Making a wedding cake

[Rebelda]

My cousin has asked me to make his wedding cake. I feel very honoured

The cake itself is not too much bother, I'm just going to make the fruit cake I usually make for Christmas but with slightly (only slightly ) less booze! They're going to serve it with cheese

There will be 120 guests, so the obvious solution is tiers. This is new territory for me, so urban suburbans, any tips or ideas?

eta: or indeed any alternatives to tiers?

 

[moomoo]

PM aqua.

 

[Rebelda]

Will do, thanks

 

[toggle]

My cousin has asked me to make his wedding cake. I feel very honoured

The cake itself is not too much bother, I'm just going to make the fruit cake I usually make for Christmas but with slightly (only slightly ) less booze! They're going to serve it with cheese

There will be 120 guests, so the obvious solution is tiers. This is new territory for me, so urban suburbans, any tips or ideas?

eta: or indeed any alternatives to tiers?

a popular option these days seems to be a cake as display, then cupcakes for eating.

 

[pogofish]

Surely Aqua's excellent cake threads would be the best place to start?

 

[Rebelda]

*searches*

 

[aqua]

Someone said cake I like cake

rebelda - happy to help as much as I can what size is your normal fruit cake? 8"? 9"? Let's start there and work onwards

What type of decoration? Do you want cupcakes or actual cake? Do you want stacked of on a stand? Is there a colour scheme to fit in with?

 

[Rebelda]

Wow, aqua you are incredibly talented! Absolutely stunning cakes

My normal fruit cake is 8".

Definitely actual cake, as for the rest of your questions I'm still waiting for answers! I just got so excited I posted a thread

I have a feeling I've got a lot to learn, but I'm looking forward to it

 

[aqua]

Well to give you an idea, an 8" fruit cake feeds approx 20 people

The info you need from the bride is how many of their guests do they want to feed? I'd suggest to aim for 80-90 people as some strange people in this world don't like cake. If you know the people and there are some who will eat 2 slices, aim for 100-110.

Colour scheme - some brides say it doesn't matter, then when you say what you're doing suddenly get a bit daft and then say they didn't mean no colour scheme after all

Then I have another list of questions for you I love doing wedding cakes, they're always so exciting

 

[Rebelda]

There will be 120 guests, 15 of them children, so I'm thinking cake for 100.

The bride is keeping the colour of her dress secret, but this might mean I get to find out

I'm thinking of adapting the recipe I use to make a bigger cake - in my head I see tiers but of course that is up to them. Do you have an opinion on square vs round? And is it worth making a sponge layer for 'cutting the cake' photos, and a cutting cake for the kitchen? Oh, and does the sponge bit get eaten or chucked?

I have a feeling I'm going to get annoying

 

[aqua]

That's OK If you expand your recipe you don't just double it - because you're working in volume

I have LOTS of recipes for cakes of varying sizes I can send you.

Square vs round is just a matter of personal choice. If you want stacked that's fine and I can't talk you through how to dowel a cake. It's not difficult. Are you using rolled icing? Have you done it before? I tend to match the base colour to the brides cake (ie white or champagne/ivory) but it is totally up to the wedding. The pink cake I did was because the bride wanted cute pink things Start with how they want it to look - then whether they want a range of cakes - the last cake I did (the one with the models) had a total of 4 flavours of cake to suit the various ages - carrot, vanilla, chocolate and sticky date. Some go in the kitchen and others in the final presentation piece.

Start with how they want it (stacked vs stand, how many tiers etc), then work out what flavours. Then we can work out the best way of getting the number of portions that's needed

 

[Rebelda]

Took me a while, but I thought I should update the thread. Wanted to say a public thank you to aqua for all her help. You are awesome lady

Here it is. The lace may or may not be covering up my shoddy icing

 

[aqua]

YAY photos well done chicky xx

 

[Rebelda]

You can't see because it's on a stand, but I iced the board, honest

 

[aqua]

I did check by peering at the screen

 

[crustychick]

wow - that's great Rebelda!!! well done

 

[Rebelda]

Thank you. A lot of swearing went into making it

 

[trashpony]

Wow! I'm impressed