Making A Wedding Cake

When I started making my brother and sister-in-law's wedding cake, I was very nervous. I have done plenty of cakes, but I still consider myself an amateur. On top of that, I've never done a WEDDING cake before. There was no room for flaws. This cake had to be perfect. Fortunately, the design was very simple, and the bride and groom had faith in me, which made me feel a little better.

I am never alone when I make a cake. I always have my baking buddies with me. They are Danielle and Marlene. This time, they were with me via iPhone chats :) I flooded them with pictures and they encouraged me along the way. Thanks guys!

Here's a summary of how it went.
They wanted the cake to be a traditional white cake with white frosting. So I made them a sour cream cake (so it was very moist) with cream cheese frosting. It was a square cake with three tiers; 12", 9", 6". Each tier had three layers of cake with the frosting filling between each layer.
To bake the cakes, I always use these liners around the outside edge of the pan. You soak them with water right before attaching to the pan. This helps the whole cake to bake evenly, so you don't get a dry edge and an uncooked middle. It is a must for larger cakes.

After baking, they went straight into the freezer. This preserved the freshness, since I started so far in advance. They stayed in the freezer until closer to the wedding day when I could ice them.

Next, I stacked three layers of cake with the filling in between, and applied the "dirty icing". Dirty icing is the first coat of frosting around the cake. It usually gets crumbs from the cake in it, making it look dirty (get it?). After the dirty icing, you apply another layer of fresh icing that won't have any crumbs in it.

I always have to wear my cupcake apron that Marlene gave me whenever I make cakes. Boy toy I look tired in this picture. Maybe it has something to do with running after a 1 year old all day while trying to make a cake at the same time.

Now time for the fondant. In order to allow the fondant to drape off the sides and trip it up to look smooth, I place each cake (which is already on a cake board) on top of something that is smaller in diameter. Here I used a coffee can. I then roll out the fondant, and smooth it onto the cake.

At this point, the rehearsal dinner was about to start at the same location I was making the cake at, and I didn't want the bride an groom to see it yet. So I placed each tier in my parents bathroom on a card table. Don't worry, it was clean and no one used the bathroom until after the cakes were removed. I promise!

After the dinner, I had to decide which size ribbon to apply. The options were 1 1/2 "...

...or 7/8 "

Definitely glad I used 1 1/2". Next I applied sugar pearls. They are edible little pearls made of sugar. They were applied in a diamond pattern on the side of each tier.

Oh no! A mistake!! Well, I've never made a cake that didn't have some sort of "oops" moment. This little crater happened as I was applying the pearls.

The method I used to apply the pearls was this: I made a template on paper. I then held the paper up to the side of the cake and poked tiny holes with a toothpick to mark each spot. The toothpick is what made the little crater.

To fix this, I took a bit of extra fondant, and smoothed it into place, then placed the pearl on top. You can see the fixed version here, the spot was where the very left end pearl is. I did this with a few more dimples too.

 The morning of the wedding, we drove the cake to the reception sight. My wonderful driver was none other than Richard himself. He's transported a few cakes for me, and he's pretty good at knowing how to drive with a cake in the car. Trust me, it's hard.

The cakes looked so lonely in the back by themselves, so I decided to keep them company on the drive. Ok, maybe I was just scared something would happen, but hey, who wouldn't be?

We got to the hotel safe and sound. Thank the Lord! Now time to stack the cake. This is the exciting part when it all comes together! To support the tier above, I used very thick straws.

Middle tier, check!

Top tier, check!

Cake topper, check!

A happy bride and groom to make the first cut, Check!

Aaaahhhh my reward :) OK the real reward was actually seeing my brother and sister-in-law on their wedding day so happy. But the cake slice was nice too.