The Wedding Cake

As it is, getting married is already stressful.  And as they always say, you never really have enough time for all the preparations however long you were planning for your wedding.  I had 9 months to plan my wedding.  It was really short, that 9 months went by really quick.

I'm a really hands on person, and having said that, I wanted to be a DIY bride.  I did a reality check on what are the things that I could do on my own, and things that I have to buy or delegate.  Being the baker that I am, I wanted to make my own cake.  I had always wanted a simple cake, and I have a design on mind since Day1.  I did not want any fondant, I just wanted a three tier cake, with very minimal piping and some flowers.  

I got married on a Saturday, and I baked all the layers of the cake on the Monday prior to the wedding.  I baked Sarah's Ultimate Butter Cake in Lemon and Ultimate Chocolate cake - the butter cake being my favorite, and the chocolate cake being hubby's favorite.  My cake tiers are 6, 8 and 10 inches.  I baked extra layers just in case I mess up something.  I also made all the Buttercream on the same day.  I had all Vanilla Buttercream.  After having baked and cooled everything, I wrapped everything and stored.  I defrosted everything on Thursday night and assembled them on Friday morning.  Each tier ended up with 3 layers of Chocolate-Butter-Chocolate Cake combination.  After assembly, icing/piping and decorating, our wedding cake was ready to go.  Hubby brought the cake to the hotel, and the chef at the hotel graciously stored it for us.

I loved our wedding cake, and everyone was raving about how good it tasted.  We served it as dessert for our wedding and we still have the top layer frozen for our anniversary.  

The Wedding Cake

After much ado, I finally delivered my first wedding cake today - for Dodie and Weng's wedding. About a month ago when Dodie asked me to make their wedding cake, I was very excited because somebody finally trusted me to make a cake for their most special day. However, as the day grew nearer, I started panicking. First of all, I had only stacked 2 tiers of cake before, so making it 3 was quite a challenge. The flavors were easy though, they wanted Chocolate for the top and bottom tiers, and Vanilla in the middle. I made Sarah Phillip's Ultimate Chocolate and Vanilla Butter Cakes.

The cake tiers were 6, 8 and 10 inches. I originally planned on baking 2 layers for each tier, but it was not tall enough so I baked a third layer for each tier. Baking the layers were a breeze, this is my favorite part. Making the Vanilla Mousseline icing was a little easy this time. I made the icing in batches when I'm about the frost the layers so that I don't have to freeze or store the icing. All the 3 tiers were frosted with the Vanilla Mousseline Buttercream. After I had all tiers frosted, my biggest dilemma was how to stack the cake. I have never stacked and doweled something as big as this so I was scared to ruin the cakes. Plus I don't have spare cakes so there is no room for mistake.

While thinking about how to stack and dowel, I made the cake board by covering it with a lilac organza and yellow ribbon on the side. Then I started by securing the bottom tier onto the cake board. After an hour of just looking at the bottom layer and mustering enough courage to stack the cake, I placed the 2nd tier on the bottom tier. I doweled the 2 bottom tiers with a stick that I was lucky enough to buy in the supermarket. Lastly, I stacked the top tier. Voila, I now have a 3-tier wedding cake! The tiers looked really stable and it looked aligned and straight enough. Hehe. I was relieved! Then came the best part, decorating the cake. I had already made gumpaste flowers in advance according to the wedding's color motiff - Yellow and Lilac. I just covered the cake with lots of flowers and some butterflies. I also placed ribbons on the borders of the cake. I was done, I can finally sleep!



The biggest challenge was the long drive from my place to the reception. The first hurdle was bringing the cake from the 7th floor to the car. After a lot of fuss, the cake was finally in the front seat of the car because the box won't fit in the backseat or in the trunk.

On a normal day to work (which is near the reception), my travel time varies from 45 minutes to an hour and 15 minutes depending on the traffic. Today, however, it took me 2 hours to get there! I was driving with one hand, and holding the box with the other hand. Even if the cake was stable, it still took a beating out of the bumpy roads, the top and middle tiers slid back and tilted. The bottom tier also cracked a bit, good thing it was at the back part. Upon arriving at the reception, I setup the cake, smoothened the parts that slid and covered the crack with more flowers.

I was so concerned that because of the beating that the cake took, it would collapse on the cake cutting. Good thing it did not! The couple was able to cut the cake without any incident. :) After the ceremonies, most of the people waited for the cake to be served. They loved the cake and helped themselves with second servings! And that was the best compliment a baker could get, the second servings!

Now on to my second wedding cake on the 31st. :)

(Photos were taken the night before the reception, hence the bad light. More photos from the reception to come.)