Short & Sweet: My first wedding cake!

My first wedding cake!

For a couple of years now I have been making celebration cakes for families birthdays and other special occasions however, I did not expect my brother to ask me to make his wedding cake!

It was such an honour to be able to play such a huge part in their wedding, in which I thought I would share my recipe.

The cake consisted of three layers measuring 12", 9" and 6". The bottom tier was a tangy lemon cake, filled with lemon curd and smooth buttercream. The middle tier was a classic Victoria sponge filled with strawberry jam and buttercream. Finally, the top tier was a red velvet cake filled with buttercream.

Within this post I will be showing you how to make the cakes and how to stack and decorate them however, if you want to learn how to make the lemon curd or strawberry jam these recipes will follow in another post.

Three tiered wedding cake:

Prep time: 2 hours

Cooking time: Lemon cake~ 50 minutes/ Victoria Sponge~ 40 minutes/ Red Velvet cake~ 30 minutes

Serves: 100 people

Ingredients:

Lemon Cake:

800g softened butter
800g caster sugar
800g self raising flour
16 eggs
The zest of 6 lemons
The juice of 1 lemons

Victoria Sponge:

450g softened butter
450g caster sugar
450g self raising flour
9 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Red Velvet cake:

200g softened butter
200g caster sugar
200g self raising flour
4 eggs
1.5 tbsp milk
5 tbsp Greek yogurt
60g cocoa powder
1/2 tsp gel red food colouring

Buttercream:

1500g softened butter
3,000g icing sugar
2 tsp milk

Method:

Firstly preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius/ gas mark three, and prepare each of your cake tins with baking paper.

Prepare all your ingredients, ensuring that you have everything needed for every layer of the cake.

In addition to these ingredients you will also need wooden supports to place into the bottom and middle tiers, a 6", 9" and 14" cake board to place each cake on, as well as a turntable to make icing the cakes easier and a palette knife.

Place the butter and sugar into an electric mixer and whisk until fully combined and of a creamy consistency. Next add the eggs one at a time, ensuring that the mixture is thoroughly whisked in between each addition. This will ensure each ingredient is fully combined and will incorporate air which will create a very light textured cake.

At this stage you can add the vanilla extract, lemon juice & zest or yogurt depending on which layer you are making. When adding the yogurt to the red velvet cake place half a teaspoon of gel red food colouring to the yogurt, to create the red colour for the cake.

Next fold the sifted flour (and the cocoa powder for the red velvet cake) into the mixture ensuring to not knock out too much air that has been incorporated.

Finally, carefully place the mixture into the prepared tins, and place in the oven for the given amount of time (see cooking time above). Once this time is up check that the cakes are cooked all the way through by placing a skewer through the middle of each cake. If the skewer comes out clean and the cake bounces back when gently pressed then they are done.

Place each cake onto a wire cooling rack, until completely cooled all the way through. During this time begin to make the buttercream by placing the butter into an electric mixer and beating for five minutes. This will soften the butter and give a creamier consistency to the buttercream. Gradually add the sifted icing sugar, and two teaspoons of milk until they are fully incorporated and there are no lumps within the buttercream.

Prepare a piping bag with a plain nozzle attached, and fill the piping bag until roughly two thirds full.

*To make this stage less messy you can place the piping bag into a tall cup and cold over the top of the bag, which can then be pulled up once filled.

Start the construction of the cake by placing a small blob of buttercream onto the centre of the largest cake board, and place one layer of the lemon cake on top to secure it to the base. Next pipe the butter cream onto the layer in small blobs all the way round the edge, continue this technique into the middle. On the other half of the lemon cake spread the lemon curd (the amount can vary depending on how subtle you would like the flavour to be). Sandwich both halves together, making sure the cake is level.

Repeat this stage with the Victoria Sponge and the red velvet layers.

Once each cake is filled place them on a icing turntable, and prepare the icing bag again with a plain nozzle. Place a large tablespoon of buttercream onto the top of each cake and spread out evenly until a thin layer is covering the surface.

Now pipe all away round each cake in lines until the sides are fully covered, ensuring that the buttercream is slightly taller than the cake. Using a palette knife at a 90 degree angle slowly spin the turntable placing a small amount of pressure onto the icing. Keep turning the cake until you are left with a thin, smooth layer of icing. This technique is called crumbing and this ensures that no crumbs are visible on the final decoration of the cake. Once the sides are smooth using an inwards action carefully spread the overlapping buttercream from the sides into the middle of the top of the cake (sorry if that doesn't make sense, it's quite hard to explain in writing!).

Leave the buttercream to set or dry out slightly for an hour or two. For the decoration of the bottom and middle layers repeat this step for a second time to create a thicker layer of buttercream so that the sponge is not visible.

Then using a clean palette knife place the bottom edge of the knife against the cake and slowly spin the turntable, repeat this a few times up the cake to create the rustic, layered look on the lemon cake.

For the Victoria Sponge cake prepare another piping bag with a small round tipped nozzle and pipe dots of buttercream onto the sides of the cake. To flatten the peaks of the dots dab your (*clean*) finger into some water and gently pat the peak down.

Finally, to create the rose decoration on the red velvet cake prepare a piping bag with a six point star tip (I used a Wilton 2D). I love this style of decoration and it is way easier than it looks, and is guaranteed to give the wow factor!

Starting at the base of the cake pipe a rose by starting in the middle and working your way outwards in a circular action, overlapping the middle piping. Continue this technique all the way round the cake overlapping each rose so there are no gaps. Repeat this on top of the cake also. Any gaps can be filled in with a small start of icing.

Now, here comes the part that was completely new to me as i'd never stacked cakes with supports before!

I first started by placing a wooden rod into the centre of the bottom and middle tiers. I carefully placed a spare cake board (the size of the above layer) in the middle and made a faint marking as a guide for the other supports. I then made a mark with a pencil level with the top of the cake. Using this rod five/eight (middle/bottom layers) were cut and placed roughly 0.5cm from the edge of where the above cake would sit.

Ensure that you push each rod to the base of the cake to avoid there being a gap between the base of the bottom and middle tiers.

Finally, when we arrived at the wedding venue the cake was carefully assembled using a cake lifter. Once each layer was stacked roses were placed around the edge and on the top of the cake, as well as a bunting purchased from Hobbycraft.

I was so proud with the outcome of the cake, and am so so glad that I decided to take on the task. I really enjoyed the experience of making the cake and I cannot to (hopefully) make many more wedding cakes in the future.

The simple decoration, paired with the beautiful flowers really turned this cake into a showstopper, and I can say I received a lot of compliments throughout the day.

I hope you enjoyed learning how to make this wedding cake. If you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment. Sorry if some of the decoration descriptions aren't very clear, I found it quite difficult to explain in writing!

Happy Baking :)

My first wedding cake!

Three tiered wedding cake:

Ingredients:

Method:

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