter calculator helped me determine that I would need to make six batches of cake.
The morning before, I had changed my mind from using four layers to 3. It meant that I only needed to make six batches instead of seven.
This allowed me to prepare the ingredients and have everything ready before I began baking. Planning is key!!
Make your cake layers in advance.
When people think of freezing layers or baking layers in advance, they seem frightened. They get scared when they imagine a dry, crumbly cake that has been frozen.
The cake was eaten on Sunday, and the layers were baked on Tuesday. I wish I had made them earlier (properly packaged cakes keep well in the freezer for several weeks), but I did not have time to do so.
Cake layers that are properly sealed will not be dry. Frozen cake layers are moister and taste better.
Wrapping and freezing my cake layers while they are still warm will help to lock in the steam.
This will result in a delicious, moist and delicious cake layer. To make cake layers ahead, you need to wrap them properly to seal them in the goodness and keep them safe from your freezer.
You can wrap your layers in many different ways, and all of them work. This blog post explains the best way to freeze cake layers and gives all my tips for making cakes ahead.
You can also prepare your frosting in advance!!
This concept is not limited to the cake layers. You can also make your frosting in advance.
I made the frosting the Tuesday before our wedding. Seven batches of American buttercream were made for our wedding cake.
When it comes to wedding cake, you only need 1 batch of frosting for every batch of cake batter.
In reality, I use around 1.25 to 1.5 batches of frosting for my 7- or 8-inch cake layers. These cakes have four layers and are decorated with additional frosting (such as fun swirls). ).
Wedding cakes are usually two or three layers and don’t have additional frosting decorations. The frosting is not as thick as on a tall, fancy-layer cake.
I had about half of the frosting left over, so I put it into piping bags.
It was great to fill in any gaps after the tiers had been assembled. I brought a bag to the venue with me for any last-minute touch-ups.
How to Add Supports to Your Tiers
You must support your cake properly when making a tiered cake!
I used bubble tea straws to ensure that it would survive the 10 hours at room temperature it was required to spend before cutting into it.
Each tier of the cake must have support. It’s important that your cake can support its weight and maintain its shape on the wedding day.
Others use bubble tea straws, while others use wooden dowels. It’s not as wild as it sounds; they work great! Bubble tea straws are easier to cut, so I use them.
A thick wooden dowel in the centre of your wedding cake will help keep it centred. This wooden dowel acts as a guide when you stack your tiers and helps keep them stable while transporting.
It’s much easier to slide the cakes onto the central dowel when it is sharpened.
I was shocked when I heard this and didn’t know how to sharpen my dowels. Amazon doesn’t sell sharpened wooden dowels. I have looked and can confirm that they are not available on Amazon. !
I live in a small apartment in Manhattan. I do not have power tools. It seemed impossible to change the shape of a dowel. Most wooden dowels have flat ends. How can I make that into a point?!
Most central dowels, however, are made of bamboo. Bamboo is a softwood. You can make it a point with sandpaper.
After a few minutes, you will have a nice point on your dowel.
Assembling Your Cake
It’s less stressful to assemble the cake first before transporting it. Transporting a cake should be simple as long as it is supported properly.
I assembled the cake Thursday and cleaned my fridge to fit a 16-inch cake board.
All of our shelves and almost everything in our refrigerator had to be removed. Since we don’t cook much, this was a good thing for us. I mostly removed beer and seltzer.
It’s also because I can use extra frosting to fill any gaps in between the rotating cake stands.
A rotating cake stand makes this process so much easier. It allows you to complete all the work before you get to the venue or, in my case, before your wedding.
It was so easy to assemble my cake before our wedding, so I could spend time with family and friends.
On the morning of the wedding, all that remained was adding fresh flowers!
Fresh Flowers
Fresh flowers on a cake are something that can’t be added in advance.
It’s okay to buy them the night before and store them in water. But you shouldn’t put them on a cake the morning of.
They will wilt if you add them too early. Water is needed to keep flowers from wilting. They can lose their shine if they are added to a cake more than one day before the event.
You have to believe me. It is a little more difficult, but it’s worth it. You will regret adding them the previous day.
The day before my wedding, I went to the local florist with my mom to pick up some flowers.
I soaked them overnight and then cut the flowers to 1 inch on the morning of the wedding.
I wrapped each stem with floral tape to prevent any stem fluid from leaking into the cake. Wrapping the stems prevents bitterness from these fluids.
Clear bubble tea straws were used to secure the flowers on the cake’s sides. Bubble tea straws, which are thick plastic straws, work well for adding flowers to cakes.
You can place the flowers at any angle you like.
It will help keep the flowers in place and not ruin your cake’s sides. It isn’t easy to press flower stems into a cake by themselves!
Transporting the cake to the venue
Although some people disagree with this viewpoint, I almost always assemble my models before transporting them. It all depends on your personal preference and the mode of transport you use.
A cake box is an important part of the cake transport process!! Moving boxes from Home Depot are the best for wedding cake boxes.
These are available in many sizes, they are strong, and they are cheap! These are less than $2 and can hold the weight of an entire wedding cake.
I tape the box in place and then use an X-Acto knife to cut a flap to allow me to slide the cake inside. Then, I tape the flap and am ready to go!
The cake was quite tall, but it still fit an Uber XL. It was incredibly heavy! It was too heavy for me to lift.
Two of my closest friends helped me get into Uber and then the venue.
When I transport a wedding, I hold the cake on my lap to keep it safe.
Uber drivers think I’m insane and try to convince me to put the cake in the back. But I refuse. I move the weight of the cake while the drip is going on to counteract the potholes and sudden stops which are inevitable in any car ride through NYC.
Naturally, I insisted on carrying my wedding cake myself. The most terrifying part of my wedding was carrying our cake down a flight of wet steps into our venue.
The cake was on the table for the remainder of the day. I had a huge adrenaline rush when I brought it down the steps.
Let The Cake Sit
The venue allowed us to drop off our cake as early as 10 am on the day of our wedding.
I couldn’t drop it off because I needed to add fresh flowers the next morning! The cake wasn’t cut until 8 pm the night before.
If the cake is supported properly, this shouldn’t be a problem. The cake was perfectly shaped and looked great when we cut it.
Our wedding photographer hasn’t yet sent us photos, but when I do, I will add those of us eating our cake!
Final Tips
It was exhausting, even though the pictures look amazing, and I am so glad I made our cake! It took 18 hours in total to make.
This timeline is long because I can’t bake more than one layer at a given time.
After baking and preparing everything, I felt as if I had been hit by a truck. This was the worst baking-related hangover I’ve ever had.
This hit on Thursday and was gone before the wedding celebrations began.