My First Wedding Cake...

Last weekend I was tasked with making my first wedding cake...and I have to say it was a rather nerve wracking experience as you want the cake to be perfect for the bride and groom on their big day!

We started off planning to make cupcakes...and this eventually ended up as a four tier open stack wedding cake! I'm really glad I had the opportunity to make a cake like this as it was a big challenge as you never know how it will turn out...but in this instance I was more than pleased with the result!

The cake itself is sponge which was cut and shaped out of 12 x 19" slabs of cake. I used the appropriately sized cake boards as a template and to ensure the layers of cake were the right depth, I used a cake leveller...there's 3 layers in each tier. It's a 5, 7, 9, 112 cake and the top tier is a dummy, as it's lighter and easier that messing around with a small cake.

Each cake is covered in celebration ivory sugarpaste from Regalice. There's 6kg of icing on this cake...it was extremely heavy!!! I covered each layer twice as it gives a really nice finish and to sure an even roll I use 4mm spacers to run my rolling pin over.

A few weeks ago I saw a top tip for making sure the pearl swags are nice and even. The book suggested using a necklace hung over the side of the cake to give the perfect draped shape to pipe around. However, I tried this and found that it slid of the side and also left marks on the icing as it was too heavy. So instead I used a piece of cotton thread which was perfect for the job. The dots were piped with royal icing using a size 3 nozzle. Once they were dry I then painted them with an iridescent pearl lustre dust which really makes the piping look like a real string of pearls!

The cakes were stacked at the venue on the day but I put the dowels in the day before. The bottom 11" layer has 5 dowels which come 2" out of the cake to give the open stack effect. The next layers are all doweled too and it is important to check they are all level otherwise you can end up with a wonky cake, which was my biggest worry! To avoid this, use a spirit level to check as they go in.

The final touch was the flowers, they are non-toxic varieties. The top posy is held together using a mini oasis in a little plastic holder. For the flowers in the stack, the ends can either be taped with florist tape or you can use water tubes...just make sure they don't leak on your cake!!!

I really enjoyed making this cake, it really was a test as I've never made anything like it before at home...all in all it probably took 20 hours plus to make! I'd definitely make another one...but maybe not for a while! :-)