Making my own wedding cake. Advice Please!

rdp

Hey MSE Wedding posters.

To save costs on my wedding I have decided to make my wedding cake myself. After working out how much it would cost to make my cake, i can make it for a third of the price of having one made. :eek:

I was wondering if anyone out there had done the same and is the stress worth the savings? is it as simple as I think it is going to be?

Any advice will be amazing so thanks in advance.

Ross

Sazzarella

I'm a keen baker but I personally think there is enough to do the week before the wedding without adding a cake into the mix :eek:

I know some people on here have bought the cakes from M+S and then decorated themselves which seems like it would be less work/less stress.

Good luck! If you can keep a level head then it would be a good saving

rdp

Thanks Sazzarella.

I had thought the M&S Cakes before. I was thinking of working it much like a Christmas cake. Do the bulk of the work and the bake beforehand and then just ice and assemble in the week building up.

We aren't getting married til 2015 so hoping to have most of all the planning and stuff done well in advance so we have a less stressful final week. well, that's the plan anyway.......

Thanks,

Ross

Fen1

A Christmas/ fruit cake can be made well in advance, so no worries about baking at the last minute.
If you are nervous about decorating, do a couple of dry runs. Lakeland at the moment are doing really lovely stencils for cake decoration:
http://www.lakeland.co.uk/search/cake-stencil/q02.r16.1

Alternatively, ask a friend to do the decorating - it can be their present to you.
You could also do a very simple Royal Icing decoration yourself.:
2 weeks before the wedding put marzipan on the cake. Allow to sit for at least 3 days before icing as otherwise the oils from the icing will leach into the icing.
1 week before the wedding Royal Ice the cake very simply. Remember to add a little glycerin to the mix to keep the icing soft ( see Delia or Merry Berry ). Allow to sit for 2 days.
Put a beautiful ribbon around the cake ( matching bridesmaids dresses?).
Morning of the wedding, heap wedding blooms on top. Roses work well for this. Or scatter iced glace petals.

floss2

Fen1 wrote: »

...You could also do a very simple Royal Icing decoration yourself.:
2 weeks before the wedding put marzipan on the cake. Allow to sit for at least 3 days before icing as otherwise the oils from the icing will leach into the icing.
1 week before the wedding Royal Ice the cake very simply. Remember to add a little glycerin to the mix to keep the icing soft ( see Delia or Merry Berry ). Allow to sit for 2 days.
Put a beautiful ribbon around the cake ( matching bridesmaids dresses?).
Morning of the wedding, heap wedding blooms on top. Roses work well for this. Or scatter iced glace petals.

As a keen cake decorator, I would suggest that you practise using royal icing before you do your wedding cake, as it can be a difficult medium to work with. Good quality fondant / sugarpaste (Karen Davies' brand is easy to use and tastes fab!) is probably a safer bet on top of your almond paste/marzipan. You can get a good smooth result and then use maybe a crystal cake topper or figurines for your decoration.

Also, please don't use loose flowers directly onto a cake - speak to your local florist or cake decorating supplies shop for advice on this.

rdp

thanks for your responses guys. so much good info.

What about colouring Royal Icing? is that easy or a no go area for a novice?

I have material rose petals for decorating the table around the cake so no colour should transfer onto the cake. I was thinking coloured shapes and a dual ribbon around. I want to keep it relatively simple.

I hadn't thought of going to Lakeland for supplies. Great mention that one

Fen1

Practice practice practice.

Coloured icing is easy. Lots of tutorials on google.

If you are thinking of using fresh flowers, always use organic, food-grade flowers. Don't use poisonous ones! A good tip is to get shallow dishes ( like petrie dishes ) in which to place a little wetted oasis, then place that on top of the cake. The dishes allow easy removal for cutting, keep stems off the cake, and keep the flowers fresh.

I regularly use flowers and herbs on top of desserts and cakes, some to be eaten as garnish, some purely for decoration. But never, never poisonous! A really lovely cake topper is an arrangement made with fresh herbs, such as rosemary, sage and lavender.

DizzyMagpie

Hello! I've just finished my cakes now and am sitting down with a well earned cup of tea!

I'm getting married on Saturday, so I baked the sponges yesterday and gave them a crumb coat. This morning I covered them in pre-made fondant and inserted the dowels ready to hand over to the venue tomorrow. Because I'm not setting up myself I made sure the decoration is REALLY simple so that there's less to go wrong (flowers etc. falling off). If you have time to set up yourself then you can take a piping bag of icing to glue things back on or touch up any mistakes.

To be honest I could have baked today and iced tomorrow but it's a bit risky should anything go wrong.

I practised each of my recipes two or three times before this week, using the tins that I intended to bake them in- my work colleagues were quite happy to give constructive criticism

I'm not sure how to upload photos, if I figure it out, I'll post a few.

rdp

It'd be awesome if you can upload photos. did you do a 3 tiers of sponge? I'm thinking fruit bottom, chocolate brownie style middle and sponge top. lot of work i think.

DizzyMagpie

Sweet I figured it out! The big one is chocolate, middle one coconut and the wee one is a plain sponge.

rdp

Wow. They look amazing. If mine look anywhere close to that good i'll be very happy