Baking your own wedding cake?

Hello Mrs D soon to be!

My Gran will be making our cake but I'll be decorating it along with my Mum! Haven't thought too much about the logistics yet as we are a good couple of hours from my Gran's but going to worry about that another time!

Couldn't your venue stack the cake or is that what you're worried about? We are planning on having 3 tiers and are going to deliver them to the venue as seperate tiers so that they can put it together for us.

I did consider making our wedding cake, but similar to your it was icing it the day before the wedding that put me off. I'll probably be too busy stressing to worry about that.

I was going to buy a cake stand that separates the tiers. Don't know if you have thought about these? That would make it easier for someone else if you aren't going to be able to stack it.

I've seen a few that have been made by B2Bs and they looked fab, maybe they will pop a long and give you a bit more advice.

Thanks girls!

Robinsr that is so sweet that your gran is giong to make your cake! We are hiring a local hall and our "caterer" who runs a local cafe (this is up on the Isle of Skye!) is doing fish suppers for us (we'll design the newspaper to make ourselves the news of the day!!) Soooo there won't be catering staff at the reception only waitresses...do I trust them to stack the cake?! Using pillars between tiers might be easier as suggested! Hhmmm dilemmas!!

My mum is going to make our fruit cake. We will be having that along with some shop brought cupcakes.

We brought a christmas cake mix after christmas reduced down to £2! along with cupcakes brought from our local budgens (emmas country cakes!) we thope to spend around £50

My mother in law insisted on making our cake (and I wouldn't say no, her cakes are so delicious). She made the fruit tier a month or two early and then two days before did a chocolate fudge cake and a carrot cake. Made and iced and decorated two days before. Two days after they were still perfect - the thick icing really prevented them from going stale. So they could have been done three days beforehand and been perfect.

Do you have a friend/aunt/cousin you could ask to set up the cake? are ye decorating the hall? whoever is doing that could help? generally i found that people felt really honoured when asked to do little but important things like this. people love to contribute to your big day.

Vicster did you get married on Hogmanay (New's Years Eve)?? How fab!

You are right in that people are so happy to help. I was worried this might be an additional stress for someone but maybe not. It's good to know that you had a tiers that were made a couple of days in advance and they were grand! I take it they were stacked directly on top of each other?

Yes - NYE, was amazing our venue had a cake stand which we used

Fan-bloody-tastic! I always thought that it would be an amazing day to get married on but we only got engaged in Sept and I couldn't bear to wait over a year before the big day!! The cake looks lovely and the stand is a perfect idea as no stacking required!

Ya, stacking wasn't an option with the cakes we were having. fruit cake was top tier as we preferred the other ones but they couldn't have held either cakes or pillars. if you wanted more layers I'm pretty sure you can rent them? or there are a few on ebay for £25 which you could sell again after?

and we only got engaged in june but didn't want to wait. but yes, 3 months might be a bit quick!

I was going to suggest one of the stands that you just pop the cakes on as even with pillars you will need to put supports in etc.

Maybe you could hire/buy a stand off the internet?

Anna

Hello,

I'm planning to make my own cake as I've also taken some cake decorating courses and want to put my skills to the ultimate good use!

My plan is to make a three or four tier cake. I'm going to do the bottom tier fruit, and the tiers on top will be dummy cakes. I can make, decorate and stack weeks in advance of the wedding. The dummys don't weigh anything so I'm hoping it should be manageable to carry from the car and so can therefore stack & decorate with flowers in advance.

I'm also going to make a sponge cake for behind-the-scenes which will be served alongside the fruit cake in the evening. I'll make this 2-3 days before. From experience I've found sponge cake keeps well once sealed within it's icing. I'll also bake the sponge cake in advance and freeze it, defrosting it about 2 hours before decorating. This allows me to space out the 'cakey' jobs.

Hope this helps a little!

I was hoping to. Was informed by someone who should know that if its sponge cake, as long as its fully iced on the board with icing piped round bottom to stop air gettingin lol, then it can be done 2 days before, so this was my plan. But now I'm not so sure, I may have to buy white plain icedcakes and tier them myself the day before.

As Maxine says, as long as it's fully iced you can decorate a sponge cake in advance. If I'm making a cake for a Saturday then I'll bake it on the Tuesday, marzipan/buttercream it on the Wednesday, sugarpaste on the Thursday and then decorate it on the Friday.

My sister and another BM are making mine - in fact, my sister has already made the fruit cake (I worry about how alcoholic it will be with nearly 7 months of feeding!!) and it's fine to decorate that well in advance. She's also making me a 2-tier cake which will be choc fudge bottom tier and white choc and raspberry top layer. Both will have white cigarillos round them, and summer fruits on top, but she'll bake it at her house 2 days before and then decorate the day before, and only add the summer fruits literally right beforehand.

Dummy layers! That is GENIUS! Also love the idea of having a sponge back stage as I'm not really a fruit cake fan. Great advice on the sponge cakes too in terms of how long they will stay moist for under the sugarpaste. Thanks so much ladies - I can't tell you how much this is appreciated!

I'm making our wedding cake too, I have never done any courses or anything, I just discovered that I have a talent for cake decorating as we have 3 kids and I like them to have home made birthday cakes instead of shop bought ones as I think they are more special. Our wedding is only going to be very small but I am planning on doing a 4 tier cake simply because I want a big cake for my small wedding! lol ?

I'm not sure if I'm doing sponge, chocolate or fruit yet, I was thinking I might do a different flavour for each layer ?

Me too! Making my own wedding cake is going to be one of my favourite things and it was the first question everyone asked me when we announced our engagement! I'm really not a fan of sugarpaste (it tastes disgusting!) so I will probably do a buttercream sponge cake, which certainly means baking and icing a maximum of two days before. I think I will probably set it up myself early on the morning of the wedding, though you could certainly train a friend to stack - especially if you've already put the dowels in.

My mam is making ours. She found a recipe that can be made a week before and kept in the fridge, or a month before and frozen. This is for a bottom tier of chocolate sponge and two tiers of lemon sponge.

She's done a test tier for both and they taste amazing and last brilliantly. She's going to ice them in buttercream. Scrummy.

She's planning on making it the weekend before the wedding and icing it a few days before.

Hi Karv,

I'm hoping to make my own cake but have only ever make a simple sponge which tends not to last very long. Would you mind sharing the recipe so I can compare them?

I'll be setting mine up myself too... as the old saying goes if you want something done right, do it yourself! LOL x

Absolutely. I've asked her to send me the link. Give me a nudge in a couple of days if I haven't posted it.

Great, thank you!

I'm fully intending to make my own cake - I have been making fully-iced sponge birthday cakes for a couple of years and they are slowly getting better in appearance - I am hoping that by the time I get married in 2013 they should even be fairly professional-looking!!! I am being asked to make them for other people now, so I must be getting better! Buying a proper icing smoother has made a real difference to the finish.

Like others above, I find that, for a "weekend cake", if I make the sponge on a Tuesday, and buttercream and ice it on the Wednesday, it is absolutely fine at the weekend. My H2B has even been known to still be eating it over a week later with no ill effects ?

I have to say that I was glad that I Googled DIY wedding cakes - I didn't even think about the logistics of putting together a tiered sponge cake, with dowels etc.!

I invested in some "posy picks" for using fresh flowers on cakes when I made my Mum's birthday cake 18 months ago and was really pleased with the results - I don't think I would be up to sugar flowers, so will probably go this route.

Here's a picture of it... apologies for the very rough looking leaves, which were covering up a nightmare I had with the icing... lol... I have come on since then, but you get the idea with the fresh flowers!

I just made my own thread as I hadn't seen this one! I'm thinking of making a cake as well, but I don't want to have to deal with the dowels needed for multiple tiers, so I'm only going to make one tier and order cupcakes.

BTW, here's a tutorial on making a huge wedding cake where the sponge layers were baked almost a week in advance and frozen, but you could do it earlier I suppose. Apparently it works, but you'd still have to assemble the day before (http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/07/project-wedding-cake-the-cake-is-baked/). You could always have a friend you trust do it for you so you can focus on other things.

Have fun! Old married here, and one of my favourite memories of our wedding prep was the weekend that H, my mum and I got together to make our wedding cake. Obviously we'd had to do a couple of samples to choose the best recipe first We had to buy a new washing up bowl to use as a mixing bowl, because we didn't have a bowl anywhere near big enough.

I was frantically doing the marzipan the weekend before the wedding and the icing a couple of days before. It did take longer than I'd expected so be wary of leaving it too much to the last minute. Ribbon round the base of the cake helps disguise the difficult bit where the fondant meets the board. And the cake stands are a brilliant idea. A cake shop will hire you a cake stand and sell you fondant and marzipan, much better and a bit cheaper than the packet stuff.

Making my own fruit cake here. I am currently on a cake decorating course and practicing like crazy. OH has veto'd use of fresh flowers and dummy cakes. We are going to use the dowels and pillars, and I will be stacking it myself on the morning of the wedding, possibly with OH's help. From what I've read if you want to use the dowels they need to be fruit cakes.

I did a wee cupcake decorating masterclass at the weekend there and was grilling the tutor about making wedding cakes. She uses a regular victoria sponge recipe and bakes this 3 days before. She covers it with a teatowel and leaves overnight. She sugarpastes (1 layer) the next day and again leaves overnight. The day before the wedding she sets up, stacks and decorates. (Not using pillars mind) She said the main risk is sinking layers but I'm hoping if dowelled properly this shouldn't happen (famous last words!!) Nothing to be done on the day.

I'm actually now thinking a fruit bottom layer as it will be sturdy and also can be baked and covered a couple of weeks in advance, and then two sponge tiers. (although have toyed with a top dummy tier for ease). All the sugar flowers etc can be made weeks in advance as well.

Now, I know that's not true. Even if your cake is sponge, chocolate, carrot, red velvet, etc, you'd need to use dowels so it won't collapse, and I've definitely seen wedding cakes without any fruit cake that still manage to be tiered! I've seen it don't before at every wedding I've been to, and on food blogs as well. Maybe it's that you need a cake board on top of the dowels for a sponge? But I'd have thought you need a cake board for a fruit cake as well, as the dowels alone won't hold up the next tier.

I've actually been thinking about messing about with dowels to try and do a full 3-tier cake instead of cupcakes, but neither my OH nor I like fruit cake, so it's been vetoed from the start. I've got plenty of time to practice. Wonder if I can find any family events to make a mini tiered cake for- tiers of 8", 6", and 3" perhaps? Just to try out using dowels..

I'm planning to do my own cake too! I don't like fruit cake, so I'm thinking different flavoured layers. I'm not a fan of sugarpaste myself, but it just looks so pretty and gives you a lovely blank canvas to decorate.

I'm planning to take a cake decorating course in London some time soon - any recommendations?

x

I'm doing a two tier class at Fair Cake this week and really looking forward to it! They have a great reputation for their fairly wide-ranging classes and this involves cake covering, layering and sugarpaste flowers. I'll let you know how it goes!

I've got a good friend who's been on several Fair Cake classes and she always enjoys & learns so would recommend them too

Thanks, ladies, great tip! Davialle, I'd love to hear how your course goes