My First Wedding Cake

So here is the big reveal of the mystery baking project I have been working on these last few days...32 sticks of butter, 18 cups of sugar, 28 eggs, 22 cups of flour and 14 POUNDS of confectioners' sugar later...I have successfully baked, decorated and delivered my first wedding cake! WOW this was a huge undertaking that I found out about only 12 days before the wedding.

This cake was for Cammie, she owns our local ice cream shop in Mobile called Old Dutch. She has some of the best ice cream (my fav is pecan praline) and the shop is located just around the corner from our house so we frequent her place quite often. Well two Tuesdays ago, I was at a cake decorating class, but the Team in Training group I run with was at her place for an ice cream birthday party for Isaac, our honored teammate. Event though I couldn't make it to the party, something good came out of it...I got my first wedding cake job! My friend Molly who coordinates the Team in Training program was there and talking to Cammie about her upcoming wedding and they were talking about how she hadn't ordered a wedding cake yet. So Molly, knowing how much I love to bake told her that I could probably help make her cake. So a simple phone call later and I was hired!

I went and met with Cammie the next day and found out what she was looking for:
-a cake for 200 people (WOW! this is going to be big...well bigger than anything I have ever made before!)
-yellow cake with buttercream icing (not worried about this part...I could do this in my sleep)
-simple design with a larger bottom tier and a smaller square tier on top (I've done 1 tiered cake before...here comes cake #2)
-design: touch of black, with a "W" monogram and some flowers

I walked away from the meeting feeling pretty confident that I could handle this cake request. Cammie knew that I am just really getting my feet wet with cake decorating so she was super supportive and made me feel at ease that even if something would go wrong with her cake we could figure something out! Wow, what a great bride to have for making my first wedding cake!


So based on the main requirement of needing to feed 200 people I decided to go with a square cake. I used a 16" square double layer cake for the bottom tier (feeds 128) and then a 12" square double layer cake for the top tier (feeds 78)...perfect exactly 200 servings! I baked all the cakes on Thursday and did a crumb coat of icing to keep the cake moist. On Friday I did the final coat of buttercream icing and tried as best I could to get it smooth...now this is one thing I still need to work on more.


Then it came time to stack the tiers. I had to call in some help and moral support from my friend Molly (the one that got me the cake job). I made sure to put plenty of dowel rods in the bottom tier so that there could be no chance of the top tier crushing the bottom cake (this was my worst fear). I mean if the cake had collapsed there would be no time to remake a new one in time for the wedding. Luckily everything went as planned when the tier was stacked. I added a touch of black to the cake using a 1 1/2" satin ribbon that I wrapped around the bottom edge of each tier. I love the way this looks simple and clean.


Then it was on to the fun part, adding all the decorations. I decided to go with calla lilies for the cake. They are such a simple yet elegant flower and I think they look great on cakes. I'm so glad my cake decorating teacher taught me how to make these a few weeks ago out of fondant.


The "W" monogram is also made out of black and white fondant.

Here's a close up of the top of the cake with a cluster of calla lilies.

I added a smaller group of flowers to the sides of the top tier to add some balance.

And finally it was time to deliver the cake to the Battleship. I think the part that caused me the most stress in this whole experience was anticipating the delivery of the cake. Knowing that I had made the cake successfully but still had to get it from point A to point B had my stomach in knots. What if I dropped the cake, what if it collapsed during the drive, what if I tripped while carrying it...these were all thoughts going through my head. I had to call in another friend Renie to help with the delivery. The seats in her car can be laid down flat so that I could sit in the back and watch the cake while she drove. Thank goodness we only had to drive the cake about 6 miles and nothing bad happened. This picture is proof that the cake was delivered successfully! YEAH!

When I arrived with the cake I saw Cammie and some of her family and they all were so pleased with how it turned out! The reactions and compliments they gave me made me feel great about the cake!

So there you have it, my first wedding cake adventure!