All of you who have read my How To Host A Wedding Cake Tasting will know I’m making the wedding cake for my lovely cousin Bryony & her now-husband Lush. Well, the big day has now happened and I can reveal there were no cake-related disasters! But above all that, it was the most beautiful day watching the best couple getting married. I started sobbing the moment I saw Bryony walking down the aisle and didn’t stop until the ceremony was over. I love weddings, and this was a really, really special one!

As much as I could talk about the wedding for the entire post, you’re all here for the cake. As I said in the last post, they chose 2 flavours, one for each tier:

1. Bottom Tier: Chocolate cake, dark chocolate ganache, crumble and miso caramel
2. Top Tier: Vanilla cake soaked in passionfruit syrup, white chocolate ganache (for structural support), mascarpone cream, passionfruit curd, crumble and passionfruit caramel

You’re probably wondering how on earth did I manage this with a full time job, when I live in London & the wedding was in Suffolk & cook all the components at the right time so they wouldn’t go off by the wedding? The answer is a spreadsheet. I could not have done it without my spreadsheet.

On this spreadsheet I listed my components, recipes, quantities of each recipe & how far ahead of the event I could cook it. I used that to work out my ingredients and to put together a cooking calendar for the week before. The caramel and syrup I was able to fo a few weeks ahead, but everything else was done on the week of and that was limited to the Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday as I had dinner plans on Monday and was travelling back home on the Thursday to head to Suffolk with my family on Friday. The days I did the cooking, I was cooking util 11-12 at night… It was definitely hard after my usual 9-5, and I cannot promise you I wasn’t talking to my mixer and swearing at Siri at one point. On Tuesday I did the ganache and crumble, Wednesday I did the cakes and Italian meringue frosting, and on Friday I made the mascarpone frosting, mixed up my caramels and syrups (just added miso or fresh passionfruit juice), rewhipped all my ganaches/frostings and assembled the cake.

I chose to make all the components ahead of time and transport these to Suffolk to assemble in our cottage there. This seemed a lot easier and less risky than transporting a full wedding cake. I stacked both cakes on a cake board 1cm larger than the diameter of the cake (to give some space for frosting), then chilled each for ~30mins until the ganache set:

1. Bottom Tier: I levelled the chocolate cakes. Spread a layer of the dark chocolate ganache over the whole cake and piped a ring around the edge – this stops the other fillings oozing out. Then I covered the ganache with miso caramel, keeping it inside the ring, and sprinkled over crumble. I stacked the next cake and repeated. I like to stack my last cake upside down as this leaves a really level surface on top. I made sure to smooth the edges of the cake first where any ganache oozed out, and also filled in any gaps before chilling.
2. Top Tier: I levelled the vanilla cakes and spooned over the passionfruit syrup – this keeps the cakes nice and moist (sorry). I piped a ring of white chocolate ganache around the edge of the cake and a splodge in the middle – this gives some structural support as the fillings for this are quite soft. Inside the ganache ring I spread a layer of mascarpone frosting & rippled through some passionfruit curd and passionfruit caramel. Then I sprinkled over some crumble. Stacked the next cake and repeat, again stacking my last cake upside down. As before I smoked out the ganache and filled in any gaps.

Once these were set, I crumb coated each with a thin layer of Italian meringue frosting. I made sure to keep this as smooth as possible and the corners as crisp as possible. If you need tips on this, give How To Cake It a watch – she is the icing master. I set the crumb coat in the fridge until it was dry to the touch, then did the final coat. I double made sure this was smooth and perfect as the cake design was super simple – plain frosting with a few flowers. I left these to set in the fridge overnight.

The next morning, we took the cakes, a cake stand, dowels, and all my cake equipment to the venue. Here I inserted a dowel into the bottom tier, measured and cut flush with the cake. I repeated this to total 5 dowels. I stuck the bottom tier to the cake stand using a small splodge of frosting. Next, the nerve-wracking part: stacking. I put a splodge of icing on the bottom tier and lifted the top tier (my cake spatula came in SO handy) and placed it on top – I was able to centre it with my hands. Next I went over with my leftover frosting and filled any gaps, and my sister (my cake assistant) cleaned up the stand. We had some leftover flowers that my sister and I arranged after wrapping the stems with floral tape. After 2 attempts at flower arranging, we finally had it! I put it in the fridge and sighed a HUGE sigh of relief. My first wedding cake done!

The bride & groom absolutely loved it, and everyone who tasted it told me it was delicious! I actually wouldn’t know as I didn’t taste any of it… Too busy drinking & dancing. All in all, my first wedding cake was a huge success, and I’m so happy Bryony & Lush loved it too! I have 2 more wedding cakes in the books, and I think that’ll be me done for a good few years!