A Slice of Love: Making a Wedding Cake
Every wedding has its centrepiece, and often, it's not just the bride and groom but the towering layers of a meticulously crafted wedding cake.
Gena, who works in the Oak & Rope office, recently undertook the loving and nerve wrecking task of making a wedding cake for her daughter, Simone’s special day. They agreed to use one of Gena’s old tried and tested Madera Cake receipts.
It was important for Gena that the flavour was perfect, and she has a few tricks up her sleeve:
Planning and Preparation:
Nothing was left to chance and as always it is the sum of the little things that makes it perfect. Gena already knew what Simone wanted, and sourced the tins and decorations. When she knew the size of the lowest tier she spoke to the workshop and got them to make a round cake board in the right size.
You don’t have to work at The Oak & Rope Company to be able to make a bespoke size wedding board, we offer that on our website. We often work with couples or cake makers to make one-of-a-kind cake stands (see slide show below).
The Making of the Cake – Any challenges?
One of the reasons for choosing this recipe is that it freezes really well. Due to the size of the cake (normally determined by the size of your guest list) Gena had to bake the cake layers in batches ahead of time. There are so many ‘last-minute’ things to do for a wedding, particularly when it is an ‘at-home’ wedding, so the making of the cake tiers was done about 3 weeks before the big day.
Top tips: Some people even make ‘spare’ tiers in case of any whoopsies. Wrap the tiers individually in multiple layers of cling film and make sure you have a cool box big enough if the cake needs to travel!
The Final Masterpiece:
Simone and Rob were married in Norfolk at their farm. This meant that Gena had to transport the cake from Kent, and assemble and decorate the final masterpiece in somebody else’s kitchen. This was not Gena’s favourite part:
Enough to make even the coolest, calmest, most organised person that is Gena, stressed! In her usual modest way Gena said she was very grateful that she had the oak cake board to attract attention.
Looking at the photos of the beautiful cake, Gena had nothing to fear! The cake spoke for itself. People often tell us that the wood works in perfect harmony with the flowers, whether you opt for fresh flowers, dried flowers or even sugar flowers. The oak sets them off perfectly.
Gena’s advise to anybody who wants to tackle making a wedding cake themselves:
- Don’t over complicate. I use a traditional madeira cake because I have made it countless times before and I know it has the stability for tiers and for supporting flowers.
- If you try something new; practice, practice, practice!
- If at all possible make and freeze ahead of time.
- I made a vanilla syrup using my vanilla pod caster sugar, bottled and labelled, it steeped in my fridge for about 2 weeks before the wedding. Brush this onto every layer of your cake before you add buttercream/meringue icing, etc and stack. This will give you the most moist cakes ever with a delicate vanilla aroma and flavour, even after freezing, it works amazingly. So many people commented on the cake and I think this was why!
- Another plus factor to freezing is the cakes are cold as they defrost and so much easier to ice especially if you have a summer wedding. Hot kitchens and icing cakes ..not funny!!
- And last but not least, get an Oak & Rope cake board to compliment your creation!