This past weekend I was fortunate enough to have not one, but two bridal showers thrown for me (by my maid of honor and a soon-to-be sister-in-law). I decided to take the opportunity to practice making my wedding cake since there would be plenty of people to eat the cake.
Honestly the hardest part of the whole process was simply baking all the cake. I have one set of tiered cake pans (6 inch, 8 inch, 10 inch, and 12 inch) and one extra 8 inch pan, so most of the layers had to be done one size at a time, although I did bake a few at once (the 12 inch and the 6 inch, both 8 inches, etc.). It took me many, many, many hours to do that. The rest was a piece of cake in comparison (ha, ha, ha....).
There were a few specific things I was practicing or deciding:
1) I wanted to practice stacking the cakes
2) I wanted to decide between fondant and butter cream
3) I wanted to try making my own fondant
4) I needed to decide between using edible pearls or dimensional dots for the scroll work
5) I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with any gum paste flowers
I did a few things in advance that really helped. I made a marshmallow fondant a few days before hand, as well as a few batches of butter cream icing. I also cut out all my parchment circles and planned out which layers I would bake when ahead of time. While I was baking, I discovered that 1 batch of batter fills either (2) 8-inch pans or (1) 10-inch pan and (1) 6 inch pan and that a double batch fills both 12 inch pans.
After the cakes were baked and cooled I leveled them and torted each cake in half (except for the 12 inch layers, which I only leveled and stacked for stability). I filled with cream cheese icing and dirty iced the butter cream layers (the 10 inch and 6 inch layers) on their own cake boards. After a few minutes in the refrigerator I put the final icing layer on. While those were in the fridge, I put a boxed Wilton fondant on the 6 inch layer and my marshmallow fondant on the 12 inch layer. I did not end up stacking the entire cake, just the 12 inch and 10 inch together and the 8 inch and 6 inch together. I brought each section to a different shower:
For the top two tiers, I decorated with a green strip of fondant at the base of the top cake (our wedding colors are green and brown). On the 6 inch tier I drew the swirls on with butter cream and then used a tweezers to fill the line with edible pearls. On the 8 inch tier I used butter cream to create dimensional dots for the swirls. Since I didn't have my cake topper (a traditional bride and groom used by the women on my mom's side of the family), I filled the top with gum paste roses.
Most people voted for the butter cream icing on this cake and everyone liked the pearls better. I was unsatisfied with how the ribbon turned out, so I decided to try something different on the next two tiers.
For the second party, I brought the 12 inch and 10 inch tiers. I used the pearls on the entire cake, since that was the clear winner from the other day. I also changed up the ribbon- instead of green, I marbled a strip green and brown. I was much happier with how it looked (I'll hide the seam behind flowers next time), and so were the people who had been at both showers. The idea of marbling was actually inspired by my maid of honor, Bethany, so a big thanks to her!! I also changed up what I did with the roses, and I'm nearly positive this will actually be what I end up doing on the final cake.
This time, it was split about half and half on the marshmallow fondant vs. butter cream icing. In light of that, I'll probably go with the fondant since I'll be assembling my cake at the reception venue and I feel like it's just a little safer to work with.
I'm so excited to make my actual cake now!!
-Beth
Honestly the hardest part of the whole process was simply baking all the cake. I have one set of tiered cake pans (6 inch, 8 inch, 10 inch, and 12 inch) and one extra 8 inch pan, so most of the layers had to be done one size at a time, although I did bake a few at once (the 12 inch and the 6 inch, both 8 inches, etc.). It took me many, many, many hours to do that. The rest was a piece of cake in comparison (ha, ha, ha....).
There were a few specific things I was practicing or deciding:
1) I wanted to practice stacking the cakes
2) I wanted to decide between fondant and butter cream
3) I wanted to try making my own fondant
4) I needed to decide between using edible pearls or dimensional dots for the scroll work
5) I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with any gum paste flowers
I did a few things in advance that really helped. I made a marshmallow fondant a few days before hand, as well as a few batches of butter cream icing. I also cut out all my parchment circles and planned out which layers I would bake when ahead of time. While I was baking, I discovered that 1 batch of batter fills either (2) 8-inch pans or (1) 10-inch pan and (1) 6 inch pan and that a double batch fills both 12 inch pans.
After the cakes were baked and cooled I leveled them and torted each cake in half (except for the 12 inch layers, which I only leveled and stacked for stability). I filled with cream cheese icing and dirty iced the butter cream layers (the 10 inch and 6 inch layers) on their own cake boards. After a few minutes in the refrigerator I put the final icing layer on. While those were in the fridge, I put a boxed Wilton fondant on the 6 inch layer and my marshmallow fondant on the 12 inch layer. I did not end up stacking the entire cake, just the 12 inch and 10 inch together and the 8 inch and 6 inch together. I brought each section to a different shower:
Most people voted for the butter cream icing on this cake and everyone liked the pearls better. I was unsatisfied with how the ribbon turned out, so I decided to try something different on the next two tiers.
For the second party, I brought the 12 inch and 10 inch tiers. I used the pearls on the entire cake, since that was the clear winner from the other day. I also changed up the ribbon- instead of green, I marbled a strip green and brown. I was much happier with how it looked (I'll hide the seam behind flowers next time), and so were the people who had been at both showers. The idea of marbling was actually inspired by my maid of honor, Bethany, so a big thanks to her!! I also changed up what I did with the roses, and I'm nearly positive this will actually be what I end up doing on the final cake.
This time, it was split about half and half on the marshmallow fondant vs. butter cream icing. In light of that, I'll probably go with the fondant since I'll be assembling my cake at the reception venue and I feel like it's just a little safer to work with.
I'm so excited to make my actual cake now!!
-Beth
