wedding cake

[tiramisu]

Hi I keep seeing the tv shows on wedding cakes and wondering what recipes the bakers use to make the cakes? want to make a cake for a friends wedding but have no clue as to what the recipe would be and how much of the ingredients to use for each layer. we dont get cake mixes here so have to do it from scratch... any help pls... someone?? anyone??

[Carolyn Tillie]

I would recommend looking at Rose Levy Berenbaum's The Cake Bible. She goes into great depth about which recipes work well for wedding cakes due to the production time. She also covers fondant, ganache, and everything involving large cake production.

[tmriga]

Toba Garrett's book, The Well-Decorated Cake,has a scratch recipe for her moist yellow cake in a large quantity, useful for wedding cakes. I have used this recipe. It is fabulous, and I highly recommend it.

Theresa

[BarbaraY]

I love the Rose Berenbaum book.I've never had a problem with any of the recipes although I did over bake on once. She warns about this.

[Snadra]

Where are you located and what equipment do you have?

I am an absolute amateur baker, but I used this recipe to make a birthday cake for 25 adults last year and it was a hit and fairly straightforward to make. The whole recipe made the perfect amount of cake for 25 people where it was the only dessert.

That said, I did a practice run on several cakes and frostings as well as decorating well before deciding on this one. I used a raspberry curd to fill the cake instead of the frosting with whole raspberries studded into it. This made assembly a bit more straightforward and meant I had no issues with berries going off while the cake was being stored.

I did this in an Australian January, right in the middle of a heatwave. I had the aircon on in the kitchen and had no problems. You do need a stand mixer to do the frosting, but I think it's easier than playing with fondant, unless you're already experienced with rolled frostings (I'm not!). The buttercream held up really well in the fridge overnight, and after a few hours at (airconditioned) room temp the texture and flavour were perfect.

This link has a lovely and simple decoration, but there are a lot of ideas on Martha Stewart's website as well.

Good luck!

[tiramisu]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. Am based in pakistan where we have no access to classes and most of my material has to be imported which is a pain but we do the best we can. will try get a hold of the books. thanks again