Jeff And Amy's Cake

As promised, here is a photo of the completed wedding cake. And, I'm happy to report that Jeff and Amy were pleased with the design and the taste. They are such a nice couple.

It's Showtime

Flowers for the cake.

I especially love the Ebony dahlias.

Today's the big day. It's Jeff and Amy's wedding day and I need to transport, assemble and decorate the cake at the venue.

First thing this morning, I went to the neighborhood florist shop to pick up the flowers. I brought a container with me so that they could be put into water straight away and be kept as fresh as possible.

I also put dowels cut to the height of cakes into the three bottom tiers. The dowels will help support the weight of the stacked cakes. If you don't use dowels, the cakes would be crushed by the weight. A baked, filled and frosted cake is surprisingly heavy.

Six 1/4 inch dowels cut to the height of the cakes are in each of the bottom three tiers.

I am also bringing a sketch I drew of how I want the flowers to be arranged on the cake. Instead of going the traditional route of putting the flowers on the top tier,  I'm going to drape them down the front of the cake, putting the biggest bunch on the bottom right of the third tier. That's going to be the focal point of the decoration.

My handy dandy sketch.

I know this makes me sound crazy but I have been thinking about flower placement pretty much nonstop for the last three days. Arranging flowers artfully and naturally takes thought and consideration.

I'll post a picture tonight of the finished cake.

Baked, Filled And Frosted

The 10-inch tier chilling.

I began baking the cakes for my friend Jeff's wedding at 10 a.m. this morning and by 8 p.m. this evening, all of the tiers were filled, frosted and being chilled.

It was a long day but also fun for me since I haven't baked a cake for months due to my kitchen remodeling project. My sister who lives close by,  loaned me her kitchen for the day and even cleared out her whole refrigerator so that I wouldn't have to move the cakes until the day of the wedding.

My nephew Sam and my niece Maya were so helpful to me,  showing me where things were in the kitchen and even helping me clean up.

Now that the majority of the work is done, it's nice to be able to relax a bit until Saturday when I need to transport and stack the tiers at the venue. Oh, I'll also need to add the fresh flowers for decoration.

After baking the pumpkin flavored cakes, I leveled them and placed them on foam core rounds that I cut to the size of my cake pans. I use foam core because after the tiers are stacked I like to put a dowel down through the center of the entire wedding cake for stability. A dowel sharpened in a pencil sharpener easily goes through the foam core.

The bottom layer of the tiers got a coating of dark chocolate ganache.

After adding the second layer to the tiers, I let the cakes chill well before frosting.

I made a simple cream cheese frosting and used the back of a teaspoon to add swirls for texture. I like the natural look of this frosting technique and think it will look soft and elegant with the addition of fresh flowers for decoration.

Wedding Cake Preparations

My wedding cake task list.

This is wedding cake week since I have the honor of making the cake for my friend and fellow Wednesday Community Meal volunteer Jeff's wedding this Saturday.

My kitchen of course is still not in working order because of my remodeling project but my kind sister has come to the rescue. She lives nearby and has prepared her kitchen for me to use. She is even making space in her fridge so that I'll have room for the cake layers to chill.

Initially I had planned for my kitchen to be done by now but the counter top installers are running weeks behind schedule and that's just how it goes. It's a lesson in patience and flexibility. In the grand scheme of things it's not that big of a deal and the show must go on.

There is a lot to do this week so I'm making lists and breaking up the tasks.

Early in the week is devoted just to getting ingredients and supplies and assembling the decorative cake board.

Wednesday is for making the fillings and frosting bases.

Thursday and Friday are just for baking and frosting the cake layers and letting them chill, chill, chill since I'm expecting it to be hot on Saturday when I need transport the cake. I'll transport the cake in layers and then assemble it and add the fresh flower decorations at the venue.

Planning Another Wedding Cake

Sketching and planning the cake.

My friend and fellow Wednesday Community Meal volunteer Jeff is getting married later this month and I have the privilege of making the wedding cake.

He and his fiance are so nice and very easy going. I'm going to make a four-tiered cake and a two layer 14-inch cake and decorate them with fresh flowers. This past Tuesday, I put in my order for the flowers (roses, dahlias and mums) at my neighborhood florist.

Last month, the couple chose a few cake flavors to taste and decided upon pumpkin cake filled with dark chocolate ganache and cream cheese frosting. I teased Jeff that pumpkin was more suited for a Fall wedding but he said, "I don't care. We like pumpkin."

Jeff's right. The bride and groom should get what they want and I have to admit, the combination of cinnamon spiced pumpkin and dark chocolate was pretty great and the pumpkin made the cake super moist. Jeff did agree that the extra 14-inch cake should be vanilla raspberry as another option.

My mission is to please the bride and groom.

More Wedding Photos

The room ready for the reception. Thank you Cindy for taking the photos. It was an exciting day.

Side view of the wedding cake.

Cheryl adding the fresh roses to the cakes.

Trees and blue birds made from sugar cookie dough and decorated with royal icing are colorful additions to the cake.

Cheryl adding birds to the cake.

Cheryl and I discussing bird placement on the cake.

Adding the tree cookies to the cake. I think I look positively obsessed and I think my friends Cindy and Cheryl would agree. They were so supportive and helped me stay calm.

It takes a team to make punch.  Martha is in the back opening the 7-up and my daughter Una, Leah and Jordan are mixing it up. I'm adding mint and fresh raspberries. The clear punch was made with 7-up, white grape juice, white cranberry juice and soda water.  It was light, crisp and tasted like champagne. A white grape juice ice ring made in a bundt cake pan helped keep the punch chilled.

Completed Wedding Cake

After much dreaming, planning and baking I finally got to see the results of the wedding cake I made for my friend Nathan.

Luckily with support and encouragement from my friends and family everything turned out great and I got lots of compliments on the taste and moistness of the cake. I used the same yellow buttermilk cake recipe that I used to make my Mango Coconut Cake.

All of the decorations for the tiered cake were made of sugar cookies decorated with royal icing. My friend Anne bought beautiful yellow and green tinged roses to decorate the three additional cakes I made to help feed the large number of guests.

The doors of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in sugar cookie.

A cake topped with roses is simple and elegant. I love the modern look of the green tinged roses.

Cakes in the car.

In addition to cake, there was punch, colorful mints, coffee and tea. Volunteers from the Wednesday Community Meal graciously served the treats and helped clean up. I have to give a special shout out to Cheryl and Cindy who cut the cake. I didn't have the nerves for it and they did a fabulous job.

I could smile and breathe after the tiered cake was successfully stacked and decorated.

Cake, Cake And More Cake

Icing the three layer cake for the base of the tiered wedding cake.

Cakes ready to be iced. Every layer was soaked with a Grand Marnier simple syrup. In between the layers is fresh strawberry puree and strawberry buttercream.

Yesterday was cake day. I made and baked 15 cakes from scratch for the wedding cake I'm making for my friend Nathan's wedding reception tomorrow.

The first cake came out of the oven at 7 a.m. and the last at 10 p.m. and along the way I learned I need more cake pans.

I have only one pan for the largest sized cake and I needed to make nine of them since the base of the tiered cake is three layers and I'm making three additional two layer cakes to help feed the large crowd that is expected. Each cake took 45 minutes to bake and 15 minutes to cool in the pan before I could get another in the oven.

Half of the cakes I made yesterday.

I also made eight batches of buttercream. Luckily I have an easy vanilla cream buttercream recipe that is great when you need to make a lot of batches because you can make the base for the buttercream in advance.


Here's the recipe:

Vanilla Cream Buttercream
1 cup milk
1 cup sugar, divided
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla
2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature


In a saucepan over medium heat, cook the milk and half of the sugar until simmering.
In the meantime, in a small bowl combine the cream, the other half of the sugar and cornstarch. Mix well with a whisk.

When the milk is simmering,  pour about half of it into the cream mixture and whisk well. Add it back to the milk in the saucepan and heat, stirring constantly until the mixture becomes very thick.

Remove from heat and whisk in the vanilla. Put the mixture into a clean bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let the mixture cool completely.

This buttercream base can be made in advance. Cover it with plastic wrap and let it cool completely before adding the butter.

When the buttercream base is cool, transfer it to a mixer and whip until smooth, add the butter a tablespoon at a time and whip until light and fluffy.

Wedding Week

I'm making a wedding cake for a reception this coming Saturday so this week has been busy busy busy.

Making a wedding cake means more than just baking a cake and adding frosting. Presentation matters a lot and it takes time and careful consideration.

Without giving away too much about the design (I want Nathan to be surprised), here are a few snapshots of what I've been up to so far this week.

Monday: Making the cake decorations. Here, I'm getting ready to cut blue birds out of tinted sugar cookie dough.

Tuesday: Shopping for cake ingredients. This was what my cart looked like even before I hit the butter department.

Tuesday Night: Adding muslin fabric and ribbon to 16-inch wooden rounds that will act as cake bases. I'm making a four-tiered wedding cake and three additional two layer 14-inch cakes so I had to make four cake bases.

Wednesday: Making the fresh strawberry filling for the cake.