You may remember that I made the cakes last summer for my wedding. I was lucky enough to get to bake another wedding cake shortly after my own wedding -- this time for my little brother and his new wife. Read on for a few more tips for anyone baking cakes for a crowd this holiday season.
39 Layers and Some Buttercream: Wedding Cake Report
While I respect the many highly-skilled artisans and professionals that can make wedding cakes into works of art, I also think that if you are short on budget a modest wedding cake is in no way an impossible task for a home baker. A homemade wedding cake can also be a wonderful way to show love and support to friends and family members who are getting married -- a home-baked treat for their guests! I do believe it's something that you can do without losing your mind.
You might lose a little sleep, though. This cake definitely took some time. If you attempt something like this, here are my main tips.
Know your limits. I told my brother and his fiancee that I just couldn't do the traditional tiered and elaborately decorated wedding cake. I didn't even frost my own wedding cake! I am not very good with the decorating and the piping and all that. Rustic is more my style.
They were happy to have multiple cakes, decorated simply with buttercream and flowers.
Keep your cake estimate low. Even when you are just serving hot hors d'oeuvres and bite-size sweets like we did at this reception, people just aren't going to eat that much cake. It's served at the end of the evening, a lot of people leave early, and they're already full. I dramatically overestimated how much we would need for this crowd of 200 guests; I made ten 4-layer cakes, and we only ate through about half. The rest went home with family, who didn't complain.
Keep the recipes simple. I really wanted to make my favorite buttercream, which includes cooked egg whites and is somewhat finicky. It is, however, light and airy. The work involved finally made me decide to just go with a plain American buttercream, which includes nothing more than butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, salt, and boiling water. This simple recipe tasted better than I expected.
Even when the recipe is simple, doing things in bulk takes time. And yet even that simple recipe, made in the quantities I needed, took hours -- an entire evening.
Make recipes you enjoy! One of the most fun things about making my brother's wedding cake was the chance to make his favorite raspberry cake - which has been his birthday cake of choice for years.
Here are all 39 cake layers defrosting on the table the morning of the wedding!
I baked all the layers the Tuesday and Wednesday evenings before the wedding and froze them. I defrosted on Friday evening, overnight into Saturday. I also made the vanilla and raspberry buttercreams on Friday night. Saturday morning I made a whipped chocolate ganache for the vanilla cakes, to balance out the sweetness of the vanilla cake and buttercream.
I assembled all of these at the reception venue in about four hours. Each cake needed a crumb coat, and then I let each cake chill for an hour before putting on the top layer. The final cakes got a sprinkling of coarse sugar and a few fresh flowers. They were displayed on my own glass cakestands, plus a couple others from a friend.
And that was it! The photos don't do it justice, unfortunately; it was very dim in the hall. But it was simple, not too difficult, and a gift from the heart. I know that many bakers could do fancier decorations, but this works for me, and it was so fun to do something so meaningful for someone I love.
Here are some of the recipes I used:
• Vanilla Buttermilk Cake, from Smitten Kitchen's own wedding cake project
• Whipped Chocolate Ganache
Comments (15)
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Oh, Faith. 39 cake layers?? You are one sweet (yes, intended) sister. Bravo.
view Elizabeth P's profile
Do you mind sharing how much you estimate this cost? (Including man hours)
view caw261's profile
The cost? I am not sure. I think we spent about $100 or so all told on ingredients (butter, flour, sugar, eggs, shortening, powdered sugar, milk, buttermilk, chocolate). I spent at least 15 hours on it -- maybe more?
view faith's profile
Oh, and I forgot to mention: Of course one cake layer broke, hence 39 layers. :-)
view faith's profile
Care to share the raspberry cake recipe?
view scotty214's profile
It *ahem* involves raspberry jell-o so I was a little afraid to. I may offer it up later this week. In my defense, it's a family recipe, and I did adapt it so I didn't have to use a cake mix as the original recipe required.
view faith's profile
That is a whole lotta cake! I love to bake but the stress of making someone's wedding cake isn't something I'd take on. Good for you!
view Dana McCauley's profile
Those flowers are beautiful! And the simplicity of the cakes, all on the different platters... just a great job! Love it!
view SCADanielle's profile
What great cakes, and what a fabulous gift! That is quite a task to take on--again!
I bet your bro and new S-I-L were thrilled, and to make his favorite cake--that really is awesome, and exactly what weddings SHOULD be about.
I can only imagine that was a long 4 hours of frosting, and I certainly would've needed a few early bottles of wine to get me through prep like that---especially with my shaky hands!
Really fantastic Faith, makes me wish I could've done something like this for someone close to me before I became so ill, if anyone else is even thinking of trying this I'd say to read this experience and Faith's own wedding cakes and give it a shot--it would probably mean the world to some lucky couple.
Thanks for sharing with us.
view bobcatsteph3's profile
You're awesome, and the cakes look great! And flavored gelatin is totally fair game in a recipe. And I know projects like this take a lot of work, but they're so much fun in an insane way!
view OneWallKitchen's profile
Beautiful!
view creolesugar's profile
I regret going through a bakery for my cake. We kept the design super simple. Three layers, chocolate buttercream frosting and a very simple green leaf/vine design. It could easily have been made at home. We also had far to much cake, so I would also recommend being conservative on how much cake you purchase. You can see a picture of my cake here http://www.flickr.com/photos/33761137@N00/2828477675/in/set-72157607112772086/
Don't get me wrong I loved the look, just not the price tag!
view http://modernquiltlove.wordpress.com's profile
Very cool! I've had several requests recently to make cakes for weddings and they scare me a lot! Your comments are very helpful, esp about knowing your limitations, and about things taking a very long time!
view jennywenny's profile
we (my husband and I) have made wedding cakes for friends before, and it is a lot of fun. I don't know what it is, but home made cakes always seem to taste better...
One of THE BEST cake recipes we used was from the old Martha Stewart Weddings book form the '80s -- it can't be found anywhere else. It is a very delicate white wedding cake made with whipped cream in the cake batter. Not the sort of cake that can withstand too much stacking, but delightful.
With respect to American buttercream frosting, I've found that if it's chocolate, it can be pretty good... I made some for my 2 year old's cake, and it was not too sweet (i did cut out some of the sugar), and nicely chocolatey. For my daughter, I made a 6 layer red velvet cake with pink French buttercream (way too much work for a 2 year old!).
But Faith, 40 cakes!!! 40!!!! That is love.
view mschatelaine's profile
gorgeous display... and so rad that you made cakes for your brother's wedding... that's the stuff that makes weddings so special. i love the rustic look! not even that rustic, i think they look fabulous. stoked to check out this jello cake... ! :)
view coco_cake_cupcakes's profile