When my coworker Emma asked me to do her wedding cake, I was terrified! It's a lot of pressure to make sure it was exactly what she dreamed the cake would be. For weeks we discussed patterns, shapes, and logistics. After doing the purple cake for my grandma, I had a good idea of how much I would need for supplies and I knew a little more about big tiered cakes, so I felt a little more confident. However, there were still some things that I needed to learn. First lesson, do not over bake. I was really sick this whole week, so I stretched out the work of baking, icing, and making fondant over the entire week. I planned to stack the cakes one at a time so I didn't get overwhelmed. I started with the bottom layer because it was 16" wide and I knew I would need my husband's help. Well, it spiderweb cracked all over. I went online to find out why this happened. Cracking occurs when there is not enough moisture in the cake, so the cake looses elasticity. I found out a few tips which I will share at the end of this post. I was so upset about the cracked cake which I knew I was going to have to re-bake, that I cracked the middle layer as I was putting it in the freezer! So now I had to bake 2 cakes the day before the wedding. I called on my good friend Christina to help me the day of the wedding and she was a LIFESAVER! I got all 3 layers put together and iced with butter cream Saturday morning, then she came over to help me with the fondant. We had just enough to cover all 3 cakes and it took a lot of back breaking work to get that stuff smooth and flat. 3 hours to be exact. We were both sweating by the time we got those cakes covered. Thankfully, that was the hardest part and there weren't any more problems with cracking, so I was relieved. We debated back in forth about how to transport the cake. My husband thought I should transport all 3 cakes separately. Christina agreed. I wanted to stack them all and have a guy help me carry it in. In the end, I decided to stack the bottom 2, then add the top layer once I got to the reception. I did the decorations in butter cream, which was really nice because if I messed up at all, I could just wipe it off and try again! Once we got the reception, I tried to stack the top layer and realized I had forgotten to punch a hole in the cardboard under the cake, so it didn't want to slide on to my stabilizing post. It crumpled up inside the top layer, causing some rippling and bulging of the top layer. I said, screw this! I pulled the stabilizing post out and set the top layer on without it. It settled back down and I was able to hide the pooches in the fondant pretty well. Of course since I was a bit freaked out, my hands were shaking like crazy when I put the last decorations on, so I decided if I ever do another large cake, all the layers are going to be stacked and decorated at home! I can fix any mishaps, but from now on...I'm doing the stressful stuff at home. I don't like people standing over me and watching. Anyway, I'm happy with how it turned out in the end and the bride loved it, so it was worth all of the blood, sweat and tears!!
Tips:
-When you pull the cake out of the oven, press the top down. This helps to condense the cake before it cools and helps prevent cracking. It also makes the cake flat so you don't have to cut the top off, which is VERY helpful when doing large cakes.
-Do not over bake. You don't want to open the oven door before it's done because this can cause the cake to fall in the middle, but you also don't want to cook it too long because this causes cracking. What I do is when it's getting close to being done, I turn on the light and give the oven a little shake. If the the cake wiggles at all, it is not done. Once it stops wiggling, it is safe to open the oven and do the toothpick test. When the toothpick comes out clean, the cake is done.
-Freeze the top cake of each layer. It's easier to stack them frozen, wait for it to thaw before icing.
-Make sure you have 2-3 people to help with the fondant, it gets very exhausting and it's nice to have some extra hands!
