My First Wedding Cake

This weekend is Labor Day!! Aside from being ecstatic that we have an extra day off, I was eager to try something new with baking. So I decided to make a wedding cake. I know who is getting married? No one right now, but I wanted to practice making a tiered cake. I used cake mix to cut down on the cost and time of making a from scratch one. It was super easy to do that, I made 4 boxes actually for a 3 tiered cake consisting of a 6, 8, and 10 inch rounds. They were all 3 inches deep so instead of making two of each cake I just torted the 3 inches to get my two layers. Unfortunately my hands were full during this part and Javier was not home, so I have no pictures of that part.

For the frosting I used a recipe from the America's Test Kitchen Cookbook. The vanilla frosting consisted of butter, heavy cream ,vanilla, salt, and confectioner's sugar. I really should have crumb coated the cake first but I had other baking projects this week, plus lots of reading to do and a few events so I just wanted to get this cake done! It was relatively quick and easy. After frosting each layer, I used the cake pans as a guide for where to insert the wooden dowels that are used to support each layer on top of the other. After it was all assembled, I decorated the cake with simple swiss dots and a dot border, which I have noticed is a pretty popular design for wedding cakes these days.

After the photoshoot, I disassembled the cake and took some to my Cook's Club, there are still two layers in my fridge. Need to find a good home for them.

I ended up having to use one more box.

Making sure my cake would be proportionate. I used a 6x3, 8x3, and 10x3.

Preparing the pans. These Bake-Even strips are pretty awesome, they help to create an even and well baked caked each time!

All baked and cooled!

Using the pans as a guide for placing the dowels.

All assembled, yes I know I should have crumb coated :(

All done! (My picture)

Javier's Cake Photoshoot.

Let me know if you need some cake!!