Tag: cake

How I Made A Wedding Cake

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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.

This is my trusty spreadsheet – the table at the top shows what I need to make, the recipe, how much to make and the date I cold make it. The small table at the bottom shows my plan for the week of the wedding

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.
Inside of the chocolate layer: Miso caramel, dark chocolate ganache and crumble
Inside of the chocolate layer: Miso caramel, dark chocolate ganache and crumble

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.

Wedding cake stacked and iced, ready for flowers

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!

Wedding cake sample

How To Host A Wedding Cake Tasting

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As my friends’ and family’s resident baker, I’ve now been drafted for 3 wedding cakes, having never done one before… The first one is for my cousin & her fiancé in May, so of course we needed to do a cake tasting to decide the flavours. For context, my cousin is also a major foodie & definitely a big part of why I now am so obsessed with food – check out her insta @bees.eats if you need proof. I asked them for a list of flavours they might like and they sent these criteria:

  1. Chocolate tier: plain choc or with a salted/miso caramel/something salty, also pistachio
  2. Fruit tier: passionfruit, mango, raspberry, lemon & elderflower. No coconut

So I took that brief & made loads of cakes, frostings & fillings that fit the brief (using a trusty spreadsheet to plan the timing because I am that person). I decided not to assemble whole cakes, and instead to lay out all the components to mix & match the flavours. That saves me a lot of time and means we can try more combinations.

Here is the final spread:

Wedding cake tasting
Wedding cake tasting spread
  1. A Vanilla Sponge: I swear by Cupcake Jemma’s recipe – super buttery & moist (sorry), but really holds structure. This recipe, and all other Cupcake Jemma ones mentioned, are in The Cake Book – this is my baking bible & I recommend it to everyone. It has the best basic staple recipes (& lots of exciting cupcake recipes too). I used the raspberry ripple cake recipe but without the raspberry fruit goo. I made 1/2 of the recipe and cooked it in one 20cm tin, which meant I needed to cook it a little longer than the recipe said.
  2. A Chocolate Sponge: Again, I use Cupcake Jemma’s recipe. It’s so fudgy & the perfect level of richness. I used the ridiculous chocolate cake recipe. I made 2/3 of the chocolate cake recipe and cooked it in one 20cm tin. Again I had to cook this a little longer.
  3. Elderflower Simple Syrup: I made my simple syrups by first heating equal parts water & granulated sugar over a medium heat until the sugar dissolved. Leave this to cool, then add elderflower cordial to taste. I use simple syrup to infuse more flavour into the cakes but also to keep them moist (sorry again) while decorating & being stored.
  4. Lemon Simple Syrup: I used the same base syrup as above but added fresh lemon juice to taste.
  5. Passionfruit Simple Syrup: Same as above, but sub the lemon juice for passionfruit juice (push the pulp through a sieve)
  6. Cream Cheese Frosting: I use cupcake Jemma’s recipe for this one again from the book above. I made 1/4 of the recipe.
  7. Lemon & Elderflower Cream Cheese Frosting: For this I used 1/2 of the cream cheese frosting I made (I left half plain) & stirred in elderflower cordial & lemon juice to taste. This does make the frosting a little runny, but it’s absolutely fine for getting the flavour in a tasting where we don’t need the structural support.
  8. Mascarpone Frosting: I used 1/2 this recipe for this frosting. This makes a really rich, creamy filling that’s not too sweet.
  9. Pistachio Mascarpone Frosting: I used 1/2 of the mascarpone frosting I made (& left half plain) & beat in a few teaspoons of pistachio cream (or to taste). Something like this pistachio cream from Sous Chef – I buy mine from Eataly.
  10. Passionfruit Caramel: I used this recipe for caramel which makes a thick caramel sauce, the perfect texture for spreading with an almost bitter taste to it if you cook the sugar until deep amber. I took half of the caramel and stirred through the juice strained from one passionfruit. I absolutely loved this – it was thick & rich, with a kick of passionfruit sharpness. It wasn’t too sweet either I think due to the passionfruit, and that I cooked the sugar until quite a deep colour which gave it a beautiful bitterness.
  11. Miso Caramel: I dissolved ~1tsp of miso in 1tsp of boiling water & stirred this through the remaining half of the caramel. Think highly elevated salted caramel – the miso gives the savoury side to this rich caramel.
  12. Milk, White & Dark Ganache: I used 100g of each with cream in the following ratios. Dark 1:1, Milk 2:1, white 3:1. This Liv for Cake post explains the different ratios needed for each chocolate type and texture needed. I used the runnier ratio as this was just for tasting, but in a cake I’d want a thicker texture.
  13. Crumble: I used Yolanda Gampp’s recipe for this but without the cinnamon. This is the perfect buttery crunch to add some texture to your cake.
  14. Passionfruit & Mango Curd: I ordered this, but will likely make it for the big day. I used Cottage Delight’s Mango & Passionfruit curd which was really great – very tangy and buttery.

I cut the cake into little chunks so we could add whatever syrups, fillings or toppings we wanted to make mini cake bites.

Wedding cake sample
Vanilla cake, mascarpone frosting, passionfruit curd, passionfruit caramel, crumble

After trying a whooole lot of combinations, we decided on 2 flavours, one for each tier. And with special permission from the bride herself, I can tell you the flavours:

  1. Chocolate cake, dark chocolate ganache, miso caramel and crumble
  2. Vanilla cake, passionfruit syrup, mascarpone frosting, passionfruit curd & passionfruit caramel

It surprisingly didn’t take too long to land on these combos – we tasted them and immediately knew that was it. They’re delicious and a bit different to a classic wedding cake. It did mean I ended up with mountains of leftovers, which wasn’t surprising considering just how much of everything I made for only the 3 of us. But, everyone in my office was very grateful when I brought them in – I made a lot of friends that day. Decoration is still TBC, but I’ll make sure to do a post on the final cake. In the meantime, please wish me luck and if you have any tips let me know in the comments please!