1st Wedding Cake

I've done a groom's cake, but not a wedding cake so far. I finally had a couple in the office ask if I would do their wedding cake. She sent me some pictures to get an idea of what she wanted and to price it. I gave her the price and she later came back and said that she wanted me to do it. Over the couple of weeks after that, we talked more about it and the design changed a bit over time. It got a little more complicated, but it was balanced out by not having to do detail work on every tier. They weren't sure if they were going to have to feed 150 or 200. It ended up being 200, which I had planned for. She didn't want any fondant, so it was only going to be cake and butter cream icing. She also wanted a more box-like look to the cake, so each tier needed to be three layers of cake. I also offered to make the icing on the cake a slightly off-white color so that the white decorations would stand out. You can't really see it in the picture, but the base coat of the icing was an ivory color and the accents were a stark white. Even up close, the difference was subtle.



My wife and I started this one early in the week. She did a majority of the baking for me, because there was so much to do, there was no way I would have finished the cake in time for the Saturday wedding. We baked four 12 inch square cakes, three 10 inch squares, and three 8 inch squares. The top tier was made out of a 12 inch square cut into 6 inch pieces. Because the layers were going to be so heavy, I used two layers of plastic cake board under each layer. The bottom tier sat on a piece of plywood which was covered with aluminum foil, then cake board foil. To support the tiers, I used PVC pipe which I washed, sterilized and washed again. I wanted to make sure that this thing wouldn't fall.

I didn't start decorating until Friday night. I covered all of the tiers with crumb coat, then by the time I finished the last one, the first one was ready for the final coating. That actually took most of the evening, because I had to constantly mix icing throughout the evening. I went to bed around 1:00 am with all of the cakes covered, but no detail work. With a lot of work left to do, and the stress of wanting to make sure I get it right, it wasn't the best night's sleep I've ever had.

I got up at 6:00 am and started working once I had my tea to wake me up. I put the detail work on the second and top tiers. This design is a smaller version of the design on the lace of her dress. I filled in some of the space with a few more curls and dots, but the design was essentially the same. It didn't take too long to put the design on the two tiers. I decided to put the monogram on the third tier once I got to the reception hall. That way, if there was any shifting of the icing on the way there, I could fix it and then put on the monogram. The letters only take a minute to put on, so that wouldn't be a big deal. The piping between the layers to cover up the cake board would obviously wait until the cake got to its destination.

I refrigerated the top tier because it was such a strange shape. Since it was as tall as it was wide, I was worried about that one falling over. Chilling the icing gives it a little more stability for the trip. Since that one was likely to have stability issues, I wanted to make sure it survived transport.

I loaded everything up in the car and headed out at about 12:30 pm on Saturday. I had planned to be at the reception hall at 2:30 pm, but figured I would give myself a little more time than I had originally planned. It always seems to take longer than you plan, so I gave myself another hour. I called the reception center and made sure that I could get in. The drive from my house was almost an hour. I put down a comforter on the back of the car to soften any bumps and vibrations and set off.

I got to the reception center around 1:30 pm and started work. the bride had mentioned that the center had a shield to put up if the sun was coming in through the windows. The sun wasn't really a problem, but the room was really hot when I arrived. They hadn't turned it down yet for the event. I was there for about an hour before the guy who knew how to operate the A/C showed up and cooled it down for me. I was sweating, literally, up to that point. The bride gave me the silver cake stand to put the cake on. The thing was gorgeous. I didn't want to touch it and put finger prints on it and ruin the effect of that perfect shiny finish. I opened up all of the cake boxed and everything had survived the trip! One hurdle down. There is always a pucker factor when transporting, because one serious bump and you could lose a lot of icing. There were a couple of spots on the second tier where the design formed a few breaks in the lines, but those are easily fixed.

I stacked the layers and made sure that everything was straight. I then used a wet spatula to glaze over the icing on the smooth tiers. This gives it a perfectly smooth finish and a slightly hard crust on the outside once it dries. I then piped the icing between the layers to cover up the gaps and cake boards. I put on the monogram of their initials and then started looking the cake over. The combination of the trip and the heat of the room had taken a toll on the icing. There were definitely points of stress on the cake where you could see the icing had softened. The second tier from the bottom showed the most weakness. I shored up a few spots with extra icing I had and smoothed it out at much as I could between the lines of the design. It wasn't perfect, but I tried to make it as clean as possible before everyone started showing up and I had to leave. I sat around and fiddled with it as long as I could, because I was really worried about the toll that the heat had taken on it. The top tier had a glazed look, but all of the icing seemed to be intact, so i didn't touch it. Finally, at around 3:30, I left the reception hall and hoped for the best, but feared that things would not remain as I left them based on what I saw.

I had to wait until Monday to find someone who had gone to the wedding and get a status. I asked if anything had gone wrong with the cake. They said that there was a corner of the top tier that came off. The icing took a small part of the cake with it. He said that they simply turned the cake and put that part in the back. Of course, that means that the letters would be on the side or the back as well. He said it tasted great though. So, now I'm waiting until the couple gets back from their honeymoon to see how catastrophic it may have been to the event. Luckily, the bride is pretty laid back, so it may not be too bad. I'm fairly sure that the cake would have been fine after the trip if the room had been cool, but with the combination of the trip and the heat, something bad was bound to happen. I may put an update on this post once I talk to the couple again and see what their reaction was.

This cake was very stressful. Knowing it is for a wedding and wanting it to be perfect provides a little more pressure than usually. Then there was the sheer size of the cake. It would have been really rewarding if the delivery and ceremony went off without a hitch. It's unfortunate that this first foray into wedding cakes had to have an incident.

Update: I talked with the bride and she said that they didn't really even pay attention to the smal part of the cake that came off. In fact, since the people working the reception hall turned the cake, they really didn't notice. The fact that the monogram was turned to the side wasn't a big deal either. She said that the only bit they tried were the bites that they fed to each other and that they were probably going to tear into the top of the cake that was kept in the next week so that they can actually have some of it and enjoy it instead of a year from now when it's not going to be nearly as good.