I just did a wedding cake for some friends who got married 2 weeks ago... and the experience made me never want to make one again. It's just a long process with lots of steps that are easy to forget about. I don't mind birthday cakes or cupcakes, so I'll stick to those.
Sean and Robin's cake
I wish I had pictures of each step... but I don't so I'll do the best I can to describe each one. If you don't get bored and read this whole post, I'll make you a wedding cake! Except... not really.
Day 1
1. Mix your cake
You triple a recipe that makes enough to fill 1- 12" pan, 1- 9" pan, and 1- 6" pan.
If you are making a chocolate or white chocolate cake, you also need to melt your chocolate on the stove
2. Grease your pan.
Not with cooking spray, but with a layer of shortening and then cover it in flour. This can take me a good 20 minutes (I'm a bit of a perfectionist)
3. Poor your batter into your pans
4. Bake
There isn't exactly a time frame to let these bake, you just have to watch closely
5. Repeat steps 1, 2, 3, and 4
6. Let finished cakes cool
7. Level the cake tops and eat the parts you cut off (yum).
8. Take each cake out of the pan and wrap well with saran wrap (putting cardboard underneath the cake helps it not break when you flip it out)
9. Freeze your cakes overnight
This makes your cake easier to frost and also gives the cake some extra moisture... I think. And so does my mom.
10. Go to bed
So there's Day 1, if you have just a 3 tier-cake, this takes about 4 - 5 hours, if you're my mom. If you're me, it takes more like 5 - 6, and the sleeping part adds another 8 hours.
Oh my, I'm getting sick of wedding cakes just talking about it. I'll try to hurry through Day 2 of cake-making.
Day 2
1. Make your icing
2. Trace and cut out your foam-core circles to go under each cake tier
3. Take your cakes out of the freezer and take a veggie peeler and peel off all the icky-shortening-covered parts on the sides of the cake. And also get off the burnt ickiness anywhere you may see some.
4. Start with your bottom half of the tier, frost the top, then place the other half of the tier on top of that to frost.
5. Frost... frost... frost some more.
6. Go back and make your icing smooth (if you need smooth icing for fondant, or just want a smooth cake)
7. Repeat 3, 4, 5, and 6 with each tier.
8. Decorate with whatever it's supposed to be decorated with
-Sean and Robin's cake had fondant, so we had to roll out the white fondant for each tier, then put it on the cake and smooth it out... I had my mom do this because I was going too slow. :)
-I also had to die the dots for the cake, which were made of fondant. To do this, you need to "knead" your food coloring into the fondant like it's bread dough, it's a good time. Then cut out the dots with little cookie cutters or whatever, and let them sit to harden for a minute.
- Before putting the dots on, we pinned ribbon at the base of each tier, which is great because it's super easy.
- Then we filled a pastry bag with icing to stick the dots on randomly.
9. Cut your dowels. Ugh... this is the most annoying part.
Stick one dowel in the middle of your bottom tier, then you cut it, and then you measure the other dowels and get them all to be the same height.
10. Get out your yoga or non-stick mat and place it on the floor of your car and put another one on a giant cookie sheet.
11. Put your cakes on the yoga mat covered baking sheet and take out to the car.
12. Pack whatever things you might need for set up (frosting knives, extra frosting, flower clippers, etc)
13. Drive......
14. Set up your cake... this is my favorite part. Put flowers on and everything
*a word about flowers... usually people ask for flowers or some sort of decor on the cake... so don't forget to add this step, whether you make it or buy something.
15. Clean up your junk
16. Enjoy the wedding.... if you're supposed to be there.
This can take anywhere from 5 - 15 hours, depending on how elaborate the cake is... and whether or not you have your mom helping you.
Here are some pictures of the other cakes I have done (with help from mom):
Matt and Abby's cake and groom's cake, this was fun because I did it with my mom and another friend
Mallory and Wren's cake. Swoopy frosting like this is soooo easy and so pretty. I loved how this cake turned out.
And that's the end of my cake story. I hope you enjoyed it.
