My first wedding cake

[LittleMaiko]

I haven't been on the forum for a while, but I'm back.

My friend Silvie is getting married on August 16th of this year. She asked me to make her wedding cake, to wich I said yes. Now I know all the details of what she wants but I just need suggestions on how to assemble the cake and such.

She wants a cake big enough for 50 people. It'll be the only desert also. She wants the cake to be a white chocolate cake, inside she wants a thin layer of strawberry jam and strawberry butter cream and the outside she wants a white butter cream (she does not know wich flavor). She also wants some flowers made out of fondant on her cake ( I have the pictures for them).

Is there anything special that I should know. Any tips and tricks?

Thank you!

[gfron1]

HERE are a slew of topics that you might find useful. Looking forward to seeing what you create.

[K8memphis]

Rob is the best at directing us to our rich library of resources.

Umm, yeah there's lots you need to know. Most especially build it well. I mean if you are stacking it be sure you have adequate support that is set in place to hold the weight above it.

Do the last things first while you have plenty of time. Go over every detail of delivery now. Once the cake is done and ready to go is the poorest time to figure out the boxing and placement in the car. You can make all your boards in advance. The boards the cake will sit on. What kind of bottom board will you use? Flamboyant or flat or what kind. Should be at least four inches larger than the bottom tier. Make your flowers a couple weeks in advance.

But I mean cake sizes can vary with the guest list so I'd advise making things maybe a month in advance-ish.

[LittleMaiko]

Rob is the best at directing us to our rich library of resources.

Umm, yeah there's lots you need to know. Most especially build it well. I mean if you are stacking it be sure you have adequate support that is set in place to hold the weight above it.

Do the last things first while you have plenty of time. Go over every detail of delivery now. Once the cake is done and ready to go is the poorest time to figure out the boxing and placement in the car. You can make all your boards in advance. The boards the cake will sit on. What kind of bottom board will you use? Flamboyant or flat or what kind. Should be at least four inches larger than the bottom tier. Make your flowers a couple weeks in advance.

But I mean cake sizes can vary with the guest list so I'd advise making things maybe a month in advance-ish.

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Well I thought of using plain flat boards,nothing too fancy because the bride isn't fancy herself. Thank you for telling me how the the boards should be.

my aunt who's a pastry chef (Kareen Grondin) told me that there are butter creams that do well in warm weather and some not. What are the differences between them? Is it just how it's structured so it doesn't melt?

My aunt will lend me her cake molds and teach me how to place those "dowels" in the cake so the cake doesn't crumble by it's own weight.

I was also wondering. I have the book The Cake Bible, and I was told to make the flowers out of fondant, but to paint then/color them. Should I color the fondant itself or "paint" it using those iridescent powders?

@ gfron1: Thank you very much!

[K8memphis]

What kind of flowers are you going to make?

There are some high humidity types of buttercream--sometimes flour or cornstarch is added to American type buttercream. But I just do a very careful delivery and avoid the heat as much as possible. I use Swiss Meringue Buttercream.

[LittleMaiko]

What kind of flowers are you going to make?

There are some high humidity types of buttercream--sometimes flour or cornstarch is added to American type buttercream. But I just do a very careful delivery and avoid the heat as much as possible. I use Swiss Meringue Buttercream.

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My mother and I looked at the picture she sent us. The purple flowers look like violets to us and I think the top flower is a Orchid.

(( http://www.simplydevinecatering.com/images/wedding_cake.jpg ) this is the picture she sent me.)

She wanted them out of Marzipan but my aunt told me that making them out of Fondant would be the best.

[Tri2Cook]

I don't have a thing to add, cake decorating is not an area of skill for me, just wanted to say have fun and I hope you'll share the end result with us.

[LittleMaiko]

I don't have a thing to add, cake decorating is not an area of skill for me, just wanted to say have fun and I hope you'll share the end result with us.

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thank you! I'll definably take pictures of the in process cake and flowers and the cake itself

Oh! I forgot to add that for moving the cake, The bride will get me a lift for the cake, but I can't accompany the cake since I'm also a bridesmaid.

[lorinda]

Hi there,

I'm sure you'll have lots of fun making the cake. The only thing I would add is, that I personally would make the flowers from gumpaste (also known as flower paste) and not fondant, because given the slightest humidity, the fondant flowers will wilt. It is also impossible to roll the fondant as thin as you would need, to make realistic looking flowers; it lacks the elasticity.

You can buy ready-made gumpaste or make your own. If you've never made flowers before, it's a good idea to get some practice first. The orchid in your pic is a cymbidium orchid; the other flowers could easily be made with a 5-petal blossom cutter. Re your colouring question - given the purple flowers are a very deep colour, I would colour the gumpaste itself to a shade slightly lighter than I want the finished flower; then when the flower is dry dust it with petal dust; this gives you a lovely deep colour, which is not 'flat'.

[emilyr]

My mother and I looked at the picture she sent us. The purple flowers look like violets to us and I think the top flower is a Orchid.

(( http://www.simplydevinecatering.com/images/wedding_cake.jpg ) this is the picture she sent me.)

She wanted them out of Marzipan but my aunt told me that making them out of Fondant would be the best.

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It looks like the big one is a cymbidium orchid and the small ones are dendrobium orchids. They also look to me like they're real flowers and not made of a sugar medium. I work at a florist part-time, and these look real to me, but I say go for it if you want to try and make them on your own!

But if you get in over your head, neither are prohibitively expensive (you could probably get one cymbid. bloom and a long stem of the dendrobs. for less than $10 or $15, even if you live in a big city), and they are very sturdy. Also, if you get these flowers from a florist, wash the stems in a mild solution of dish soap and water then rinse very well. That way you can just stick the stems straight into the cake.

[LittleMaiko]

Thank you so much EmilyR for the names of the flowers. It helps alot cause now I can go buy some for reference and get pictures of them also

Can gumpaste flowers me made ahead of time or they'll dry out n shrivel? Also, gum paste is edible or not? Because never once has I eaten a gum paste flower, I ate the sugary powdery flowers on children cakes.

Also, Can gumpaste be found anywhere or should I go into a specialty store like Ares?

So many questions but I want it to be nice since the cake is the gift me and my boyfriend are giving to the bride and groom. I was also ordered to make the cake toppers ( wedding attire Hello Kitty and Dear Daniel).

For the cake to rise evenly, I'll have to get magic strips, is there an equivalent to it?

Edited February 21, 2008 by LittleMaiko (log)

[K8memphis]

Gum paste is edible but not tasty like fondant can be tasty. It dries hard and crisp not wrinkly. No it doesn't shrivel. Flowers made from gum paste can be kept for years and years.

There's perhaps a certain skill level to making nice gum paste flowers so if it was me I'd try to make some now in order to have enough time to perfect the process. Orchids are more advanced flowers to make. Or switch gears and go with fresh flowers.

In my area, the only gum paste I would use is available at a specialty cake store. I would recommend not using Wilton brand gum paste or fondant. All the others that I've ever heard of are fine.

The equivalent to magic strips is to just use wet toweling. I've used this for years and years. I use terry cloth towels folded in thirds and held with a t-pin. Just be sure you saturate the toweling completely. I've even used paper towels. But if you bake off nice thick layers you can just lop off the top even and forego the toweling altogether. Some people recommend baking at 325 degrees but I like the higher temps 350 to 375.

[Tri2Cook]

There's perhaps a certain skill level to making nice gum paste flowers

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Talk about the understatement of the year. "The award for most modest cake artist goes to...".

I think making nice flowers from gumpaste, fondant, pastillage, etc. is a certain level of natural talent combined with a lot of skill. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. There's a basic skill level to making passable simple flowers (the basic, not overly detailed rose for example) but making realistic flowers of the not-so-simple variety is hard. If it's not hard, I'm going to keep telling myself it is... 'cause otherwise it's just my incompetence and we can't have that.

[JeanneCake]

You may find that you need more "stuff" to make realistic looking gum paste flowers - the gum paste, color, a ball tool (to roll the edges of the petals and make them curve and curl realistically), a foam mat to roll the petals with the tool, cutters will make the job easier but you can fashion your own stencil to cut the petals from. Then wires, and perhaps green floral tape to make the buds with....

Weigh the cost of buying all this "stuff" to make some flowers with buying the real flowers and see what works out for you. It's less stressful to buy the flowers, but if you want to make them, start well in advance (like, now. And I'm not trying to be funny - you will want time to experiment and perfect your technique and it can take a lot of dedicated time to perfect a skill like this. I can make my own flowers and some of them are really nice, but Mother Nature does the best job, and Cal-Java, Avalon and a bunch of others also do a better job on the more complicated flowers so I will let them have the honor!)

It will be a lovely gift from you to your friend; you should have fun doing it!

[lorinda]

Or you could buy them from this dude

[Tracy K.]

Just my two cents, as I've made quite a few wedding cakes:

A cake for fifty is a very small cake! Even if you don't use the stereotypical caterer-sliced transparent cake slice, wedding cake slices are quite dainty. Many times people have other desserts at weddings now; and unfortunately most people believe that wedding cake tastes horrible (which is most often the case for a mass-produced cake). As a guide, a 12-in diameter, two layer high cake will easily serve 50 people quite generous slices. You don't have to go to tiers if you don't want to. You can do something quite elegant, like the photo you shared, with a single layer. Also, if you have a good magazine shop, check out some of the wedding magazines published in England...they have a lot of ideas that can be adapted without too much fuss. A lot of people are going with a simple satin ribbon at the base of a layer; with the swiss dot motif and a simple fresh flower the cake would be elegant.

For resources, I really do recommend Rose Levy Berenbaum's Cake Bible--her white chocolate cake is wonderful and really holds up well. The combination of white chocolate and strawberry is a classic. I'd stick to just a simple vanilla buttercream because the flavor of a white chocolate cake is delicate--you don't want too much going on. She has a good chart on frosting and filling amounts...very generous amounts. You have to be a little careful that you don't put too much liquid in the filling or your cake will slide during transport.

I'd say bake your cake at a lower temperature, I usually go 300 or 325, and use a good oven thermometer. It will take much longer and the cake will be more dense, like a pound cake, but the flavor will be intense and the cake will hold up better. Plus, flat cakes every time. Try a test cake first. Or two or three!

For size and construction, I recommend checking out Collette Peter's "Collette's Cakes, The Art of Cake Decorating". It was one of her first books (1991) and has a great section on sizes and construction. Her decorator's buttercream recipe is quite good--very simple and acceptable to every palate.

For August, remember humidity! Fondant will "sweat", i.e., it will attract moisture and will look wet. It doesn't melt, but it doesn't look pristine and matte-finished in the humidity; plus you cannot refrigerate it (it collects the moisture from inside the fridge). Marzipan tastes better to many people. And I've made gumpaste flowers for many years--it is very time consuming and does require a lot of tools and toys to get it right. (Big orchids literally take days to do.) Gumpaste is edible (I make my own), but it dries hard as a rock and can break a tooth--and believe me, people will for some reason put anything in their mouths if they can get their hands on them. A gumpaste orchid will have wires in it and some areas of quite thick, hard sugar. I don't think you'll need the anxiety given that you're a friend and bridesmaid as well.

As for moving the cake--oohh, is there any way you can go to the reception site very early yourself? There is nothing worse than having someone else handle the cake and something happens. Believe me, only once did I allow my husband to drive when a cake was being delivered to a friend of his (thank goodness only a birthday, not a wedding, and not my friend!)--he went too fast around a curve and the cake slid--the dowels did not do a thing...ended up in the dumpster, but made a great picture for the portfolio! If you do go with tiers, box up each cake separately and assemble on site.

Have fun, and good luck!

[hac]

its true a cake for 50 people isnt really that big so dont scare off and start planning a 20in cake bottom. as for the cake itself you can also use foil folded in half then cut and folded again at the bottom to act as feet together with the wet towel technique. just insert them to the cake batter to level off heat. i usually place them 1/3 from each side of a rectangular pan. dont forget to use nice amounts of buttercream to help 'paste' your layers together to help stability. and yes that is a very good suggestion to, if possible, delivery the cake yourself and be there to assemble it to ensure that your hardwork will not be destroyed by people that only wants to get there work done. it happend to me a number of times and it does notever feel good. for your flowers i would paint them on after coloring them very lightly as what people here said to. alternatively you can use a stamper to get some more details in the flowers as i think (judgin from the sent pic) that the flowers will be the overall highlight of the cake. so make them months in advance so that you can practise lots and get the shade that you want and dont forget to make extras since even though gumpaste dries hard, there still a possibility in might break esp during travel. and ofcourse dont forget to smile while decorating! makes a huge diffrence on the turn out =P

[martysalgs]

There is a video on the PBS website of Martha Stewart's appearance on Baking With Julia. She demonstrates how to make a wedding cake from scratch (including a dacquoise layer and marzipan fruits). I couldn't find the exact recipes she uses, but the video should be a big help in terms of technique.

Video separated into segments

Good luck!