Wedding Cake

I would love to make my own cake, I have only really made the odd sponge or chocolate cake when I was bored of a weekend. if you can do it, then why not. Saves yourself the cost plus it will be an excellent sense of achievement once you have finished. I don't know a lot about cakes but if you make one that will last, you can make it a good few days before the wedding to help relieve the stress, and who knows you baking might help your feel calm and relaxed ? x

We are having an array of cupcakes, naked cakes with shells and fresh flowers and a cheese stack decorated with grapes and crackers.

My bridesmaids are very kindly doing all the baking because they are wonderful. I love to bake but have to accept I cant do everything and sometimes help is best.

OH wouldn't moan if I did a practise run that's for sure! Made some individual Victoria sponge cakes In a mini loaf tin after dinner am few days ago.. Pop out of the room for under a minute and come back to find he had pinched two already!

i get where he is coming from, I am a perfectionist so I do tend to stress until it's done... I'm only truly satisfied at the end when i step back. Maybe I will...

fondant is the trickiest bit and that's what keeps the moisture in unless it's a fruit cake (which OH loves and I hate). I would be tempted to do an alternative but OH and I love fondant the most whereas my family all pick it off!

I'm baking my own cakes (plural!). Much as we love cake we just couldn't justify the cost of a professionally made wedding cake, it was the main thing that had to give in our budget. Having no experience of making such a large, beautifully decorated cake, we decided on a cake buffet table instead. I'm baking 4 different cakes and a cheesecake and my BM is baking some brownies. After a fair amount of research we've baked cakes in advance and have frozen them to be defrosted and buttercreamed/iced/drizzled the night before. We've done a test run to make sure freezing doesn't affect the texture/taste too much and it all seems fine. It's actually not been half as stressful as I was anticipating (although I do still have to bake 2 cakes with only 2 weeks to go!) and has worked out costing way less than £100 (plus maybe £30-40 for various cake stands). The only thing I'm having minor panics about is how to transport them to the venue on the day, but I'm sure I'll sort something out!

I've also had a few of my friends offering to bake a cake and bring those, so asking friends and family to do this is a good idea too. You'll find people more than willing to help out if you mention it. :-)

If you do a trad fruit cake it will keep for months/years so there is no need for any last minute baking. I know lots of people aren't that fond of it though. I love it so my step-mother is doing us a 2-tier fruit cake with fondant icing - very traditional.

I'm making my own cakes. I'm having a fruit cake which I've already made, to go on top with cupcakes underneath that will be made a few days before. We hired a stand from a baking shop for £15, which will hold the main cake and the 60ish cupcakes. I've bought star decorations to go on the main cake and the cupcakes, and then will ice the cup cakes in turquoise which is the colour for our wedding. So the main cake and the cupcakes should all match. It's working out massively cheaper than buying cakes, and I think will be achievable to get a look as good as a professional one.

I love baking too. It destresses me but I decided making my own wedding cake would have the opposite effect! Mainly because, although my cakes taste delicious, they look horrific!

I also balked at spending £200!on a supermarket cake and as we're having afternoon tea for our reception, I thought people would have had enough of cake so we're having a pork pie wedding cake!! OH and I love pork pies and we liked the idea of having something a little bit quirky. Plus it's only costing £140 including delivery!

I've decided to make my own cakes and so glad I saw your thread as was beginning to doubt it as well,

some people have said oh don't do that too much stress and others I.e nan has gone completely the other in telling me I need to start practising pipping etc, should of taken a picture When I told her I wasn't planning on pipping, oh you can't have a wedding cake without decorations, I'm having decorations just not piping and all the fiddily bits

maybe ambitious as my baking skills consisit of making Xmas cakes and feeding them brandy for 3 months! but I'm planning on individual square fruit cakes with marzipan and the hard icing (royal?!?!) and for decorations ribbons to match the men's kilts and flowers to match everything lol

but just another decision I probably should of kept to myself

I was very tempted but compromised with a small bought 2 tier waitrose cake and then making a selection of different cakes/biscuits/brownies etc for a cake table, oh and some of those mini meringues. I love meringues!!!

I saw a wedding report on here a while back where someone had asked all their guests to bring a cake with them..homemade I think...and had a British bake off style competition with prizes. I thought it was a fabulous idea!!

My aunt baked my cake & mum decorated it. She did do a decorating course though, but 30yrs back! It came out really well. If you feel confident, go for it, but you will have so many other things to do, do you really want the stress of it?

Another half way option, is to buy plain, iced fruit/sponge/chocolate cakes, use a tiered stand, then decorate with flowers/ivy/ribbon etc. Many high street supermarkets sell plain, iced fruit cakes in various sizes & very well priced.

https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/undecorated-fruit-cake/610753-86639-86640

This one from asda used to come in 3 sizes. I cant see it on their website, but you could call customer services to see if they still do them. They used to be £10.

http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Product/Details/?id=251414374

These are the sort of stands I was thinking of, then you can plonk the cakes on top. No need for cake assembly with wooden dowels or risk of the top cake sinking into or falling off the bottom cake.

I do bake often but I don't think I'd trust myself to make my own wedding cake. I found a baker in the area who apparently has experience in making vegan cakes, so when we start planning a 'reception' I plan to make an appointment to see (and taste!) her work. I know someone who bakes amazing looking cakes and i would have loved to give her our business, but she has never made a vegan cake so I don't wanna be her Guinea pig!