Making your own wedding cake

Baking your own cake can be very cost affective and many brides choose to go down this route. However, before you make your final decision, remember that baking a wedding cake takes a lot of time and effort. Below are some tips to help you out with this process:

Ask for help

As mentioned earlier, this is not going to be an easy task so we strongly advise you to enlist friends and family to help with this process. We are sure your Mum will be the first to step in and lend a helping hand!

Baking the cake:

Fresh ingredients are essential. Ensure all your flour, eggs, sugar etc. are fresh before using them.

It is always best to do a trial run of baking your cake. If it does not turn out right or you do not like the taste, you can learn from your mistakes without having wasted an entire wedding cake.

Unsalted butter should always be used for the cake, if you would rather use margarine however, it can give a richer taste.

The batter to be used for all tiers should be made at the same time and divided into different sized tins (a larger one for the bottom tier and smaller for the top tier of course). If your oven is big enough, put all three mixtures in at once.

A good way to check if it is cooked properly is to put a knife or skewer into the middle. If it comes out clean, that means the mixture is cooked through.

Icing and Decorating:

Don’t rush to ice your cake as soon as it is removed from the oven. Icing should only be used on cooled cakes.

Decorate tiers one at a time, keeping the other tiers covered during this time.

Fruit cakes should not be stored in the fridge and neither should cakes iced in fondant icing as they will attract condensation and absorb smells from other foods.

Sugarcraft decorations should be kept out of the fridge as they will go soft. Instead, cover them up (but not in an airtight box) and they will keep for a long time.

How to assemble the cake:

Each layer needs to be place carefully onto a cardboard piece that will support their weight.

Assemble the layers in the correct order and ensure that they can balance perfectly on top of one another.

A good tip is to make your cake early and not too close to the big day. Making a wedding cake takes time and patience and cannot be rushed.