MIL making our wedding cake??? Worried it won't go right.

I can't remember who it was but someone else was in a same position recently. The cake looked lovely if I remember but wasn't cooked properly inside. I think they used it for pics but bought cutting bars to serve. I would worry too so you're not on your own. Especially without a practice. I would be sneaky and order something maybe in a different flavour and use that as the excuse!

Hi

So... am I right in thinking she doesn't do cakes often? People seriously underestimate the time and effort that goes into it! It took me all day Friday to do a practice of our cake for next year and that didn't even include baking time.

I make cakes as a hobby and it has taken me a LONG time to master covering cakes in fondant. It's difficult stuff to work with.

She also needs to learn how to dowel and stack a cake properly... Sorry, I'm not making this better.

I would suggest she make a dummy cake (using polystyrene cake dummies) to decorate. She can make that now for the Wedding "so she won't be as stressed nearer the date" and then you can make or buy some cake bars for people to actually eat.

Does she bake regularly? Unless I knew my fmil or mum or friend was a fab baker with experience, I would worry! Firstly in case it goes wrong and secondly it is a lot of pressure to put on someone before the wedding and they would probably be devastated if it went wrong and upset you.

I would covertly look at prices for what you want and also how much it will cost to make the cake. I'm a keen baker (but would never dream of making my wedding cake) and trust me when I say it can get expensive! The cost of tin hire alone is quite a lot and she is unlikely to have all of the necessary equipment for such a large scale project. The savings might be less than your fmil and oh think!

Maybe if you can prove that a DIY cake wouldn't save that much money, they might relent! If not, I would probably say that a friend who is a keen baker has offered to make the cake and then just order one and pay for it myself, but I'm sneaky and have to get my own way! Lol!

^^ This!

Cake making is so expensive, I'll happily provide you with a cost breakdown of how much the cake you're thinking would cost just for ingredients?

She's fantastic at making cakes, but she's only ever done buttercream or just plain/fruit/icing sugar sprinkled on - as far as I know she's never worked with fondant! And she's never done a stacked 3 tier cake...I think both she and my OH are underestimating what a project this will be!

I have a fantastic new idea!!

Tell her you want a 'naked' wedding cake. It's plain sponge brushed with sugar syrup and it has fruit and flowers to decorate it. If you google it it'll make more sense.

This might put a few of your fears to rest and they're very 'on trend' right now

xxx

Yes, a naked cake could be the answer!

And to solve the stacking issue...

You can hire this sort of thing. This one is from http://www.theweddingandeventworks.co.uk/wedding-cake-stand-hire

That's nice, although it shouldn't be too difficult to pop some rods in a naked cake, a YouTube video should provide ample instructions. Here's some cakespiration!

Our wedding is quite traditional, I wouldn't like a naked cake else that would be perfect! We've got pillars etc - my original plan was to just buy tiers from M&S and then decorate/assemble it ourselves...I feel like I've got myself trapped. When I try to talk to OH about it he gets offended that I'm suggesting his mum can't do something!

Ohhh you have a stropper. So do I haha

Send him to the Cake Wrecks page and show him what can happen when people take on new challenges that they aren't ready for. Tell him you aren't saying that his mum CAN'T do it... but that you would all feel more comfortable if she would at least do a practice run.

You could always buy some plain iced cake tiers and have her decorate them? At least the fondant will be smooth that way! It's less work for her then, too.

x

Sugar craft especially roses/flowers are very easy to make, almost impossible to get wrong - I decorated cake myself with homemade ones a dozen time

but as for making the cake... that is more skill than I have, id be most worried about that but look on the bright side if the worst comes to the worst you can get a pre-made 2 tier wedding cake from Asda for £35

What kind of cake is she planning to make? If you want the traditional fruit cake, it has to be made well in advance and then mature, so at least she would have time to make a second if it didn't turn out right with respect to the actual cake. And I think you can also cover it in fondant quite a bit in advance, no? Or maybe only with the hard kind of icing? I'm pretty sure my MIL makes and ices her Christmas cakes well before Christmas. Then she'd only have to decorate it the day before or so, and there are plenty of back-up options for that. You could tie ribbon around the tiers and put fresh flowers on top if she doesn't get the fondant roses right, and that would look lovely on its own I think!

I wonder why people seem to have such a difficult time telling relatives NO when it comes to anything wedding-related?

If she's an inexperienced baker/decorator I think it's madness agreeing to her making the cake and I would be putting it very politely that you really appreciate the offer but you think it is something better left to a professional and leave it at that.

I agree, but I also see where the difficulty is - some people are quick to take offence, and if the OP's future MIL is such a person then it's not a great way to start the marriage. Also, the OP's fiancé is taking his Mum's side and thinks this is a great idea, so the OP is 'fighting' both of them. However, in these crcumstances I would find a way to have my cake made by a professional.

My Mum offered to make our cake but said it would have to be Royal iced. I said "Thanks but no thanks, Royal iced cakes belong in the eighties", and I paid someone to make our cake (and a flippin' amazing job she did too). But my Mum doesn't easily take offence and my then-fiancé stayed out of it, so that made things much easier!

I agree, but I also see where the difficulty is - some people are quick to take offence, and if the OP's future MIL is such a person then it's not a great way to start the marriage. Also, the OP's fiancé is taking his Mum's side and thinks this is a great idea, so the OP is 'fighting' both of them. However, in these crcumstances I would find a way to have my cake made by a professional.

My Mum offered to make our cake but said it would have to be Royal iced. I said "Thanks but no thanks, Royal iced cakes belong in the eighties", and I paid someone to make our cake (and a flippin' amazing job she did too). But my Mum doesn't easily take offence and my then-fiancé stayed out of it, so that made things much easier!

Professional cakes don't have to be expensive. We went to a local café which also does cakes for special events (birthdays etc) and restaurants. They do wedding cakes, but it's not their main business. We're only paying £280 for four tiers (20lbs).

As she is not experienced I think you'd be better off saying a friend has already offered!

If you have to accept the offer there is a safer way around it. Tell her you want 3 cakes on a 3-tier cake stand so that she does not have to build a self supporting 3 tier cake. At least then there's no risk of it falling over and it will be much easier to transport to the venue.

I photographed a wedding a while back where the cake had to be removed from the reception room in case it fell over. I needed to photoshop the pictures to take out the cracks, it was badly leaning.

This is a 3-tier stand, there's lots of different styles

I agree with those who are saying its a big risk to take if your MIL is not experienced at making wedding cakes. From the sounds of it she makes a lovely sponge but that isn't enough.

My mum has been making wedding cakes for over 30 years and she will still have the odd issue with stacking cakes. Luckily she has enough experience to fix it but it sounds like your MIL won't. Some things to consider also are timings (as mentioned, is it fruit or sponge? Fruit needs to mature but sponge will give MIL less time to play with), are you using dowels or pillars (or both?), how will the cake be transported? What if the sugar paste decorations come off in transit?

Also as mentioned, the icing will need to be smooth so the cake needs to have no imperfections. I've seen so many photos of cakes where the icing has lumps and bumps and you wonder how much someone got ripped off for poorly decorated cakes. My best friend had her cake made by the best man who was a pastry chef so you'd assume a good cake but the cake was cut wonky and the icing was not smooth so it just looked like an amateur had done it.

Not to mention the added stress on your MIL.

I'm afraid that if I were in your situation I'd look for an alternate baker and a quote. I could understand if your MiL had done wedding cakes before but this is a whole different ball game.

Sorry if I've missed this but has she done any good birthday cakes that are similar to what you want?

My Mum and sister are both bakers so i have some experience indirectly of this.

All the best with the wedding cake decision.

Both my mum and FMIL bake and decorate cakes professionally. (They have taken it upon themselves to do our cake "together" which I fear may bring it's own problems lol, but that's another story!). As others have said there is a real skill to baking, icing and decorating a cake, especially a multi-tiered one. I have been to friends weddings where a family member has made the cake and unfortunately the icing did crack and it looked amateurish. (Didn't spoil the wedding though, and it tasted good!). I really think if your FMIL isn't prepared to do a practice run then your best bet is to buy the ready-iced cakes from M&S and let her decorate them. Maybe if her cakes are especially nice tasting get her to make one to cut behind the scenes and serve? Or as someone else said buy the dummy cakes? People will still get to appreciate her baking without you worrying that it might go wrong x

Also my mum always makes extra/spare decorations to take with her when assembling a cake, in case there's any damage during transportation x