This one was a wild ride. I had never made any type of stacked cake before when my mom turned to me and said “Do you think you could make your sister’s wedding cake?” The wedding was very DIY and turned out beautiful but BOY was I nervous! All I had really done before this was make some themed cookies for her bridal shower!! How on earth was I going to go about baking a wedding cake?
I agreed to take this on and started talking ideas with my sister about what we wanted to do. First, it was “Okay, let’s do a naked cake” but we ended up settling on a fully covered design. I knew I was going to need to test run this both for flavor and for structure. Shout out to Sally’s Baking Addiction for the wedding cake recipe that I have continued to use over and over again with great success.
The Test Run
For Christmas, my family always gets together and my mom and I are typically responsible for desserts. I chose to use this as an opportunity to practice both stacking and decorating a cake. I had to worry about structure, making sure the cake layers were even, icing it nicely. Overall, I don’t think it was a fail and I’m pretty proud of how it came out.
Keep in mind… this is my first real attempt at a “professional looking cake,” so go easy on me. I knew there were definitely things I needed to work on, but overall not a bad start. Figuring out how to cover the cake board on the final product was a challenge, and I have gotten better at it over time.
Fast Forward to the Wedding
I baked my cake layers several days in advance so they would have time to set up in the freezer. I had read all the tips and tricks about “best practices” when icing and stacking cakes. Not only am I baking the cake, but I’m IN the wedding. It’s the night before the wedding and I’m in the kitchen furiously stacking and icing and refrigerating this cake in between. I finally get to the finished product around 2:30 am and get to sleep. I’m back up at 7 am the next morning to make everyone breakfast, and I’m so proud of the finished product. However, I’m not loving the cake topper and want to do something else. Queue one of my friends to the rescue. He works in a floral shop sometimes, and does the most beautiful flower arrangement on top. Overall, not bad for my first attempt at a cake and now I do cakes for all the family gatherings. Enjoy more of my baking adventures on the blog!
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