Tuesday, November 9, 2010

How to make a wedding cake

Carol, my college roommate, got married this past weekend.
Her wedding was very beautiful and had lots of personal touches all through out it.
I was one of those personal touches. I made her cake.
She called and asked me a while ago, and said she didn’t care what it looked like and that it could even be just a single cake layer.
Well I have never made a wedding cake before – but I also know that a single cake layer wouldn’t do.
I found a picture that I liked and decided I would use that as my inspiration.
Carol wanted a pumpkin roll as her wedding cake. So I took the flavors of it, and made it into a wedding cake.
Here I will show you pictures of the process – I will post the recipes in a separate post. Click here for recipes
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Divide the cake batter into the cake pans. (One batch made one of each size cake – a 6”, 8” and 10”)
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Make the largest bowl of butter cream icing ever. (I took the recipe – doubled it and then made it 3 times. I used all but a little bit – and that little bit is still in the mini fridge in my hotel room)
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Slice and fill the cakes with the cinnamon cream cheese filling.
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Slice and fill the large sheet cakes – even if they crumble – they will look ok after they get iced
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Crumb coat the cakes.
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Ice the cakes
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I did all the icing at my parents house – we were staying there the night before we left because it was closer and we could leave later. It was a good thing. I didn’t have this kind of room at my apartment.
I put them in their cake boxes and put them in the trunk of the car overnight – thank goodness for mid 30 degree temps. The next am – I smoothed the icing more and re-packed them for the drive.
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Put the cake boxes in boxes and buckle them in for the 4.5 hour drive to New Jersey. Hold your breath and cross your fingers they make it
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Have a heart attack when the road to deliver the cakes to the reception site is cobble stone and bumpy as heck!
Go to hotel, rehearsal, dinner, sleep and wedding – then drive like something is chasing you to the reception site to assemble the wedding cake before everyone gets there.

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I was in the wedding – and I didn’t want to get white icing on my navy dress – so I tossed the shirt I wore to the church that AM on over my dress and got to work as fast as I could.
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I used straws to make sure the cakes wouldn’t crush each other.
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Stacking the cakes was more difficult that I thought it would be.
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Now it is time to fix all the finger prints and parts of the icing that didn’t want to come off the cake boards when I to stack them.
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Pipe the boarder around where the cakes meet.
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Try very hard to ignore the fact that people are coming and and walking right past you to go to the cocktail hour. (it was very hard for me- I was slightly freaking out about this.)
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Add flowers (make sure you hide the spots that are a little thin!)
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Rosemary made the centerpieces and helped me by arranging the flowers on the cake – she is a true artist!
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Give Rosemary the biggest hug and take a deep breath because it is finished (then hit the bar for a well earned drink!!)
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Take lots of pictures of the cake.
Eat, dance and have fun for the rest of the day.
Drive back to VA
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Clean up the disaster you made in your kitchen.

And that my friends is how you make a wedding cake. :-D

I am sure there are easier methods, this is just the one I used.

Special thanks to:
My mom – for believing I could actually do this from day one! (and for giving me all those cake pans you had in the attic!!)
Matt – for not driving like a jerk and ruining the cakes on the way to NJ – and for tolerating the mess I made all over the kitchen and dinning room.
Meg – for being the best photographer/cheerleader/people blocker ever. I seriously would have panicked while putting it together without you!
Rosemary- for making the cake look amazing with your floral arrangements.
Mom’s Group Playgroup – for taste testing the recipe before I made this cake. :-D
Carol and Tim- for trusting my ability enough to allow me to make the cake for your special day. I love that I was a part of it.

I had a lot of fun making this cake. I was very stressed, but only because I was afraid it wouldn’t make it to NJ and that I wouldn’t have time in between the wedding and the reception to make it look beautiful. (I had to be at the church at 7:30 am – for the wedding and couldn’t get to the reception until about 12:45 because of travel times. I knew I wouldn’t be able to put it all together before the wedding so I just had to hope I was fast and there were no disasters. It all worked out of course!) I am not sure I will make another wedding cake again for a little bit – I just didn’t have enough space in the apartment to work!

1 comment:

  1. Your cake is amazing for the first one. You are truly and artist in many way. Keep those creative juices flowing. I am so proud of you.
    I love you always
    mom

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