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:

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.

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!