In Desperate Need of Wedding Cake Advice

[bkeith]

(somebody find that thread and link to the Washington Post story with B. Keith Ryder.)

Here it is. The article Steve's referring to is about halfway down in post #14.

Lots of great advice in the thread so far, and I don't really have any extra to add. Except that in the name of hubris, despite all the warnings to the contrary and despite the experiences of those who've been there, I'd probably lean very heavily toward making my own cake. Good thing I'll probably never get married.

[JSkilling]

That ought to be required reading for anyone thinking of making his/her own cake! What a fun read and I have no recollection of it at all. I do, however, remember the cakes that you had to make look fabulous. Loved the chocolate roses!

I'm one of those crafty folks who makes everything herself. I beaded my own dress, sewed on French lace, made the headpiece, dolled up my shoes, made my programs and favors but I would never, ever think of making my own cake. I was up at 2:00 a.m. as it was sewing on the last buttons on my sleeves so I can just imagine the panic at cake that's not turning out! Yikes.

It would be cupcakes all the way.

[tejon]

I was up at 2:00 a.m. as it was sewing on the last buttons on my sleeves so I can just imagine the panic at cake that's not turning out! Yikes.

I was attaching the skirt to my dress at about that time . Nothing like worrying if you have something to wear to walk down that aisle...

Cupcakes would have been about my speed as well, given all of the other crazy preparation we did for the wedding

[Kris]

I too contemplated making my own wedding cake in October of 2001. I had made wedding and tiered cakes for other people before. But my then fiance (now husband) FORBID me from doing so for our upcoming nuptials. Well he seriously dissuaded me since I refused to be forbidden from doing anything. :lol:

Seriously though...I am SO hugely glad that he talked me out of it. As the clock wound down toward the wedding, I was inundated with so many last minute details and minutae...I would have been a wreck trying to do my own cake.

Not only that, you just can't anticipate last minute occurrences/disasters. In my case, it was 9/11. Since I live in NYC and work a few blocks from ground zero, my guest list was thrown into disarray since many of my guests were afraid fly to NYC for my wedding. So I was stressed out about that, was suffering migraines and elevated blood pressure on a daily basis - not to mention my office was temporarily relocated to RIKERS ISLAND (of all places) due to the poor air quality resulting from the disaster. It was just hellish in the weeks leading up to my wedding. Add the pressures of having to make a wedding cake and I would have cracked.

[MeDeMi]

It sounds like Ambyre has already made up her mind, but for anyone else looking for other options I wanted to make one other suggestion. I teach Baking and Pastry at a culinary school and this past semester we made a wedding cake and a sweet table for a couple. They had 130 guests and we charged them $150 for a four tier cake and all of the sweets. They wouldn't have gotten that price from a bakery and I doubt they could even make it at home for that much. Find a flexible school that is willing to work with you. My students loved it because it gave them real world experience and they got to do something they wouldn't normally do. Outside of teaching I am a cake decorator so I was able to step in and fix anything that looked amateur-ish. The bride was very happy with the results. The only downside for the bride and groom is that they had to arrange for someone to pick everything up and deliver it to the reception, but even that wasn't a big deal. Also, because it's coming from a licensed facility there was no problem with the banquet hall allowing food from an outside source. A LOT of places won't allow food from an unlicensed kitchen into their facility. Before setting out to make your own cake I'd definitely check to see if you can even bring it in. I used to live in MN and I know there were several places that wouldn't even allow edible favors to be brought in (like Jordan Almonds or those candy bars where you print the customized labels). Many times the couple didn't even know they weren't allowed to bring the stuff in until they were there to set it out and they were told no. I'd be very upset if I bought that stuff and wasn't able to use it, but I'd be inconsolable if they refused to let me bring in my cake!

[Kris]

MeDiMe, you gave some really good advice!

[K8memphis]

Ambyre, Hey. I just finished a demo thread on my daughter's wedding cake and I actually was kinda 'speaking' to you in the back of my mind and to anyone else wanting to to do their own cake from a home environment. I did my own cake 26 years ago--I didn't try to outdo myself--it was frozen several days in advance. But actually I baked it at the bakery where I worked and was boxed & kept frozen in a lovely big walk-in.

If you can manipulate your space well enough to do it in advance and just take it out at the appointed time to deliver in boxes already made & waiting (that no cats have played in :) or if it is to be served there where it was stored all the better. But frozen cake tends to sweat if brought right out to room temperature, sometimes you might want to refrigerate in between. Just all depends on a lotta' variables.

If we had done the catering for her wedding we would have purchased a chest freezer and a big sliding door frige too. Something like this might be a consideration for you. Little chest freezers are not super expensive and you can sure put it to good use afterwards--or sell it. Buy a used one maybe.

All the logistics are more important than actual baking--baking is high on the list but if you bake the day before you're way wrong--if you bake in advance and have improper storage you're wrong. It's a giant perishable 3-d chess game that's gotta taste & look good too.

What size cakes are you thinking about??? When you nail that down, you can get your stand and boxes going--when you get your boxes going you can determine where they will fit so you can store the cake. Because you are doing the food too--you're gonna' need to juggle your space a lot.

Those little screw top dowel are awesome though--you just dial them up or down so they are all the same height--you can get them at a cake store. They are apparently called cake jacks, scroll down to the 4th & 5th products. Or like floating stands would be perfect like these. No dowel at all.

Or or or, you could take anything and make a floating stand like this one

I mean I have two yards of fabric there covering some soup cans, some cake dummies and some upside down cake pans to arrange the crystal candles in a spiral effect. If you made a similar display--you could bake & ice your cake/s and just arrange them on a pretty bunch of fabric at differing heights for a drop dead gorgeous effect--before you even pipe the first shell or need to pipe any. Put some candles or mini vases of flowers at different heights, maybe. Set it up in advance so you know how you want it and you got it. No dowel either.'

And I'll tell yah--I usually get the crepe backed satin for stuff like this--I don't know $5 $6 a yard--this was $2.99 a yard at Hobby Lobby--every bit as pretty as crepe backed satin.

And you can purchase beautiful gum paste flowers too--if you take spoofle dust* and simply dust the flowers they take on new life. Spoofle dust* is my collective term for all dusts like luster dust that's metallic, petal dust is like a matte dust, use either one of those that come in a variety of colors then dust over that with super pearl dust for a beautiful pearly finish.

Just some cake thoughts for you. Keep us posted!! Best wishes!!!

[Genny]

Ambyre, it would be great if you could share your test results, thoughts and questions here to document the process!