Is A DIY Wedding Cake For You?
Throughout the entire month of May DIY Bride will be featuring do-it-yourself tips, inspiration, and instruction for making cakes, candy, and cookies.
The the siren song of a do-it-yourself wedding cake is a hard one to ignore. It seduces. It cajoles. “Make me” it sings. “You know you want to. All the cool kids are doing it. Maaaaaaake meeeeee.” It lures you into a false sense of culinary mastery and into the treacherous waters of cake disaster.
While there’s nothing quite like peer pressure from inanimate baked goods, most couples hire someone else create their wedding cakes. For a few adventurers, however, making their own cake is all too temping. Don’t think I haven’t noticed you as you fondle fancy molded cake pans at Williams-Sonoma and linger a little too long in the Wilton aisle at Michael’s. Oh, I know your type.
You and I are kindred spirits, you see. We are would-be cake couturiers with grand visions of effortless, elegant culinary masterpieces adorning our table tops. We have pans. We have nifty decorating gadgets. We’ve watched every episode of Ace of Cakes. It’s just baking, right?
The harsh reality is that cake making is harder than it may appear. There’s a great deal of chemistry, artistry, and patience that goes into creating a beautiful, tasty cake. This, of course, doesn’t mean it’s impossible for a home baker to make something spectacularly divine. It is possible! But the big question here is: is the DIY cake experience right for you?
If you’re considering a DIY wedding cake, here are the most basic considerations to help you decide if this route is a good idea for you.
- How many guests will you be feeding? (General rule: the bigger the cake, the harder to bake/decorate/transport.)
- How many hours of baking and decorating time will you need? And do you have that amount of available time? Do you have that amount of time right before the wedding when things are particularly crazy? A conservative estimate for a simple butter cream-frosted (no decoration) 3-layer stacked round cake to feed 120 people would take about 4 – 5 hours to make. (Measure, mix, bake, cool, frost.)
- How important are taste and presentation to you? To your guests? The wedding cake is a high-profile part of nearly every wedding. Will you feel comfortable presenting your creation no matter how it turns out?
- Do you have the tools — including a reliable oven — to do the job? If not, how much will it cost to buy all of the tools? Is your oven big enough to bake a 14″ round (or whatever is your largest size)?
- How good is your math? Baking is nearly all chemistry. Exact measurements are crucial to good results.
- How experienced are you at baking? At cake decorating? Are baking/decorating classes in your future?
- Will you bake from scratch or a mix?
- How elaborate will your design be?
- Will you have time (and budget) to experiment with recipes and decorating if you’ve never done large-scale baking/decorating before?
- Thinking of using fresh flowers for decoration? Great! Which common wedding flowers are are poisonous and should never be used on a cake?
- How will you store the finished (or nearly finished) cakes? Do you have enough ‘fridge space?
- How will you transport the cake?
- Who will set it up at the venue?
- Who will serve it? (Caterers will charge extra to do this for you.)
- What if something goes wrong? What’s your Plan B or worst case scenario fix-it?
We’ll be talking more about the questions above in the coming days to better guide you to decide if a DIY cake is in your future. I wanted to get you thinking about the time, skill, budget, and supply requirements to not only do it yourself but to do it well.
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I made this cake: http://saratrice.com/2009/06/01/carries-wedding… I baked the cakes, made the frosting, made the fondant, frosted, covered each tier in fondant, made 30 fondant roses with leaves as well as numerous heart fondant decorations. It took 3 full nights, working 6-8 hours per night. It took an hour to assemble on-site. Verdict: I will not be making my own cake. There is no way I want this kind of stress the week of my wedding.
I made this cake: http://saratrice.com/2009/06/01/carries-wedding… I baked the cakes, made the frosting, made the fondant, frosted, covered each tier in fondant, made 30 fondant roses with leaves as well as numerous heart fondant decorations. It took 3 full nights, working 6-8 hours per night. It took an hour to assemble on-site. Verdict: I will not be making my own cake. There is no way I want this kind of stress the week of my wedding.
Thanks for your input, Sara! Cake Month is all about creating realistic expectations and showcasing “real life” experiences and projects. I'm so glad you've added your experience to the conversation!
Thanks for your input, Sara! Cake Month is all about creating realistic expectations and showcasing “real life” experiences and projects. I'm so glad you've added your experience to the conversation!
I definitely think of tiered cakes as a difficult feat to master. I actually bake a lot in my spare time and I still wouldn't even try it. I would need to do a practice cake first. LOL!
However, a friend of mine did a semi-DIY cake for her wedding a few years ago. She had a local supermarket bake her 3 cakes of different sizes with plain white frosting. The day of the wedding someone picked them up, simply stacked them one on top of the other, and then added embellishment. In her case the wedding was a fall theme with apples and fall leaves, so they added some apple accents and orange leaves and things. It came out AWESOME!!
I definitely think of tiered cakes as a difficult feat to master. I actually bake a lot in my spare time and I still wouldn't even try it. I would need to do a practice cake first. LOL!
However, a friend of mine did a semi-DIY cake for her wedding a few years ago. She had a local supermarket bake her 3 cakes of different sizes with plain white frosting. The day of the wedding someone picked them up, simply stacked them one on top of the other, and then added embellishment. In her case the wedding was a fall theme with apples and fall leaves, so they added some apple accents and orange leaves and things. It came out AWESOME!!
Also consider how many other time-consuming things you will have to do to prepare for your wedding.
Also consider how many other time-consuming things you will have to do to prepare for your wedding.
Beautiful cake. It looks so good.
Beautiful cake. It looks so good.
I'm going to give it a shot… I made this practice one in my hotel room in one evening with pr-emade fondant, a store bought angel food cake and loaf of bread, and made my toppers out of fimo. It's not perfect but it's personal! I'm just going to make a small one that i don't plan on feeding the guests!
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1278/4710523991_…