First Wedding Cake

by Kate
(Cheney, WA)

I, and a friend, have taken on the challenge of making my other friend's wedding cake in two weeks. I was hoping I might get a little advice as, with the exception of a practice one we made a month ago, this is our first time doing this.

There are going to be 120 people invited, but not necessarily that many attending. Your chart says that for 125 people, a 14, 10 and 6 is recommended. I was under the impression that the top tier was for the bride and groom alone. Would it be reasonable to have a 14, 10, and 6 with a 4 on top for the bride and groom?

The bride is also thinking to have each tier a different flavor. She wants the top tier to be carrot with cream cheese filling and thinking a lemon of some kind with raspberry filling, then a chocolate with maybe a mousse.

We've been discussing a three tier, not a four so I'm not sure what she might want for the 4th tier. We are tasting one different flavor on Saturday. My question here is what kind would be best for each tier?

Would it be better to have the lemon on the bottom than the chocolate because of the mouse or would it really make a lot of difference?

We've also been discussing whether or not to have a stacked cake or a pillared one. Money is an object, but our local store has somewhat reasonable prices for the pillars and trays they have to be on to do that. Do you have any advice on that? Would it be easier to do the pillars so each layer can be done on their own?

Is their any other advice you might have to help us out?
Thanks very much.

ANSWER: Hi Kate, Lots of great questions here. You will have plenty of cake with the 14, 10 and 6 , even if you

give them the 6, but if you want to give them a little extra then yes you can do a fourth tier. I would suggest keeping it three for a first time though. How about giving them some extra on the side and they can cut it in the kitchen?

AS far as what flavor goes with each tier. The carrot is the heaviest, but that is only a small tier. It really wouldn't matter because your cakes will be either doweled if they are stacked, which will take the weight of the one above it. Pillared would be a little easier to handle and transport etc. So you may want to go with those.

I prefer the pillars that go all the way through the cakes. Wilton makes them and they are longer and slightly pointed on the end that gets pushed in. This way you do not have to dowel them.

Other advice is to bake and freeze at the beginning of the week, Fill crumb coat, and re freeze them. The day before do your final coating of buttercream let them thaw in the refrigerator until ready to deliver.

Bring extra frosting along and a pastry bag just in case. Extra decorations, just in case. And read through some of the posts on the Questions pages.

Feel free to comment and to ask more if you need to. And please show off your first wedding cake here when it is done. Thanks

UPDATE:I posted a question about my first wedding cake a couple of weeks ago, and I wanted to post the final result. We ended up with a three tier and a grooms cake, each a different flavor.

Top tier was chai ginger-honey, middle was lemon raspberry, bottom was white/dark chocolate marble with mousse, and the groom's cake was an Ande's mint (devils food with mint filling).

I made all the fondant flowers, my friend did the piping. And the bride loved it!

This article was printed from Wedding-Cakes-For-You.com

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