Today, I want to do a general overview of the process of making a wedding cake as a whole: this was my first time making a cake for any big event (let alone a wedding!) and I definitely learned a lot!

If you’re planning to make a wedding cake, I hope this post helps you out!

Table of Contents

• Minimising Stress
• Timings/Schedule Planning
• Ideal Wedding Cake Recipes
• Fillings
• Transport Boxes
• Cake Boards
• Cake Dowels
• Smooth Sides
• Essential Tools
• Final Takeaways

Minimising Stress

Look, making a wedding cake is never going to be a stress-free experience (is anything to do with weddings ever stress-free?), but the aim should always be to minimise the stress as much as possible!

Whether you’re making a cake for a friend/family member like me and thus need to keep things lowkey enough that you actually have the mental capacity to enjoy the wedding, or if you’re making it for a wedding you aren’t actually attending and just need to keep yourself from going completely insane, it’s definitely an important factor!

With than in mind, here are a few little crumbs (see what I did there?) of advice:

• Don’t take on too much

I’m so guilty of this: wanting to do way more than I actually have the mental space/physical capacity to do! Everyone has limits, even in baking: know yours (and honour those limits!).

• Practise

Taking the cake from an unknown concept in your head to an actual, physical bake in front of you will help take some of the pressure off you as the day draws closer. Pretend you’re on Bake Off and do a full run-through of the cake in advance: this will give you time to iron out any problems, troubleshoot certain things and remind yourself that you are capable of this!

A wedding cake is, after all, just a cake: it feels very different from a regular cake, but if you can make a cake, you can make a wedding cake.

• Get as much done in advance as possible

The last thing you want to be doing is panic-baking at 2am on the day of the wedding. Don’t do that to yourself! Admittedly, sometimes things happen: accidents occur, things don’t go to plan etc., but having a clear schedule that allows plenty of time for each stage of the process will help you avoid this.

Which brings me on to…

Timings/Schedule Planning

Speaking of getting as much done in advance as possible, something that will really help with this is having a clear schedule, planned out ahead of time. When you’re making that schedule, there are a couple of things you might want to consider:

• Other commitments

Particularly if you’re attending the wedding, it’s likely you’ll have a bunch of other commitments that need attention in the lead up to the event. Make sure you’re aware of those commitments and schedule in plenty of time for them as well as the cake (and time/space to look after yourself, too!).

• Order of bake

You can streamline your process by placing the tasks in a specific order. For example, the lemon cake I made had three separate components: the curd filling, the lemon buttercream and the cake itself. I knew the curd filling would have to chill for a while before I could use it, but I also knew I could make it advance and keep it in the fridge until I needed it. On the other hand, I knew that, to preserve the moistness of the lemon cake, I needed to bake it as close to the day as possible, then assemble AND decorate it as soon as it was cool. All of these little things will play an important role in how you allocate your time.

• Making cake layers ahead of time

Lots of people swear by freezing cake layers, but I have to admit, I’ve never actually tried it! For this particular cake, I found that making super moist cakes and aiming to fill and frost them the same day they were baked worked really well, because the icing acted as a barrier, protecting the sponge from the air and stopping it from drying out. However, if you want to make your cake layers one day, then ice them the next, I did find that tightly wrapping each individual layer in cling film and leaving them at room temperature was a pretty good substitute.

Ideal Wedding Cake Recipes

My main takeaway from this process is that the recipe you use matters. Obviously, the most important thing is that it tastes good, but there are a couple of other things you might want to take into consideration to make your life easier:

• Cuts well

For starters, the way wedding cakes are cut is different from a regular cake: instead of slices, they tend to be cut in ‘slabs’, which are then cut into fingers, which can then be cut down into single portions. For the best results, you want a cake that cuts well, because a neat slice will make your cake feel extra professional (and cause less drama on the day!).

• Moist sponge with moderately dense crumb

Additionally, a moist cake with a moderately dense crumb will make your life SO much easier. A moister cake can be made further in advance, because it won’t dry out as quickly, which means less stress for you! A moderately dense crumb will make for a cake that is more stable: it’s not going to collapse on itself or crumble (and, as a bonus, it fulfils the aforementioned clean-cutting criteria!). I say moderately dense because a ‘dense’ cake isn’t necessarily a good thing: if you can, find a recipe that is still fluffy and light, but has more of an American-style texture, that is, not too airy or crumby, but tight and soft.

Fillings

I only filled one of these cakes (the lemon tier, which I filled with a lemon curd), but it definitely added an extra layer of complexity to that tier. Not only does it add an extra couple of stages to the process, filling a cake does have an effect on its structural integrity. On the other hand, it also contributes massively to the flavour, so there are pros and cons!

If you do want to add fillings to your wedding cake, here’s what I’d recommend:

• Practise

That word again, but it’s important. I hadn’t used fillings in cakes many times before this, so I didn’t have much experience in that area. The more you practise, the more you’ll understand how to reduce the likelihood of encountering problems (Leaning Lemon Cake of Pisa, I’m looking at YOU).

• Don’t make the filling too liquid

I added an extra egg yolk to my lemon curd, to make it thicker and less runny. Steps like this will help your cake stay structurally sound. Try not to use any fillings that are too thin, liquid or runny, as this will just cause chaos.

• Use a buttercream ‘dam’

I did this and I may not have done it perfectly but I know things could have been 100x worse if I hadn’t! By piping a layer of buttercream around the circumference of the cake before adding the filling, you create a barrier that (theoretically) keeps the filling inside the cake, which allows the cake to keep its structure and prevents the filling from seeping out and potentially ruining the frosting on the sides.

• Keep the buttercream quite stiff for the filling stage

Speaking of buttercream, when it needs to act as a barrier to keep the filling in, you need it to be quite stiff and firm: if it’s too runny, it won’t form a strong enough barrier and your filling might still spill out (I know this, because that is exactly what happened to me). I’d recommend not adding all of the liquid ingredients at first, assembling the cake and THEN adding the remaining liquid and thinning out the buttercream before applying the crumb coat and the final icing layer.

• Chill filled cakes more frequently during the assembly process

I didn’t do this, but I should have! Filled cakes need a little bit of extra love, so I’d recommend chilling the cake throughout the assembly process: after the first two cake layers AND after the third layer. This will keep the cake nice and firm, helping to prevent any slipping and sliding.

Transport Boxes

Inevitably, you’ll need to get your cakes from your home to the venue and having a good, strong box to transport them in will save you a whole load of problems and stress. For my cakes, I used these boxes and I would really recommend them: they’re strong and durable, they have a handle (though I would always recommend carrying them with BOTH the handle and a hand underneath the base for added support) and they open out for easy removal.

If you’re picking a different cake box, though, here are some things to consider:

• Strength

Wedding cakes, particularly the bigger ones (and particularly if they’re stacked) can get heavy, so you need a box that is strong enough to hold that wait without tearing. Look for words like ‘heavy duty’, ‘extra strong’, ‘corrugated’ and ‘cardboard’ in the description.

• Size

For these cakes, I picked boxes that were 2 inches large in size than the diameter of the respective cake tins. Don’t get a box that is the same size as your cake, because, although it sounds like it will be good for stopping the cake from slipping around, the icing on the cake will add a fair amount of width and your cake probably won’t fit in the box once its decorated

Cake Boards

Speaking of the cakes slipping around inside the boxes, I used a (slightly unorthodox, I suppose) method to minimise this. I assembled each cake directly on a cake ‘drum’ (a thick version of a cake board) that was exactly the same size/shape as the cake layers. This meant the cakes would be really easy to manoeuvre at the venue and transfer to their stands. When I iced the cakes, I covered the edges of the cake drums too, so they still looked clean and crisp— as if there were no drum at all.

Before I started assembling the cake on the drum, though, I actually attached the drum to a larger, thinner cake board, the exact size and shape of the transport box for that cake. I just used some paper adhesive stickers (folded over on themselves, so that they could act like double-sided tape) to stick the two boards together. This meant that I could slide the cake super easily into the transport box and it wouldn’t slip around in that box, despite the extra space.

When it was time to separate the two boards, it was really easy to just slide a cake lifter/palette knife between them and, in the process, slice through those paper adhesives. Then, I could use the cake lifter to pick up the cake on the cake drum and transfer it to its stand.

As I said, this is kind of a weird method, but it worked so perfectly: I’d definitely do it like this again!

Cake Dowels

Ah cake dowels, my frenemy. I’ve never actually used cake dowels before and they aren’t strictly necessary for these cakes, seeing as they weren’t stacked on top of one another, but I just felt that the extra level of stability and security would give me a little more piece of mind.

And it did! Until it… didn’t.

To add the cake dowels, I just assembled the whole cake, then positioned four dowels evenly around the cake, about halfway in from the sides. I pushed them in, marked where they came up to, then pulled them up a little, trimmed them down with some kitchen shears and pushed them back down, so they sat flush with the top of the cake. I then chilled the cake before adding the crumb coat, chilling it again and adding the final layer of icing.

HOWEVER, I did encounter a slightly dramatic problem on the morning of the wedding, when, as a result (I guess?) of the heat in the AirBnB where we were staying, and the motion of the car on the ride down, the hardened icing on top of each dowel visibly bulged up (so sorry, what an awful word) on the surface of the cake. I’m not sure if this was a result of the cake sinking down around the dowels, the air inside the dowels (they’re hollow) causing chaos, or the dowels themselves rising up, but it was NOT the vibe at 9am on the morning of the wedding.

Luckily, it was relatively easily fixed: just in case it was an air problem, I used a pin to pierce the icing, then pressed down on the bump gently with the flat edge of a palette knife to level the icing back out. For the most part, this worked pretty well, but in some places I did have to add a bit more icing to the top to conceal the mess. Overall, if I could avoid that, I definitely would, so if I ever find out exactly what happened, I’ll be sure to let you know!

In the meantime, though, it did teach me a couple of dowel-related lessons:

• Always keep a pin in your emergency baking kit

Whether this was an air bubble problem or not, air bubbles are often a problem with cakes, so it’s good to have a pin handy to burst them without too much of a noticeable impact!

• Always bring extra buttercream

I brought a (sealed) piping bag filled with each of the three buttercreams I used for the cake with me to the venue, just in case of an emergency like this (and boy, was I glad I did!).

• Potential workaround: add the dowels after the first chill

If this situation was a result of the cake sinking down slightly around the dowels, I wonder if adding the dowels later, once the cake has had more of a chance to settle under its own weight, would help? Admittedly, I wouldn’t want to leave it too long (because I want to get the final icing layer on as soon as possible, to lock in the moisture!), but after the first chill (just before the crumb coat) could work? I’ve suggested this in the recipes, because I think it seems like the best course of action.

• Keep the cake as cool as possible

Our AirBnB was quite warm and none of us thought about the impact on the cake, but we definitely would next time! The cakes are fine at room temperature, as long as that room temperature isn’t warm warm, so keep the temperature of your house/accommodation in mind.

Smooth Sides

Confession: I’ve never successfully iced a cake with smooth sides before, so I was a little intimidated by this process. The finished cakes are by no means perfectly smooth, but they’re close enough (and much better than anything I’ve managed in the past), so I’m happy!

There are a few things to remember when aiming for smooth sides:

• You need the right equipment

If you want smooth sides, you really do need an icing smoother (or a similar, thick ruler with at least two, perpendicular, square sides). I used this one from Wilton and it really was a game changer. You also definitely need a turntable!

• Turn the turntable, NOT the scraper

Keep the scraper steady, holding it still with the bottom edge held flush to the table/bottom cake board and the side edge held upright against the cake, at a slight acute angle. Turning the turntable, not moving the scraper, will give you a cleaner, smoother finish because it allows you to hold the smoother in the right position, with the same amount of pressure all the way around. Additionally, if you can find a friend to turn the turntable for you (thanks, Dad), you’ll get an even smoother finish!

• Repeat as many times as necessary

Inevitably, after the first pass around with the smoother, you’ll end up with some uneven sections, where there wasn’t enough icing in the first place to create a smooth layer. No worries: just apply more icing to those areas and go around with the smoother again. You can repeat this process as many times as you need until you’re happy with the results, so just take it step by step and repeat until it’s how you want it!

Essential Tools

Especially for a pretty simple cake like the one I made, you don’t need a ridiculous number of specialist tools. However, there are some specific tools that I would definitely classify as essential if you’re embarking on your own wedding cake journey:

• Offset palette knife

This is my staple baking utensil: it’s great for spreading icing and fillings (also tempered chocolate, but that’s not particularly relevant for this cake). I’ve had my 4-inch one for YEARS and I bought an 8-inch one especially for this project (that chocolate tier was big!).

• Icing smoother

As I mentioned above: if you want smooth sides to your cake, you really do need to invest in a good icing smoother. I’ve tried using a regular palette knife, but it just doesn’t have the stiffness and perfect angle that a smoother has.

• Turntable

Turntables are invaluable tools for all manner of baking undertakings: particularly wedding cakes (and especially if you want smooth sides!). While I do have a specific baking turntable, more often than not I just use a regular Lazy Susan (is that a thing for everyone out there? It’s like a wide turntable that you use to serve things on at the dinner table?!). This was particularly helpful for the big chocolate tier, which, I fear, was actually bigger than my cake turntable.

• Non-slip fabric

If you’re using a turntable, I would also recommend getting/finding some non-slip fabric, because you don’t want your cake to slip off the surface if you spin it too fast (been there)! I just use some knitted dishcloths, so you might already have something in the house that would work for this.

• Piping bag + nozzles

Obviously, if you plan to add piped detail to your cake, you’ll need a piping bag and a suitable piping nozzle, but even if you aren’t planning that, a piping bag and a large, round nozzle (I used a #1A tip), is a really handy tool to ensure your buttercream layers are even and consistent. Just pipe a spiral of icing right over the surface of the cake, then smooth it out with an offset palette knife and you’ll have perfectly level, even layers every time.

• Cake lifter

Wedding cakes can be heavy and the last thing you want to do is ruin your beautifully smooth buttercream sides with fingerprints, so a cake lifter is your friend. You can slide it right under the cake and lift it from there to transfer it to the serving plate, but it’s also really handy for moving cake layers around before you assemble the cake.

Final Takeaways

So, I think even I can’t ramble on any longer: that is, quite literally, everything I learned while making my first ever wedding cake. In case you got bored and gave up halfway through (I wouldn’t blame you), here are the main takeaways:

• Practise lots (for peace of mind).
• Use the right recipe.
• Make a schedule.
• Get as much done in advance as possible.
• Take extra care when adding fillings.
• Invest in good cake boxes for transporting.
• Stack cake boards/drums for extra security.
• Use cake dowels, but be wary of them.
• Always bring a pin, palette knife, skewer and extra icing to the venue.
• Ice the cake as soon as possible to seal in the moisture.
• Keep the finished cake cool.
• Turn the turntable, not the icing smoother.
• Use a piping bag for even buttercream layers.

Anddddd I think that about covers it.

I hope this post has been helpful and I hope that you’ve enjoyed Wedding Cake Week! We’ll be returning to regular, non-wedding cake related content from now on!

I’ll see you then!

Gemma

xxx

If you’ve missed the last few posts on the blog (and, as a result, have no idea what Wedding Cake Week is), I made the cake for my brother’s wedding last month and am currently sharing all of the recipes and behind-the-scenes info from that here on the blog! I’ve already shared the recipes for the three cake tiers, which you can find here:

• The Chocolate Tier
• The Coffee Tier
• The Lemon Tier

Now, though, I want to share a detailed post on how to assemble a layer cake (or Assembling a Layer Cake 101, as I’m calling it). Each tier was assembled in exactly the same way (although, admittedly, the lemon tier had a little extra spice, in the form of an additional filling!), and it’s super handy knowledge for any baker to have, whether they’re making a wedding cake or not!

Without further ado, then, here’s how I assemble a layer cake…

Table of Contents

• Equipment
• Stage 1: Stacking the Layers
  • A Note on Fillings
• Stage 2: Adding Cake Dowels
• Stage 3: The Crumb Coat
• Stage 4: The Final Icing Layer
• Stage 5: Decorating

Equipment

There are some pieces of equipment that are going to make your life infinitely easier when it comes to assembling a layer cake:

• Cake lifter.
• Cake turntable.
• Non-slip fabric (I just use some knitted dishcloths for this, but anything that adds a bit of friction will work here!).
• Piping bag and large round piping tip (for the wedding cakes, I used a #1A tip).
• Offset palette knife (I normally use an 8-inch and a 4-inch one, but you could definitely manage with just one or the other— the 4-inch is the most versatile, so I’d start with that!).
• Cake dowels (I used these ones).
• Icing smoother (I use this one by Wilton).

If you plan on transporting your finished cake anywhere, I’d also recommend assembling it directly onto a cake drum (a thicker version of a cake board), the exact same size/shape as your cake (e.g. for a 6-inch round cake, you’d need a 6-inch round cake drum). This will make it easier to move the cake around without damaging it and the thicker board will help support the weight of the cake.

Furthermore, if you want your cake to be extra stable and secure during transportation, you can temporarily adhere the cake drum to a thinner, square cake board, that fits snugly into a strong, heavy duty cake box. This will prevent the cake from slipping around in transit. I recommend purchasing a cake box about 2 inches larger than your cake (so, for the aforementioned 6-inch round cake, I’d buy an 8×8-inch cake box and an 8×8-inch square cake board to fit inside it).

I used these adhesive paper stickers, folded in half to make them ‘double-sided’, to stick the two boards together. These are great, because they’re easy to cut through with a cake lifter, so you can easily separate the two boards by sliding the cake lifter (or a thin palette knife) between the layers, when it’s time to serve the cake. Any thin, strong, temporary adhesives will work for this though!

Stage 1: Stacking the Layers

Start by setting up your workspace. Place the non-slip fabric (or knitted dishcloths, if you’re like me) on top of the cake turntable, making sure to arrange them in an even layer so that your cake boards are level later on.

Place the cake drum/board combo (or just your serving plate, if you’re skipping that step!) on top of the non-slip layer, making sure it is sitting flat and level. The non-slip layer is important, because you don’t want your cake to move (or worse, fly off the turntable!) as you spin the cake.

Spread a generous dollop of buttercream directly onto the cake drum/serving plate. This gives the cake something to stick to and, when it has set, will secure the cake to the board/plate (again, to prevent the cake from slipping when it is moved).

Place the first cake layer on top of that icing, making sure that it is placed centrally and lines up exactly with the cake drum below (again, if using).

Next, add a thick layer of icing all over the surface of the cake. If you want to ensure that the icing is even (and that the next layer of icing is the same thickness), you can use a piping bag, fitted with a large round nozzle, to pipe the icing onto the surface of the cake in a big spiral, before spreading it out with an offset palette knife.

At this point, make sure that the icing is pushed right out to the edges of the cake (you actually want it to smush out a little!). This will make it easier to get super straight, even sides later on.

Place the next layer of cake on top of that icing layer, making sure that it is centred and level.

Then, repeat the icing process all over again.

Then, add the final cake layer on top, making sure it is centred and level.

All of the wedding cakes I made had three layers of cake, but you can apply this same principle whether your layer cake has 2 layers, or 4+! Just keep going until all of your layers are sandwiched together with the buttercream.

Run a palette knife around the edges of the cake, just to smooth out the excess icing and fill in the gaps between the layers. It doesn’t need to be perfect at this stage, you just want to give yourself a nice base for the crumb coat.

At this point, the cake should be chilled for about 15 minutes, just to help the layers firm up and give the cake a bit more stability before you crumb coat it.

A Note on Fillings

If, like with my Lemon Tier, you want to add a filling to your layer cake, the process is ever so slightly different.

If you’re adding a filling to your cake, it’s important that the buttercream you use to assemble the cake is quite stiff: I’d recommend not adding the full quantity of liquid ingredients (milk, lemon juice etc) at first, using it to assemble/fill the cake, then adding the remaining liquid ingredients before crumb-coating/decorating the cake.

Follow the standard steps for assembling the cake, up to the point where you have applied and smoothed out your first layer of icing. Then, pipe another circle of the buttercream right around the circumference of the cake, on top of that first layer of icing. This will act as a barrier (or a ‘dam’) to keep the filling in, so that it doesn’t ooze out (this is why it is important for your icing to be quite stiff at this stage, or your buttercream ‘dam’ might not keep the filling in!

Spread a thin layer of the filling on top of the icing layer, pushing it right up to the sides of the buttercream ‘dam’, but making sure you don’t get any filling on the top/outside of the ‘dam’ itself, which might prevent the cake layer from sticking to the buttercream properly.

Add the next cake layer on top, making sure it is centred and level. Smooth off the excess icing around the sides, then I would recommend putting the cake into the fridge at this stage, for about 15 minutes, just to let these layers firm up a little. Fillings add an extra layer of instability to a cake, so you want to chill it more frequently to help minimise the possibility of leaning, tilting and/or slipping!

After the first chill, repeat the buttercream + filling process, then place the final layer on top, again, making sure it is centred and level and smoothing off the sides. Again, I would recommend placing the cake into the fridge for a further 15 minutes at this stage, before adding the dowels and applying the crumb coat.

Stage 2: Adding Cake Dowels

Adding cake dowels is an optional step, but it can help lend even more stability and security to your layer cake, particularly if it is a very tall cake, or if you need to transport it somewhere. Typically, dowels are most often used when a cake is being stacked (like a traditional wedding cake, for example), but I do find that they can be helpful for single layer cakes too!

If you’re adding cake dowels, I would recommend adding them after chilling the assembled cake. I did encounter some problems with the cake dowels in my cakes (after the car journey and various temperature issues, the cakes did seem to collapse ever so slightly around the dowels, leading to little bulges of icing on top of each one (though the dowels are hollow, so I suppose this could also have been a result of trapped air?). This was easily remedied at the venue by gently pressing down on the bulges with a palette knife (after piercing them with a pin, just in case they were air pockets!), and smoothing on some more icing if needed), but it was extra stress that I definitely did not need, so avoiding that scenario would definitely be preferable!

You can add as many or as few dowels as you feel you need, based on the size/height of your cake. I added 4 dowels to each cake (mine were made up of three layers and were 10, 8 and 6 inches in diameter, respectively) and placed the dowels about halfway in from the edges of the cake, spaced out evenly around it.

To insert dowels, you just push them right into the assembled cake, making sure to keep them nice and straight.

Once you hit the cake drum/plate at the bottom, mark where the top of the cake comes up to on the dowel (I just used a little smear of buttercream for this: don’t use a regular pen or anything, because that won’t be food-safe!).

Then, pull the dowel out slightly and use a pair of kitchen shears to cut the dowel at the mark.

Press the dowel back down into the cake and you should find that it sits perfectly level with the top of the cake.

Repeat the process for the remaining dowels and you’re done!

Stage 3: The Crumb Coat

A crumb coat is a super thin layer of icing that is applied all over the surface and sides of a cake to trap in any crumbs (hence the name). By doing this, you create the perfect canvas for your final icing layer, which can then be applied smoothly and easily (without the worry of any crumbs peeking through!).

Start by placing a small amount of your buttercream into a separate bowl. This way, you don’t need to worry about crumbs getting into the main buttercream itself (which would render your crumb coat pretty much meaningless!).

Use an offset palette knife to spread a very thin layer of icing all over the top and sides of the cake. I tend to start with the top and work my way down the sides, but it doesn’t matter how you do it: just get those crumbs trapped!

The crumb coat doesn’t need to be perfect: getting it relatively smooth will help make the final icing layer easier, but, at the same time, the final icing layer will be much thicker (and able to hide a multitude of sins), so it doesn’t need to be perfectly smooth and even at this stage.

Once you’ve applied the crumb coat, put the cake back into the fridge for a further 15 minutes. I know the stop-start nature of this is a little tedious, but it is very important: without the chill, the crumb coat won’t form a crust (not for a good while, anyway), which is what really locks in the crumbs.

Stage 4: The Final Icing Layer

Now, it’s time to apply the final layer of icing! Remember that this will be the layer that people see, so how it looks is, this time, quite important.

Apply the buttercream all over the cake: again, I like to start on the top and work my way down the sides, but do whatever works for you. You don’t want to see any cake beneath this layer of icing, so you’ll need to apply a much thicker layer than you did for the crumb coat.

If you’re using a cake drum, at this point, I like to cover the cake drum in the buttercream too. This way, no one can actually see the cake drum, so you get the crisp, clean look of a plain cake with all of the movement/transport ease of a cake on a cake board.

Once the whole cake is covered in buttercream, you can start to smooth it out. I always like to start by creating a smooth canvas, even if I want to add a textured pattern to the buttercream, just to ensure the initial layer is neat and even.

Smooth the top surface out first. I find that an offset palette knife really is the best tool for this.

Make sure as you smooth that you create a slight ‘overhang’ of icing around the circumference of the top of the cake. This will make it super easy to make a little ‘lip’ around the top of the cake when you smooth the sides, which you can either leave as a feature (my preference) or gently scrape off later for a more crisp look.

Once you’re happy with the top of the cake, move onto the sides. For this, a proper smoother, like the one I have from Wilton, is a game-changer. Alternatively, a thick metal ruler could also work: you just need something tall and straight, with a right angle, so it can sit flush against both the cake board AND the side of the cake.

When using an icing smoother, I find you get the best results when you move the turntable, not the smoother (and you get even better results if you can convince someone else to turn the turntable for you, while you hold the smoother steady!).

Hold the bottom of the icing smoother flush against the cake board/turntable and keep the side of the smoother pressed gently against the side of the cake (lining it up with the cake drum at the base really helps with this!). Hold the smoother at a slight, acute angle against the side of the cake.

Then, slowly turn the turntable, keeping the smoother as steady as possible. Work your way around until you have smoothed off the whole cake, then slowly and gently pull the smoother towards you as you stop turning to finish it off.

After this first smooth around, you’ll inevitably have some areas that aren’t quite so neat, where there wasn’t enough icing to smooth out the layer completely. This is easy to rectify: just add a generous amount of icing to any of those areas, then repeat the smoothing process again.

Keep going, adding more icing and smoothing again, wiping off the smoother when needed, until you’re happy with the finished cake. You’ll notice that, as you smoothed out the sides, the ‘overhang’ of icing from the top has been pushed upwards and inwards, creating a lip at the top of the cake. I really like this effect, so I usually leave mine like this, but, if you want a smooth top to the cake, just chill the cake for about 10 minutes, then use a palette knife to ‘slice’ off that lip.

If you don’t mind the lip, you don’t need to bother chilling the cake: just leave it at room temperature to form a crust. I’d always recommend giving the buttercream a chance to crust before attempting to transport the cake, because it limits the risk of any potential ‘smushing’.

Stage 5: Decorating

Once your cake is covered in icing, you can decorate it however you’d like! For the wedding cakes, I opted to decorate them at the venue, once the icing had fully crusted over. This was because I was using pressed, edible flowers that I didn’t want to rehydrate/go limp if I attached them to the cake too far in advance (and had the added bonus of giving me a chance to lay out the flowers and check the arrangement before committing to it) but, for other decorations, you can absolutely do this in advance.

And that, friends, is how I assemble my layer cakes. I hope this has been a helpful post: I know it can seem a bit overwhelming, but honestly, once you have the right equipment (and the confidence!), it’s really not too bad!

See you tomorrow for the next post of Wedding Cake Week!

Gemma

xxx

For Christmas, my brother and his fiancée gifted me this BEAUTIFUL Nordic Ware Bundt tin (wow, dreams really do come true- I mentioned how much I wanted a Nordic Ware Bundt in my 2023 Baking Gift Guide!). It’s incredible, but it’s also… very detailed (as many bundt tins are). I must confess, I was worried about getting the Bundt cakes out of this tin after baking them- there are just so many nooks and crannies for themto stick in! With normal tins, greasing them with butter and lining them with baking paper has always been my go-to, but this just isn’t possible with Bundt tins.

After a couple of… questionable… attempts (more on that in a sec), I finally tried making my own ‘cake release’. This is essentially an edible mixture that you paint onto the inside of the tin before filling it with the cake batter, which prevents the cake from sticking to the tin. It is life-changing for Bundt-making. Admittedly, you could use it for any cake/tin, but I’m particularly thrilled with it in a Bundt context. Today, I’m sharing the recipe with you, so you never have to worry about Bundt-related disasters occurring in your kitchen. What can I say? I intend to be a Bundt queen of the people.

Table of Contents

• Super Scientific Evidence for the Use of DIY Cake Release (AKA Photographic Evidence of My Own Bundt Disasters)
• When to Use DIY Cake Release
• Ingredients
• How to Make DIY Cake Release
• How to Use DIY Cake Release
• Making DIY Cake Release In Advance
• Recipe

Super Scientific Evidence for the Use of DIY Cake Release (AKA Photographic Evidence of My Own Bundt Disasters)

For my first Bundt attempt, I brushed the whole tin with melted butter, then dusted it with plain flour. I mean- this worked. The cake came out super easily, in one piece, with minimal stress. However, because this tin is so detailed, it was really hard to dust the flour evenly over the surface- a lot of the flour ending up clumping together with the butter in the grooves of the tin. As you can see from the photo, where this happened, I ended up with patches of… roux??… baked onto the cake. You can brush it off (to an extent), but you do lose some of the definition of the tin. Overall, this technique just wasn’t what I was looking for.

Incredibly, things actually got worse after that. For my next attempt, I tried to combat my flour problem by not using any flour at all. I brushed the whole tin with sunflower oil (I would have used melted butter, but this particular cake was a butter-less sponge, and I was hoping I could keep it dairy-free). Please, don’t do this. It absolutely did NOT work. I mean, you can see that from the photo. This is what I ended up with…

Long story short, I desperately needed a different, more successful method of greasing this Bundt tin. Enter, this DIY Cake Release. You can mix it up super quickly and easily, then you just paint it onto the tin (making sure to cover every inch of it with a thin layer), pour in the batter, bake it off and your Bundt will come out perfectly. No floury sections, no sticking and, as an added bonus, the whole cake will be super evenly caramelised and pretty (which is ideal for a Bundt cake like this).

When to Use DIY Cake Release

This DIY Cake Release can be used for any size/shape of cake tin- as I mentioned, I find it particularly helpful for Bundt tins, but you can use it for anything.

One note, though: I wouldn’t recommend using this DIY Cake Release if you’re making a chocolate/other dark-coloured cake, because it is naturally pale, so it will affect the colour of the caramelisation on the outside of any cakes like that. I have seen some people substituting the flour with cocoa powder to make a DIY Chocolate Cake Release, but I am yet to try that myself.

Ingredients

To make this DIY Cake Release, you only need 3 ingredients:

• Unsalted butter

You don’t necessarily want this cake release to taste of anything, so don’t bother using salted butter.

If you want to make this DIY Cake Release dairy-free/vegan, I’ve seen a lot of people using shortening instead of butter, which apparently works just as well (though, admittedly, I’ve never tried it myself).

• Plain flour

Don’t use self-raising flour for this, because the cake release is just to prevent the cake from sticking- it doesn’t need to rise!

• Vegetable oil

Any clear, flavourless oil will work here. I use sunflower oil, but you could use something like groundnut oil if you prefer (just remember not to serve a cake made with this to anyone with a nut allergy, if you do).

In terms of quantities, the amount of each ingredient you will need depends on how much cake release you want to make, but the general rule is that you need equal parts butter, flour and oil (i.e. a 1:1:1 ratio). For example, for a 10-cup Bundt tin like mine, I find I need about 1 1/2 tbsp of cake release, which I make using 1/2 tbsp butter (about 7g), 1/2 tbsp of plain flour and 1/2 tbsp of sunflower oil.

How to Make DIY Cake Release

This recipe (I mean, it barely even warrants the term) could not be easier. It’s basically just 3 steps:

• Melt the butter:

A lot of the recipes I came across used room temperature butter, but, honestly, melting the butter makes it so easy to mix together with the flour, so I do that. It adds an extra step, but it also decreases the elbow grease required, so I’m taking that as a win. You don’t even need to melt it fully (in fact, it’s probably better if it’s not too hot)- just get it so it’s soft enough that you can easily mix everything in.

• Mix in the flour:

Mix the flour into the butter until no lumps remain. Any lumps at this stage might mean that you end up with little floury bits on the outside of your finished cake, which is exactly what we are trying to avoid!

• Stir in the oil.

You want to add the oil at the end, once the flour and butter are combined, for the best results. Once you’ve added the oil, just keep stirring until you have a smooth, cohesive ‘goop’ (I’m so sorry- there’s really no good way to describe this stuff).

And that’s… literally it.

How to Use DIY Cake Release

Once you have prepared your cake release, you just need to paint a thin layer of it all over the inside of your tin, using a pastry brush. Make sure that every inch of it is covered, otherwise your cake might stick in some places!

For baking with Bundt tins, it’s still important to be very careful when removing the Bundt from the tin, even with the cake release. I like to let the Bundt cool in the tin for about 5 mins, then use my (clean!) fingers to gently pry the edges of the cake away from the tin- do be careful, though, because it will obviously still be very hot. You can see in the photo above that the cake will already be pulling away slightly, because of the cake release, but you just want to loosen it a little more. Then, place a wire rack on top of the tin, and flip the whole lot over. Tap the tin and the rack together on the work surface firmly a couple of times, to help loosen the cake, then carefully lift off the Bundt tin to reveal your Bundt cake! If the cake still hasn’t come out, give it a few more taps on the work surface and try again.

Making DIY Cake Release In Advance

If you know you’ll be making a lot of cakes over a certain period, you can make a big batch of this DIY Cake Release and store it in the fridge. Kept in an airtight container, it should keep for at least a month. When you’re ready to use it, take out a small amount and warm it ever so slightly in the microwave (and give it a stir!) to bring it back to its original consistency, then you can go ahead and use it as normal.

If you use shortening instead of butter, you don’t need to keep it in the fridge- it will be shelf-stable and keep for longer.

Recipe

Print

DIY Cake Release

This DIY Cake Release makes it so easy to remove cakes from their tins and is particularly helpful when baking in Bundt tins. It's also quick, easy and only contains 3 ingredients!

Keyword Cake release

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Total Time 5 minutes minutes

Ingredients

• 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter (about 7g).
• 1/2 tbsp plain flour
• 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil (see Note 1).

Instructions

• Melt the butter in the microwave.
• Stir the flour into the melted butter, mixing well until no lumps remain.
• Add the oil to the flour/butter mixture and mix well, until you have a smooth 'goop'.

To use the cake release:

• Use a pastry brush to paint a thin layer of cake release all over the inside of the cake tin, making sure to cover every surface. Once covered, fill the tin with your chosen cake batter and bake as usual.

Notes

1. Any clear, flavourless oil will work here- I use sunflower oil, but groundnut oil would also work (just be careful not to give a cake made with this to anyone with a nut allergy, if you do use groundnut oil).