It is difficult to imagine a wedding without a cake – a huge, multi-story, symbolizing the sweet life together of the newlyweds. Confectioners offer a variety of options for a fabulous dessert, but if you want to put a piece of your soul into the treat, why not make it yourself? Despite the impressive appearance, making a wedding cake is quite within the power of even someone who is not too friendly with the kitchen.

Features

There are many options for both the base and the impregnation of the cake. Biscuit, shortbread, honey cake – choose what you like best. As for the filling, it is better to use light options – soufflé, yogurt, cream, as for a hearty buttercream at the end of the banquet may simply not have room.

For the cakes, choose a base that is easy to cut – biscuit, cupcake, well-soaked shortbread dough. Waffle layer or meringue inevitably deforms and crumbles when you divide it into portions.

Advantages of cooking at home

Of course, you can order a ready-made cake, but if you decide to make it yourself, you will be able to:

• Demonstrate your talents;
• Choose the best and freshest products;
• get absolute confidence that only safe substances are in the cake;
• Decent saving of the wedding budget without losing the taste of the dessert.

A good solution for beginners is a thin layer of sliced fruit or berries. Quickly darken apples or other sliced fruits that lose their attractive appearance in the air are poured with jelly.

Unusual options can be used. For example, instead of one large cake, lay out identical cakes or cupcakes on a tiered stand. In this case, the delicacy does not need to be sliced, and each guest will receive the same piece.

It’s easy to create a cake of candy or heads of cheese, too. In this case, you don’t even have rusto go near the stove. If you have experience cooking pies, the cream cake can be replaced by tall loaves, rastegagai or kulebyaka, which fit perfectly into a rustic wedding or rustic style.

Size and weight

Before you start cooking, it’s worth calculating how many servings will be needed. It depends on the number of guests, as well as their taste preferences, because some will eat a spoonful of dessert “for decency” and some will ask for more. One serving is about 150 grams.

Weight is also better to calculate before you start cooking, because the shape of your product depends on it:

• If the cake is heavier than 3 kg, it is better to make it tiered. So the design will be stable and definitely will not fall apart during transportation;
• If the weight of the wedding cake is over 5 kg, then you need a third tier;
• The maximum number of tiers that can be made at home is five. If you try to make the cake higher, it will turn out unstable;
• Each subsequent tier should be made lighter than the previous one by 2-3 kg;
• The bottom base should be the largest and heaviest. Other intricate options are possible, but they require a lot of experience in pastry making.

Design and color

A wedding cake can be tiered or solid, depending on the young couple’s preferences. The classic round shape is still the most popular, but no one stops you from coming up with something of your own: from a polygon star to complex designs in the form of two joined hearts, angels, doves or a basket of flowers.

Several tiers of wedding cake don’t have to be placed on top of each other at all. An equally elegant solution is a tiered stand for each piece. Such a cake looks amazing, and cutting it is more convenient.

Bold newlyweds order a treat in the form of a suitcase, a giant gum “love is…” or their own volumetric sculpture, but independently such masterpieces without experience do not create. However, even with the usual rectangular or round shape individuality of the basis are given with the help of original decorations.

In color, the newlyweds are limited only by the stylistics of the wedding. A time-tested classic is a snow and white cake or a dessert in gentle pastel colors of pink, blue, ivory. A bolder solution is to use the leading accents of your colored wedding – green, purple, red, even black. And a polka-dot or striped wedding cake won’t leave anyone indifferent!

What will you need?

To make a wedding cake with your own hands, you will need the following tools:

• molds for cakes of different sizes, with sponge cake feels better in a split tray, and the cupcake – in silicone;
• blender or mixer (it is difficult to prepare such a quantity of product with a hand whisk);
• baking paper;
• sieve;
• several deep bowls for mixing the ingredients;
• measuring cup;
• a well-sharpened knife;
• spatula;
• rolling pin;
• cutting board;
• saucepan for making syrup;
• a syringe or baggie with nozzles for decorations.

Step-by-step master class

The recipe below will allow you to easily prepare a delicious treat yourself. In the indicated proportions, the cake will turn out not very large, one-tier, for 12-15 people.

Base

Ingredients:

• 0.5 kg of butter;
• 0.5 kg of flour;
• 12 eggs;
• 0.5 kg almonds;
• 0,5 kg of sugar;
• lemon zest;
• salt;
• teaspoon nutmeg.

Preparation:

• Separate the whites from the yolks;
• The yolks should be mixed with butter and sugar, add the nutmeg, zest and ground almonds;
• Beat the egg whites with a mixer, add salt and sifted flour. Combine the mixture with the yolk mixture;
• Spread the dough into the forms and put in a slightly heated oven;
• Bake at 200 degrees until tender;
• After the base has cooled, place it to “rest” for 12 hours.

Cream

Ingredients:

• 330 g sugar;
• 6 eggs;
• juice of 6 lemons;
• 0.5 l of whipping cream;
• 140 g butter;
• 10 sheets of gelatin.

Preparation:

• Melt butter; soak gelatin;
• Beat the yolks with zest and lemon juice, add them to the melted butter. The temperature of the products should be the same – room temperature, so the eggs should be taken out of the refrigerator a few hours before cooking, and the melted butter should cool after removing from the fire;
• Put the resulting mixture on a water bath. Stirring, gradually add the sugar;
• As soon as the sugar has dissolved and the mixture begins to become puffy, add the gelatin and knead;
• Cool to room temperature;
• When the cakes “rest”, smear them with the resulting cream.

The treat is ready, now all that is left is to decorate it to taste.

Decorations

The decor of the wedding cake does not limit the imagination: coconut shavings, icing, marzipan, fondant. You can draw on the crust as on a canvas, mold figures, set the next tier, which will be different in shape from the previous one.

In addition to edible decorations, there are artificial flowers, figures made of plastic or other material, ribbons and more. It is not necessary to stop at one thing, but also do not forget about moderation. Often a neat creamy lace looks much more elegant than a complex heterogeneous and multicolored composition.

Important! It is not recommended to use for decorating fresh flowers in contact with the edible part. First, you do not know what treated the buds, and secondly – some of the guests may be allergic. If you want to decorate the dessert with flowers, then use special mounts or miniature stands for them.

Frosting

The frosting is made simply from powdered sugar, butter and vegetable oil, milk, vanilla and a drop of blue food coloring to neutralize the yellowing.

If desired, you can add a dye of a different color, then the icing will not be pure white, but any other shade you wish. If you do not spare the pigment, the glaze will take on a rich dark color.

Usually you fill the whole surface with the glaze, but you can also create all kinds of drawings with inscriptions from it.

Colored chocolate

If you love chocolate but want a bright, unusual hue, then food colorings are again helpful.

Add them to ordinary white chocolate, previously melted in a water bath. Pour the resulting mixture on top of the cake entirely as frosting, or draw patterns and make inscriptions.

Fondant

Fondant allows you to create a variety of figures – young, rings, doves. Very gently and elegantly look molded with mastic flowers. Just create the necessary outlines, remembering how molded in childhood from plasticine or polymer clay. Doubt that you have the necessary artistic talent? Mastic also looks good if it is applied as a continuous layer.

The delicious treat is made simply – from sugar, proteins and gelatin. You can also add melted in the microwave marshmallow. Such fondant looks more spectacular, but it is more difficult to be shaped.

Figurines

A very cute decoration that will appeal to both children and adults. Figurines can be both classic in the form of the bride and groom, little white birds, hearts, angels, or completely unique, reflecting the hobbies and interests of the newlyweds or the theme of the celebration – a bicycle, a tourist tent, a piano.

You can put one large piece in the center or make an entire composition of smaller ones. As material for making figurines use chocolate, mastic, cream, marzipan.

If there is no time for jewelry work, ready-made artificial figures are used. But if you chose the latter option – one large ready-made figure made of plastic or several small ones, do not forget to take them off before you start slicing the cake.

Coaster

In addition to the classic stand of dishes located at different heights, there are completely unexpected solutions – stands in the form of a carriage, a tower, a waterfall.

The material from which the accessory is made also varies – iron, food plastic, wood. Often gold or silver plating is used, giving the baking an aristocratic look. And on a glass cake stand, the wedding cake will “float” in the air, attracting admiring glances.

The form of the stand does not necessarily have to repeat the geometry of the cake. You can place a square cake on an oval plate, and a round cake on a heart-shaped tray. The main thing is to make sure that the cake fits on the stand as a whole, not hanging over the edge. A good idea is to place special cake liners on each dish. This way, you’ll be sure that the treat won’t fall around the edges at the most exciting moment and won’t melt, even at a summer wedding.

Culinary Secrets

• Be sure to sift the flour for biscuit dough so that the finished cake will turn out airy;
• Under no circumstances whip the yolks in aluminum cookware – they will darken;
• Bring all products to the same temperature before mixing;
• Fill the baking mold with the mixture no more than two-thirds full, because your biscuit will rise a lot when cooked;
• Sand dough should not be kneaded too long, or it will lose its softness;
• Aim for the sandcake to be the same thickness across the entire surface when you roll it out;
• Sand dough does not require additional butter on the baking tray;
• Place the crust in a well heated oven. Too low or, on the contrary, too high an initial temperature will worsen the appearance of the product;
• Try not to open the oven door too often, otherwise the middle of the cake will sag;
• The readiness of the dough is checked with a wooden stick or toothpick. When you poke the base, it should stay dry;
• Do not take out the ready cake at once, leave it to cool a little in the oven already turned off – so it will retain its puffiness;
• To separate the dough from the walls more easily, put the baking tray in a container of cool water for a few minutes;
• If you have not tried to make any variant of decoration before, such as cream rosettes from a bag with a nozzle, be sure to practice before you place the decorations on the surface of the cake.

A handmade wedding cake is sure to please your guests and leave them with fond memories. A unique design and favorite flavors – all this will add to the uniqueness of the holiday, will remind of the peculiarities of the heroes of the occasion. Making a pastry miracle is not difficult. The main thing – quality products, time, recipe and, of course, a little imagination.