Corazon's wedding cake

[corazon]

My sister, Fiona, is getting married next year and I've offered to make her wedding cake. I'll keep updating this thread throughout the long cake process, so every time you see it pop up, it will be new info or questions.

Her and her fiancee came up this week and I was able to make them two little testing cakes. One cake is chocolate with a raspberry liqueur moistening syrup that I brushed over the cake to keep it moist and give some flavor. The cake was layered with a raspberry buttercream and the frosting on the outside is a chocolate buttercream. The other cake was chocolate with a lemon syrup, layered blackberry buttercream and frosted with a lemon curd buttercream. Here are a few photos, I'll post more details later, along with the tasting results...
The photo quality is not the greatest but it gives you a general idea.

 

[ironchef]

Cora...very impressive. Just don't ask me for help on cakes. I pretty much suck at most baking.

How did the lemon and blackberry taste together? Those two flavors can clash sometimes if the amounts aren't right.

Can't go wrong with raspberry and chocolate though.

 

[grumblebee]

Mmmm... those cakes look divine!

The pinkish cream layered between the chocolate cake looks so pretty. I bet it tastes amazing too.

 

[marmalady]

They both look gorgeous! My only thoughts would be to make a very stiff buttercream for the layers, especially if you're doing a larger cake. The weight of the upper layers will squish the buttercream down and make it look very messy when it's cut. So - stiff buttercream fillling, and thin layers of buttercream. (voice of experience, here ).

An answer to this might be doing a series of cakes on tiered stands; there are some beautiful ones out, and you might even be able to rent one from a catering supply outfit.

 

[PA Baker]

For a trial run, those look wonderful, corazon! I echo what Marm said about stiff buttercream and thin layers of icing inbetween the layers of cake (from experience, too!). If you plan on going any higher than you did, be sure to use the dowl rods for support.

Here's a link for the cake stands marm was talking about:
http://www.vanhorn-hayward.com/gallery_cakestands.cfm

So which flavor did your sister and future BIL like best?

 

[Michelemarie]

Wow! They both look delicous and beautiful! You are so talented! Wish I could be the taste tester!

 

[VickiQ]

Your cakes are always so beautiful and they look delicious too!!!Your sister is very lucky to have you!!!

 

[urmaniac13]

Wow... I have seen beautiful looking cakes but not particularly appetizing, also those ugly duckling type cakes that you must taste them to believe them... well your cakes wonderfully reaches the best of both worlds, and this is only a practice run, with the rest of the year for you to hone in on the perfection!! Cora you never cease to amaze me!!

 

[SizzlininIN]

I'll take a slice of those! Great Job!

 

[pdswife]

Wow! I wouldn't even know where to start! These look great.

If you need a tester I'm close by...( well sort of anyway!)

 

[Banana Brain]

Those are lovely! Make them pretty, thats all I have to say! (Bits of shaved chocolate or something on top?)

 

[Banana Brain]

I saw food network's The Secret Life of Wedding Cakes (its wedding weekend on that channel) and now there are wedding cake flavors like Banana Foster, mmm. I vote for any cake with a good rum flavor too it, because it seems so devine.

 

[corazon]

Thanks for your kind words everyone! I plan on doing 14 inch, 10 inch and 6 inch tiers, plus an extra 10 inch behind the scenes that won't have to be decorated and can be cut and ready to serve as soon as the newlyweds cut the cake. That way people aren't waiting around forever to get a piece of cake.

I also made a vanilla buttercream that was kept on the side for tasting. Fiona & Alex liked the vanilla. I kept some cake scraps too and we were able to try different buttercreams and mix it up. They decided to go with the raspberry liqueur syrup, the raspberry filling and vanilla buttercream frosting. It also makes for a more traditional looking cake.

Ironchef-The blackberry & lemon was okay. The berries didn't really taste like much as they aren't in season. We did try lemon & raspberry with the scraps and it was a toss up between that and the vanilla & raspberry combo.

Marm & PA-I think I'll be doing a stacked cake but each cake will be supported by a carboard round and dowels as well. Hopefully that will work for preventing a squished cake when the couple is cutting. It'll all be cut up after they do their thing anyway. We did see a photo recently of short pillars with flowers inbetween layers so we'll see what the verdict is closer to the wedding.

Urmaniac-That is why I decided to go with buttercream and not the seamless fondant. It will look flawless but taste gross. Besides those little swirls that I won't be able to fix, the imperfections, will show it was made with love and is homemade.

BananaBrain-Pretty is definitely on the agenda. I'll be using fresh flowers and am practicing my cake decorating skills. I'll see what my sister is using in her bouquet and plan accordingly.

Thanks again everyone! I will be updating this thread as I experiment and also with the final cakes!

 

[ironchef]

Cora, what month is the wedding going to be in?

 

[texasgirl]

How exciting for you!!!! If my sister can do it, you can too!! We would love pictures when your done. Have you ever worked with fondant? I love that stuff!! It's very pliable and you drape it over the tiers and cut around to fit. I think you have to keep it kinda cool though. I bet it would be good to hold in the moisture too.

 

[corazon]

Cora, what month is the wedding going to be in?

They haven't set a date yet but either Jan or May. I think they're leaning towards May. It'll be easier and cheaper and a nicer wedding. They got engaged about a month ago. This was probably the last time I'll see them before the wedding so I did a lot of research to get a couple tester cakes together. I am pleased at how well they turned out. They do need some tweaking but I have plenty of time to do that.

 

[mudbug]

If I wore a hat, it would be off to you, corazon! Very well done.

 

[marmalady]

Cora, one of my prettiest cakes was made with fresh flowers and florist's ribbon (used long straight pins to hold in place); I also found a silk flower to match the fresh, so the bride would have something to keep.

 

[Constance]

My Grandma Snarr's birthday was in May, and one year, when I was still in high school, I made her a cake shaped like a hat, using a very large round pan, and another smaller one. I put ribbon around it, letting the tails hang off the back, and decorated it with fresh flowers from my mother's garden.

My mother was a great cake decorator...she could make the frosting roses and all the dips and swirls with the piping bag. My hands have alway been too trembly to do that.
I always had very special birthday cakes when I was a little girl, usually angelfood. I remember the one with the doll in the middle, and the cake itself was her skirt. Another, with a different type of frosting, looked like a giant lotus blossom.

I have tasted some really crappy wedding cakes, and seen others with lots of plastic figures that look really tasteless.

Your recipes look delicious, and I'm sure your cake will be lovely. My hat is off to your...I wouldn't begin to tackle something like that.

 

[ironchef]

They haven't set a date yet but either Jan or May. I think they're leaning towards May. It'll be easier and cheaper and a nicer wedding. They got engaged about a month ago. This was probably the last time I'll see them before the wedding so I did a lot of research to get a couple tester cakes together. I am pleased at how well they turned out. They do need some tweaking but I have plenty of time to do that.

I was thinking that a nice idea would be to correlate the cake decoration with the seasons, but May is kinda hard. Autumn would be the easiest I think because you could make a cornucopia with leaves, squash, etc.