Making a Cake for Forty People

[Shel_B]

Maybe I'm nuts, but I want to make a birthday cake for about forty people.  A close friend is having a MAJOR birthday in a few months, and I'd like to try making a cake for her party.  The problem is that I've never made a cake before, but not having  done something has never stopped me from trying.  Fortunately, there's plenty of time to experiment, try, fail, and try again.

 

So, where do I start?  My thought was to make a sheet cake as it seems easier than one of those round, stacked cakes, but then it occurred to me that I could stack sheets.

 

I want to make a lemon cake, as my friend is a big fan of lemon flavors.  Is there a way that I could incorporate lemon curd into the cake (I make very good lemon curd, and it would be a snap to make) although I'm not wedded to the idea.

 

What about icing?  Buttercream doesn't seem too difficult to make, but what other options are there?  Is it possible to make a lemon buttercream?

 

What about the cake itself?  What equipment might I need to make it?  I suppose a stand mixer would be a handy tool to have, and I do have access to one.  What else?  I'm used to doing a lot of things manually, so getting major gear is not where I want to go.  My oven can accommodate half sheets.

 

Any suggestions, other than to tell me not to attempt the task, would be welcome.  I am going to at least attempt it.

Edited July 25, 2014 by Shel_B (log)

[weinoo]

I would make a genoise in a sheet pan and a lemon buttercream.

 

Go to the library and see if you can get Beranbaum's Cake Bible or a Nick Malgieri baking book like this one...Perfect Cakes.

 

Now, since my guess is that you don't want to have to go to the library, they also have web sites:

 

http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/

 

http://www.nickmalgieri.com/

 

[weinoo]

One of the things I would do when catering large events (much larger than 40, for example) would be to make a small cake for the couple or person being celebrated, and then cupcakes or a sheet cake for the masses.

 

You need to make sure you can transport your finished product without fucking it up.  As well as keeping it properly chilled if made the day before.

[pastrygirl]

Equipment-wise, you should be fine.  A stand mixer and sheet pans, then you just need something big enough to put the cake on, whether it's a platter or a couple layers of cardboard wrapped in aluminum foil.  You can make a lemon buttercream, I use Italian meringue buttercream and just add lemon curd to taste, along with maybe a TB of fresh lemon juice or lemon liqueur to brighten it up.  Sheet pans don't make very thick layers, so depending on how fluffy your filling is, consider 3 or 4 layers of cake - 4 with just a thin layer of lemon curd in between, or 3 if you make a fluffier mousse.

 

Cake is not too hard to scale up, even with a stand mixer you'll probably need to make 2 batches of batter.  But the good news is that cake, buttercream, and lemon curd all freeze very well, so if you have freezer space, you could certainly make the cake layers and lemon curd a week or two ahead, then assemble the whole thing the day of or before the event.

[CatPoet]

Way back when I was well enough to work,  I used to do simple sheet cakes, called 5 minute cakes.  Yes each layer of the cake took five minutes to bake and  for each take we needed  5 layers. The most popular cakes we did had a filling of  raspberry jam and lemon curd alternating between the layers and a  cream and curd   frosting and topped with raspberries. Sadly they cant be stacked. If you stack a cake ,  you would need skewer in the cake to hold the weight.

 

Look at youtube how to cook that  with anne readon, she has great ideas.

[Shel_B]

Sheet pans don't make very thick layers, so depending on how fluffy your filling is, consider 3 or 4 layers of cake - 4 with just a thin layer of lemon curd in between, or 3 if you make a fluffier mousse.

 

 

What kind of pans should I use if I want to make thicker layers?  Do I want to make thicker layers?  Is there a down side to doing that?

[Shel_B]

I would make a genoise in a sheet pan and a lemon buttercream.

[...}

Now, since my guess is that you don't want to have to go to the library, they also have web sites:

 

http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/

 

http://www.nickmalgieri.com/

 

I volunteer at a library, and it's right next to the senior center where I teach.

 

I'll look up what a genoise is.

[Shel_B]

One of the things I would do when catering large events (much larger than 40, for example) would be to make a small cake for the couple or person being celebrated, and then cupcakes or a sheet cake for the masses.

 

You need to make sure you can transport your finished product without fucking it up.  As well as keeping it properly chilled if made the day before.

 

I like the idea of making a small, personal cake and something else for the rest of the guests.

 

Transportation is a non-issue.  I have a large (new) kitchen in the community room in my apartment building.  The party will be in that space.

[CatPoet]

Well make a lemon cake and lemon cake muffin,  Marta Stewart has great recipe for it.

[pastrygirl]

What kind of pans should I use if I want to make thicker layers?  Do I want to make thicker layers?  Is there a down side to doing that?

 

I don't know that you need thicker layers.  I prefer more, thinner layers of cake so the filling can moisten them better, and when I make layer cakes often end up splitting the layers, which can be a bit of a pain.  It also depends somewhat on your cake recipe.  I find something like a nice moist sour cream cake fine in a thicker layer, but genoise tends to be a drier cake, so I like thinner layers of genoise with more filling.  Whatever pan you use, the cake is not going to be taller than the pan.  Most baking pans are 2-3" tall, but finding large enough ones for a cake for 40 might be a challenge.  But it also depends on what size pieces you want to serve.  If there will be a lot of other food and your audience are not big eaters, you could plan on wedding cake sized pieces (something like 1" x 2" x 4").  Wilton has a guide to help you figure out how much cake you actually need:  http://www.wilton.com/cakes/making-cakes/baking-serving-guide.cfm

[Tri2Cook]

I prefer more, thinner layers of cake so the filling can moisten them better

Me too.

 

[ChrisTaylor]

I like the idea of making a small, personal cake and something else for the rest of the guests.

 

Transportation is a non-issue.  I have a large (new) kitchen in the community room in my apartment building.  The party will be in that space.

 

What about fridge real estate? I mean, if you're hosting a party I assume there will be lots of other things in there. I think weinoo's suggestions are very practical. And, if you've never cooked a cake before, more realistic than neatly assembling a very large, layered masterpiece.

[Shel_B]

What about fridge real estate? I mean, if you're hosting a party I assume there will be lots of other things in there. I think weinoo's suggestions are very practical. And, if you've never cooked a cake before, more realistic than neatly assembling a very large, layered masterpiece.

 

Probably a non-issue.  Two refrigerators on site, one at Toots' place, and another, plus two freezers, at my senior center.

Edited July 25, 2014 by Shel_B (log)

[Tri2Cook]

It's also pretty easy, if you decide to do a single large cake, to bake your layers in smaller pans, such as the common 13"x9", and simply assemble as many of them side by side lengthwise and crosswise as you need to get the size you want. Glue them together at the edges with a bit of buttercream (or whatever you decide to use) and then build up as high as you want to go. Once built, you cover the entire thing in your buttercream and it has the outward appearance of one large cake without having to manipulate large layers. Basically...


It requires fairly even layers to keep the whole thing looking nice but they don't have to be perfect... fillings and buttercreams can hide a multitude of sins.


 

Edited July 26, 2014 by Tri2Cook (log)

[weinoo]

Cute story:

On my pastry and baking final, I had to make a layer cake with genoise and buttercream. Nick Malgieri was my teacher and graded my cake.

I ended up with an 80-ish grade, because I had too much buttercream in between the layers; and though I still finished with a blue ribbon diploma, that has always bugged me.

Cutting a 12x18 genoise into 2 or 3 layers isn't the easiest thing either!