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

In today’s post, I’m sharing a behind-the-scenes look at how I developed each of the three cake recipes for the wedding cake, from start to finish!

If you’re planning on making your own wedding/event cake, fancy giving recipe development a go or just like reading about cake (and who doesn’t?), this is the post for you. If you just want the recipes themselves (get straight to the cake and all that), you can find them here:

• Chocolate cake recipe
• Coffee cake recipe
• Lemon cake recipe

Let’s get into the fun, behind-the-scenes stuff, though, shall we?

Table of Contents

• Wedding Cake Criteria
• Planning/Development Schedule
  • Step 1: Recipe Research
  • Step 2: Recipe Draft
  • Step 3: First Single-Layer, 6-Inch Test
  • Step 4: Recipe Adjustments and More 6-Inch Tests
  • Step 5: Single-Layer, Full-Size Test
  • Step 6: 3-Layer, Full-Size, Decorated Test
• Cross-Referencing Against the Criteria
• Learning When to Stop
• The Week Before the Wedding

Wedding Cake Criteria

Before I started working on the recipe for the chocolate cake, I made a list of criteria. Obviously, this was my brother’s wedding, so it was super important to me that this cake was everything that he (and my new sister-in-law!) dreamed it would be. Because of this, we spent a lot of time discussing their likes, dislikes and general, cake-related preferences from the get-go, so I could be confident that I was on the right track. I also had some additional criteria of my own, that, in truth, was mainly centred around minimising the last-minute stress as much as possible (a girl’s gotta protect her mental health, right?).

In the end, this was my master list of criteria:

• Size + Shape

The bride and groom really wanted a three-tier, round wedding cake, so, of course, that is what this cake had to be! The size of the cake was determined by the number of guests attending the wedding (67), so the largest, chocolate tier needed to be 10″ in diameter, the middle, coffee tier needed to be 8″ in diameter and the smallest, lemon tier need to be 6″ in diameter, with all 3 tiers being made up of 3 individual layers of cake.

• Tastes AMAZING (and like what they’re supposed to taste like)

Obviously, this was the most important thing: the cakes HAD to taste good and, by extension, they had to taste like what they were supposed to taste like. I mean, if you’re having a chocolate cake you absolutely want it to taste like chocolate, right?. Chocolate cake is my new sister-in-law’s absolute favourite, so this was especially important to get right. Similarly though, the coffee cake needed to taste like coffee and the lemon cake needed to taste like lemon: what’s the point of calling a cake a certain flavour if you can’t even taste it?

• American buttercream

This was a specific request from both the bride and groom: no fancy Italian or Swiss meringue buttercreams here: only the butteriest of American icings was allowed (not that I’m complaining: American buttercream is by far the easiest icing to make!).

• Strong, durable cake layers

This was one of my personal additions to the list: I wanted all of the cakes to be super stable and secure, because I’d had literal nightmares about dropping them/them toppling over before we even got them to the venue. The wedding was taking place about an hour and a half away from my house, so it was vital that the cakes were able to travel well.

• Moist sponge

Again, one of my own additions: I knew I’d need to make the cake as far in advance as I possibly could, to limit the amount of last-minute stress on myself AND ensure that I wasn’t too tired to enjoy the actual wedding itself! It was super important, then, that all three of the wedding cakes had a much more moist and rich sponge base, so that I could make them in advance.

• Lemon curd filling (for the lemon tier only, obvs)

This was a specific request from my brother and who am I to deny him lemon curd?

Planning/Development Schedule

My brother and sister-in-law got engaged just over 20 months before they got married and, if I remember correctly, asking me to make the cake was one of the first wedding-related decisions they made, so I had a good long time to develop these recipes.

I tackled each cake flavour individually, working on each one until I was happy before moving on to the next. For each flavour, I went through the following steps:

Step 1: Recipe Research

I started by researching cake recipes, looking in particular for recipes that had similar attributes to what I had already decided (in my criteria list!) was important for my cakes. I compiled a big bank of recipes for each flavour (making sure to note down things like size, bake time/temp, ingredient quantities and basic methods) AND keeping a reference of where each recipe was from (both for checking back AND for ensuring recipes are properly credited when necessary— this is something I always try to do, particularly now that I have this blog!).

Step 2: Recipe Draft

Using those recipe banks as a reference, I pieced together my own recipe: one that (I hoped) would fulfil all my criteria. This is something that I do quite a lot, so, while it can seem overwhelming at first, it is definitely something that gets easier with practice! You just have to trust your baking instincts (or build them up enough so that you can trust them) and be prepared to make some mistakes: recipe development is all about fixing problems and correcting errors! In anticipation of Step 3, I drew up each recipe to make enough for one, single-layer, 6-inch round cake.

Step 3: First Single-Layer, 6-Inch Test

As much as I hate to admit it, there’s only so much cake a person can eat and, since I knew there would be lots of recipe testing for this project, it seemed prudent to make the initial test cakes as small as possible. This way, I could test my recipes for flavour/texture as many times as necessary without being completely overrun by cakes! I baked up a single -layer, 6-inch version of the initial recipe draft for each cake, to see how it went.

Step 4: Recipe Adjustments and More 6-Inch Tests

After evaluating the first test, I made adjustments to my recipes and tried again, baking and tweaking until I was happy with the flavour and texture of the sponge. For two of the cakes, this step took a while (I’m looking at you, chocolate and lemon tiers), but for the other cake, this step wasn’t even necessary (coffee cake, I’m so proud of you!).

Step 5: Single-Layer, Full-Size Test

Once I was happy with the basic sponge recipe, it was time to convert it to the right size for each tier. For the chocolate cake, this involved scaling up from a 6-inch to a 10-inch layer, while the coffee cake was from a 6-inch to an 8-inch layer. I didn’t need to do this for the lemon cake, because that was always going to be a 6-inch tier! Funnily enough, this time around, it was the chocolate cake that was super easy and only took one try, while the coffee cake caused me no end of grief! Ah well, a few extra cakes floating around didn’t hurt anyone.

Step 6: 3-Layer, Full-Size, Decorated Test

Finally, once I was happy with the flavour, texture AND bake time/temp on each of the cake layers, the last step was to try making a full, 3-layer, decorated cake. This was important, as it gave me a chance to see how the cakes held up under their own weight, as well as an opportunity to taste the finished cakes AND practise all of the techniques involved.

And, with that, I had my three cake recipes!

Cross-Referencing Against the Criteria

Just to ensure the cakes were exactly how I wanted them, I cross-referenced my final recipes against my initial criteria list:

Learning When to Stop

As you can see from my criteria cross-referencing, my lemon cake recipe didn’t quite fulfil my criteria: it’s definitely more of a fluffy, sponge consistency, rather than the slightly denser, moister cake layers I was aiming for. However, it does satisfy all of the other criteria, tastes AMAZING ( super lemon-y!) and I knew that, because the other cakes fit the criteria so perfectly, I could afford to have one cake that needed to be made closer to the date of the wedding than the others, so I decided to just go with it and save myself some more testing!

Don’t get me wrong, though: I LOVE this lemon cake, it’s just that I think, for a wedding cake, there are probably better lemon cake recipes out there. Maybe one day (after a nice break from the world of lemon wedding cakes), I’ll work on finding the ideal recipe for one!

The Week Before the Wedding

With all of my recipes developed, tried, tested and ready to go, I was ready to make The Actual Wedding Cake. I thought it might be helpful to share what my schedule for the week before the wedding looked like, so you can get an idea of how I allotted my time (and how long the respective cakes were able to last!)

Obviously, this schedule won’t work for everyone (especially people who don’t work from home), but it worked for me and this particular cake, so I still thought it might be helpful to share!

I hope you’ve found this post helpful/interesting! The whole process was definitely a labour of love, but most crafty, creative things are, so, really, the whole thing was right up my alley.

I’ll see you tomorrow for the final post in this Wedding Cake Week series, where I’ll be talking about everything I’ve learned from this experience (and sharing every tip/trick I’ve accumulated throughout the process with you!).

Gemma

xxx

As I mentioned in the other Wedding Cake Week posts, the decoration on these cakes was really clean and minimal: just a handful of pressed, edible violas on the top of each cake and two gingerbread bride & groom toppers on the middle, coffee tier.

In today’s post, I’ll be sharing how I made these gingerbread toppers, including the full gingerbread recipe that I used (which is a great recipe for a purpose like this, because it lasts for so long: no stale gingerbread here!).

A little gender-related disclaimer at this point: throughout this post, I have referred to the gingerbread figure with trousers as the ‘gingerbread man’ and the gingerbread figure with a skirt as the ‘gingerbread woman’: this is just for clarity, because, at the wedding that this cake was for, that is an accurate representation of the bride and groom and what they wore! Obviously, you can make a bride wearing trousers, a groom wearing a dress, two grooms, two brides, or just two gingerbread people wearing whatever you’re capable of recreating in icing!

Table of Contents

• The Idea & Design
• Making the Gingerbread Dough
• Baking the Gingerbread People
• Decorating the Gingerbread Toppers
  • Making the Bouquet
  • Piping on the Decorations
• Assembling the Toppers
• Attaching the Toppers to the Cake
• Recipe

The Idea & Design

Though not particularly in vogue these days, traditional wedding cakes often feature a little pair of bride & groom figurines sat on top (though I believe this is more of an American tradition than a British one?). I guess this was just to remind guests that they were, in fact, at a wedding.

When I first started sketching out some designs for this cake, I had the random idea to replicate this tradition using edible figurines made of gingerbread, instead. Lucky for me, the bride & groom in question (my brother and new sister-in-law) loved the idea, so I got to run with it!

I really wanted to lean into the gingerbread man aesthetic, rather than the bride-and-groom aesthetic, with these toppers, so, while both have a little nod to the occasion in their individual decoration, I knew I wanted to keep the icing pretty minimal and gingerbread-esque. In the end, I gave them both basic little faces (two eyes and a mouth, standard stuff), then gave the groom a little bow tie and some buttons, and the bride a bouquet of flower paste daisies (the easiest of the flowers to make out of sugar paste).

I was also aware that, at the venue, the cake could be viewed from all around, so I didn’t want the back of the gingerbread people to look ugly. In the end, I opted to sandwich two identical gingerbread bride/grooms together (much like an Oreo), so that the cake looked the same from the front and the back.

Making the Gingerbread Dough

I decided to use the ‘gingerbread’ dough recipe that my family has used every year for our gingerbread house, because I know that it holds up really well over time and can sit out at room temperature for as long as needed without going stale. I say ‘gingerbread’ in inverted commas because the recipe we use isn’t actually gingerbread, but this Finnish Spiced Biscuit recipe. I did want the biscuits to have more of a classic, ‘gingerbread’ flavour though, so I adapted the base biscuit recipe to use a different combination of spices, so that we could have the best of both worlds.

I actually made a lot of gingerbread dough, because I was making loads of gingerbread people as the wedding favours, as well as the cake toppers! (If I’m being completely honest, I currently still have a double batch of dough in the freezer after a little… quantity miscalculation… so, if anyone fancies some gingerbread men, hit me up, I guess?). For the toppers themselves, you actually need very little dough: just enough to cut out 4 people (2 brides and 2 grooms), though I recommend making extra to practise your decoration on!

Baking the Gingerbread People

For the gingerbread grooms, I just used a regular, gingerbread man cookie cutter and baked them as they were.

For the gingerbread brides, I had to get a little creative. I went back and forth over how to decorate the gingerbread brides, because I knew I didn’t want anything too fussy or elaborate and I also knew that, every year, when I decorate the gingerbread people for our Christmas gingerbread house, it’s decorating the gingerbread women that causes me the most grief! I guess it’s just very hard to make a gingerbread dress look good. Eventually, I decided to skip the dress and give the gingerbread bride a bouquet of flowers, instead, which felt much more achievable!

I did, however, quickly realise that the gingerbread bride’s arms would be in the wrong position for holding a bouquet of flowers. After a successful trial, I found that I could gently bend the arms of the cut out gingerbread cookies inwards before baking them. They come apart slightly when baked, so you can afford to press them quite close together in the middle, but they do bake in that position, which was exactly what I needed.

The only thing you have to be slightly mindful of is that, if the gingerbread dough is a bit dry at this stage, it can break/crack as you bend it inwards. This isn’t the end of the world: the cookies will still keep the shape, they’ll just have slightly messier edges. I recommend doing the gingerbread women first, while the dough is still at its most pliable, and bending the arms of each one immediately after cutting them out, to minimise the likelihood of this happening.

Decorating the Gingerbread Toppers

Making the Bouquet

Making the daisies for the bouquet was super easy: I just rolled out some sugar florist paste super thinly, then used a small, flower-shaped cutter to stamp out some little flower shapes. I used these plunge cutters for this (specifically, the second smallest one), because it makes getting the tiny flowers out super easy and the little pointed plunger helps to give the flowers some definition.

I then tinted a small amount of royal icing yellow using Colour Mill’s Aqua Blend formula in the shade Yellow (if I’m being honest, I was aiming for a slightly more subtle shade of yellow, but we live and learn), put it into a piping bag, fitted with a very fine, round tip, and piped little dots of colour into the centre of each daisy. Royal icing doesn’t contain oil, so I find that the Aqua Blend formula gives the best, most even colour.

I let the flowers dry out and harden up overnight at room temperature, then I was ready to use them in my decoration!

Piping on the Decorations

I used royal icing to decorate (and assemble) these gingerbread toppers, because it hardens up completely once set, so there was less likelihood of any unwanted smushing in transit. Royal icing is deceptively easy to make: you literally put the icing sugar, egg white and lemon juice in a bowl and whisk (using an electric mixer, if you value your arms), until its smooth and thick. That’s it!

Once the icing was made, I put it into a piping bag fitted with a small, round piping tip, ready to pipe on the little gingerbread faces and accessories.

If you have a piping tip coupler, I’d recommend using it for the white icing here. You’ll need to use two different tips for the white icing on these cookies: a fine round tip and a slightly wider round tip, so a coupler makes things much easier! If you don’t have one, you can just use two piping bags instead.

I definitely recommend having a few gingerbread people to hand to practise on, so that you can make sure you’re happy with the technique and your designs before you get to work on the real ones.

For the gingerbread grooms, I piped a simple face (as I said, just two dots for eyes and a curved line for the smile), then added a little bow tie (though my brother didn’t wear a bow tie, so I suppose this was just artistic license) and three dots for buttons.

For the gingerbread brides, I piped the same face, then added a generous splodge of icing to the space between the two bent arms and carefully pressed three of the little sugarpaste daisies into that, to make the bouquet. That was it! Simple, but I think it was very effective.

I let the gingerbread people sit out overnight, so that the icing had a chance to harden before I attempted to stick the two halves together (again, to limit the risk of any unwanted smushing). I sealed the piping bag up using some food clips and placed it into a resealable bag (with the extra air removed before sealing), so that it wouldn’t dry out overnight and I could use it again the next day.

Assembling the Toppers

To ensure the toppers stayed upright on the cake, I decided to sandwich a cake pop stick between the two cookie halves, which I could push into the cake at the venue to keep everything secure. Ironically, this time around, the process was super easy for the gingerbread bride and… less straightforward for the gingerbread groom!

For the bride, I just placed a single cake pop stick down the centre of her body, because her skirt conceals it at the bottom. For the groom, I had to place two separate cake pop sticks, one down each leg. It’s important that the cake pop sticks are parallel, to distribute the pressure evenly, so I lined them up from the bottom point of each foot to the corresponding shoulder. With the cookie cutter I used, there was just enough space for this, so it worked out well.

To assemble the toppers, I started by piping a (pretty) thick outline of icing just inside the perimeter of one half of the gingerbread bride/groom (on the undecorated underside, of course), being careful not to go too close to the edge, as the icing does squish outwards a little as you sandwich the cookies.

To protect the icing decorations on the other side, I set the gingerbread cookies face down on some gently crumpled kitchen paper while I worked.

I then filled in the outline with more icing, before inserting the cake pop stick(s), swivelling them gently to ensure they were completely coated in icing and sandwiching the other gingerbread half on top, making sure they were nicely aligned. Again, I set them aside overnight (still sitting on the crumpled kitchen paper), to give the icing a chance to harden up and set.

Attaching the Toppers to the Cake

As I mentioned, I placed the toppers on the cake at the venue, just so that it was one less thing to worry about on the journey down.

I transported the toppers in sealed plastic food containers (leftover from the copious takeaways I needed to get me through the past few months). I lined each container with the gently crumpled kitchen paper, then placed the toppers inside, followed by another layer of kitchen paper, making sure that no pressure was placed on the toppers when the lid was shut. The kitchen paper protected the decorated surfaces and also prevented the toppers from moving around too much during transit.

At the venue, after I had transferred the coffee cake to its stand, I lined the toppers up on the surface, pressing down gently so that the cake pop sticks made slight indentations in the crusted buttercream beneath them. I then used a wooden skewer to poke holes where the cake pop sticks would go, before gently pushing the gingerbread toppers in.

The reason I used the skewer first was to minimise the force I needed to apply on the gingerbread toppers: they’re pretty sturdy, so I don’t think they’d break, but I wasn’t about to risk it!

I pushed the gingerbread toppers right in, so that you couldn’t see any cake pop stick (or, at least, this was the intention— the photos beg to differ!) and so that it looked like the gingerbread bride and groom were just stood right on top of the cake, then I exhaled forcefully and thanked the gingerbread gods that everything had gone successfully.

And that, everybody, is the story of how I made the bride and groom gingerbread toppers for this wedding cake (and ended up with a ridiculous amount of gingerbread dough in my freezer). Hope you enjoyed it!

Recipe

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Gingerbread Wedding Cake Toppers

A classic, long-lasting gingerbread man recipe, adapted into cute little toppers for a wedding cake.

Course Dessert, Snack

Cuisine American, Finnish

Keyword Gingerbread, Royal icing, Wedding cake

Prep Time 2 hours hours

Cook Time 8 minutes minutes

Chill time 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 2 hours hours 25 minutes minutes

Servings 14 biscuit sandwiches

Equipment

• 1 gingerbread woman cookie cutter
• 1 gingerbread man cookie cutter
• 2 baking trays lined with greaseproof paper.
• 1 plunger flower cutter (see Note 1).
• 2-3 piping bags (see Note 2).
• 1 very fine, round piping tip (see Note 2).
• 1 small, round piping tip (see Note 2).
• 1 medium round piping tip (see Note 2).
• Cake pop sticks

Ingredients

For the gingerbread dough:

• 140 g unsalted butter, softened.
• 100 g golden caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 100 ml golden syrup
• 4 tsp ground ginger
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1 pinch fine sea salt
• 1 lemon, zest only.
• 450 g plain flour, sifted.

For the royal icing:

• 200 g icing sugar, sifted.
• 1 egg white
• 1 tsp lemon juice

For the sugar daisies:

• 10 g white sugar florist paste (see Note 3).
• Yellow food colouring (see Note 4).

Instructions

• Cream the butter and 50g of the sugar together until pale and fluffy.
• In a separate bowl, whisk the egg with the remaining 50g of sugar until thick and pale (the ribbon stage).
• Mix the bicarbonate of soda into the golden syrup, then pour into the butter mixture and mix well. Add the egg mixture to the butter mixture and mix again.
• Add the spices, salt, lemon zest and flour and mix thoroughly to form a dough.
• Wrap the dough in clingfilm and place into the fridge to chill for 30 minutes.

Cut out and bake the gingerbread people:

• Preheat the oven to 190°C (conventional oven, not fan).
• Cut the chilled dough in half. On a lightly floured surface, roll half of the dough out to the thickness of a £1 coin.
• Start by cutting out the women. Stamp out the shapes using the cookie cutter, then gently bend the arms inward, pressing down gently where they meet the centre of the cookie to secure them. Carefully transfer to a baking tray, lined with greaseproof paper.
• Bake the gingerbread brides in the preheated oven for 6-8 minutes, until golden. Allow to cool on the tray for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely before decorating.
• Roll out the remaining half of the dough and use to cut out the men, leaving the arms as is this time around. Bake and cool in exactly the same way as the brides.
• Gingerbread people can be made in advance. Store in airtight container until ready to decorate.

Make the royal icing (see Note 5):

• Place the icing sugar, egg white and lemon juice in a large bowl. Whisk with an electric mixer until thick and smooth.

Make the sugar daisies:

• Dust a clean work surface with icing sugar. Roll out the florist paste as thinly as you can, then use the plunge flower cutter to cut out lots of little flowers.
• Tint a small amount of the royal icing using the yellow food colouring, then transfer to a piping bag, fitted with the smallest round tip.
• Pipe a small dot of yellow icing into the centre of each flower, then set aside to dry and harden overnight.

Decorate the gingerbread toppers:

• Place the white royal icing in a piping bag fitted with a piping tip coupler (see Note 2) and a small, round tip.
• Pipe smiley faces on all of the cookies, then a bow tie and three buttons on the grooms. On the brides, add a generous amount of icing to the space between the hands, then gently press three of the dried sugar daisies onto the icing, to form a bouquet.
• Set the gingerbread people aside at room temperature to harden before assembling.

Assemble the gingerbread toppers:

• Place half of the gingerbread people, decorated side down, on some lightly crumpled kitchen paper (this will help to protect the decorated surface).
• Switch out the piping tip on the bag of white royal icing to a slightly larger round tip (see Note 2), then use to pipe a neat outline just inside the perimeter of the shape (don't go too close to the edge, as the icing will squish out a little when you sandwich the cookies).
• Fill inside the outline with more icing, then add one cake pop stick down the centre of the brides and two down each leg (making sure the two sticks are parallel to each other) of the grooms. Gently rotate the sticks to cover them in the icing.
• Gently press another cookie, decorated side up this time, on top of the icing, to make a gingerbread sandwich. Leave the cookies on the kitchen paper overnight (at room temperature) so that the icing sets and hardens.

Attach the toppers to the cake:

• When you're ready to attach the toppers to the cake, line them up on top of the cake and press down just enough to make indents of the cake pop sticks in the buttercream.
• Use a skewer to pierce the cake, using the indents as a guide, then gently push the toppers into the cake, until the gingerbread people are sitting flush with the top of the cake and you can't see the cake pop sticks.

Notes

Notes:

1. I used the second smallest size from this pack.
2. If you have a piping tip coupler, I would recommend using it here for the white royal icing. You’ll need to pipe the white icing using two sizes of round tips, so a coupler makes it really easy to switch out the tips. If you don’t have a coupler, just use two separate piping bags: I would suggest putting about 1/3 of the icing in the bag with the smaller tip and 2/3 in the bag with the larger tip.
3. Sugar florist paste works really well for delicate flowers like this, because it’s extra stretchy and dries extra hard. I used this brand.
4. I used Colour Mill Aqua Blend in the shade Yellow. Water-based food colourings give the best results when working with royal icing.
5. You’ll need this batch of royal icing over the course of a few days (the decorations need to set in between stages!). You can keep the icing from drying out by sealing it inside the piping bag and/or a resealable food bag. Just make sure to clip the ends of the piping bag, using a food clip and remove any excess air from the food bag. 

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

The smallest tier of the wedding cake is a fluffy, lemon sponge, filled with lemon, American-style buttercream and homemade lemon curd, then iced with more buttercream and decorated, just like the other two tiers, with some pressed edible violas.

As delicious as this cake is, I do feel like I could make an even more wedding-friendly lemon cake recipe, just because this was the tier that gave me the most stress! It is the fluffiest of the cakes, so it does dry out more quickly than the other two tiers, and it wasn’t quite as stable as I would have liked (a result of poor assembly technique + the addition of lemon curd, I believe), so, for a wedding cake (not necessarily for a regular ol’ lemon cake, for which this is excellent!), I do think there’s definite room for improvement!

Table of Contents

• A Bit of Recipe Backstory
• Making the Lemon Curd
• Making the Cake Layers
  • Photo Tutorial: Lemon Cake Layers
• Making the Lemon Buttercream
  • Tutorial: Lemon Buttercream
• Assembling the Lemon Cake
• Decorating the Lemon Cake
• Recipe

A Bit of Recipe Backstory

As you’ll have seen in the intro post to this series, I will be doing a whole post on how I went about developing these recipes, but, just like I did with the other two tiers, I wanted to share a little bit of lemon-specific backstory here too!

Last year, I embarked on a Fondant Fancy-making journey (which, unfortunately, is yet to come to fruition: my struggles with pouring fondant persist). During that process, I accidentally made the most delicious, fluffy and light lemon cake (an adaptation of this recipe from My Baking Madness), so I figured that recipe would be a good place to start!

Naturally, I had documented the wrong recipe in my research, so the first few trials of this cake were completely different to what I remembered (and also vaguely unpleasant— it was not a good time). Luckily, in a frustrated haze, I suddenly realised that the recipe I was using was not, in fact, the recipe that I thought I was using, so I was able to switch back and save countless lemons from being juiced in vain.

With the right recipe, things started going much more smoothly! I was happy with this cake, but, as I mentioned in the intro, while it’s a delicious lemon cake, I do think I could make a moister lemon cake with a tighter crumb that would be more fit for a wedding/event cake. However, time was ticking (and I was already getting a little sick of lemons by this point), so I decided to go with it.

Luckily, I have my lemon curd recipe pretty much down, so that didn’t need too much fiddling with. The only thing I did do was make it a little thicker and less runny by using 1 egg + 1 egg yolk (as opposed to using all whole eggs, which is my usual method), just for structural purposes.

Making the Lemon Curd

I’ve shared a recipe for lemon curd here on the blog before, as part of my Lemon and Elderflower Butterfly Cakes recipe. The process for this curd is exactly the same, but I omitted the elderflower, doubled the recipe quantities and replaced one of the whole eggs with an egg yolk, to make the curd a little thicker, in an attempt to help make the cake more stable.

You don’t actually need a doubled recipe quantity for this cake: a single batch would’ve been plenty, but I think curds made with just yolks can taste quite eggy, so I wanted to use 1 whole egg + 1 yolk (thus, needed to make a double batch). Luckily, lemon curd will keep in the fridge for a little while and is very delicious on toast, so it didn’t need to go to waste!

The lemon curd was the first thing I made for this cake, because it does keep well in the fridge, I was able to make it in advance and save myself a job closer to the date.

Making the Cake Layers

Next, it was time to make the cake layers! For this sponge, I used the reverse creaming method, which is great for lemon cakes because it can take a greater volume of liquid, so you can get a good amount of lemon juice into the batter, as well as the zest, for extra flavour. This method does also give a slightly denser crumb than your typical sponge, which was just what I wanted (even if I now feel that I could have taken this further!).

The only thing I did find with this cake recipe is that it does have a tendency to stick to the sides of the tin. To combat this, I used my DIY Cake Release, brushing it all over the base and sides of the tin before lining the bottom with a circle of greaseproof paper. While this definitely helped, it still wasn’t perfect, so you do need to be very careful when taking these cakes out of the tin.

Also, very joyously (particularly after the last 2 tiers), as long as you have 3, separate, 6-inch round tins, you can bake all 3 layers at the same time in a regular oven (which is actually extra helpful, because this recipe does not scale down very easily!).

Photo Tutorial: Lemon Cake Layers

To make the lemon cake layers, start by preparing 3 x 6-inch tins, brushing them all over with DIY cake release and adding circles of greaseproof paper to the bottoms. Preheat the oven to 160°C (conventional setting, not fan-assisted).

I also recommend weighing your empty mixer bowl at this stage: that way, you can weigh the batter super easily later on, so that you can divide it evenly between the three tins.

Place the flour, cornflour, caster sugar, baking powder, baking soda and lemon zest into the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment.

Mix the dry ingredients on low speed until combined (check that the lemon zest is pretty evenly distributed, then you’re good to go).

Add the softened butter to the bowl and continue to mix on low speed until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs (there should be no large lumps of butter remaining).

This coats the flour in the butter, protecting it so that, when you need to beat the mixture later, the gluten in the flour won’t develop as much, so you can get a super fluffy cake without that tough, over-mixed texture.

While the butter is incorporating into the dry ingredients, whisk together the milk, sunflower oil, eggs and lemon juice in a large jug until evenly combined.

Pour the milk mixture into the bowl of the mixer, still running on low, in a slow, steady stream until it has all been added.

Turn the mixer speed up to medium and beat the batter until it is light, fluffy and smooth: about 30-60 seconds.

Divide the batter between the prepared tins. To do this evenly, weigh the batter as a whole (making sure to subtract the weight of the mixing bowl that you measured earlier!), divide that value by 3, then fill each tin with that amount of batter (it should be roughly 375g per tin, but it’s best to weigh the batter yourself to ensure perfectly even layers!).

Smooth the tops of the cakes, then bake them, all on the middle shelf, in the preheated oven for 45-50 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre of each cake comes out clean.

Allow the cakes to cool completely in their tins before (carefully) running a palette knife around the edge of the tin, levelling the cakes (using a large, serrated palette knife) and turning out onto wire racks.

I like to level the cakes in the tins, using the top edge of the tin as a guide, to ensure that all of the cakes are the same height. To do this, hold the palette knife horizontally, flush against the top of the tins. Use a gentle sawing motion to score right around the circumference of the cake, then gently saw back and forth across the whole surface of the cake. This ensures that you get an even, precise cut.

Making the Lemon Buttercream

The final component to make is the lemon buttercream. This is a super basic American-style buttercream, flavoured with lemon juice for a sharp, lemon-y flavour. I wanted this icing to be really smooth and even in appearance, so I opted not to include lemon zest in the buttercream, but, don’t worry, it’s still super lemon-y!

Unlike the previous two cakes, this amount of buttercream is small and manageable enough that you can make it in a single batch (thank goodness!).

Tutorial: Lemon Buttercream

Again, just like with the coffee buttercream, I completely forgot to photograph this stage— I’m so sorry! It is exactly the same process as the chocolate buttercream from the largest tier of the cake though, just minus the cocoa powder and with lemon juice as the primary liquid ingredient, so you can follow along with that tutorial if you would like!

To make the lemon buttercream, place the softened, unsalted butter in the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment.

Beat the butter on medium-high speed, pausing every now and then to scrape down the sides of the bowl, until it is smooth, fluffy and significantly paler in colour: this will take about 3-5 minutes.

While the butter is being whipped, you can sift the icing sugar into a large bowl (you might need to do this part in two batches, if you don’t have a bowl big enough, because icing sugar fluffs up a lot when it is sifted).

When the butter is ready, turn the mixer speed down to low, then add half of the icing sugar, a spoonful at a time. This may sound tedious, but it prevents icing sugar from getting all over you/your kitchen and ensures that the icing mixes evenly, so it is important!

Once you’ve added half of the icing sugar, you can add the lemon juice. With the mixer still running on low, pour in the juice in slow, steady stream, until it has all been added.

Now, you can add the remaining half of the icing sugar, still working a spoonful at a time, until it is all incorporated.

If the icing is looking very stiff at this point, don’t worry. It will be important later that the buttercream has a good amount of structure and hold to it!

Turn the speed up to high and beat the icing until it is light and fluffy.

Transfer a spoonful of the icing to a microwave-safe bowl and heat on the high setting for about 10-15 seconds, until melted. Give this a quick mix, then stir it back into the rest of the icing by hand. This will smooth out the icing and, if the icing has split slightly after the addition of the lemon juice, will bring it back to an even consistency.

Assembling the Lemon Cake

With the lemon curd filling, cake layers and buttercream made and ready, it’s time to assemble! I’ll be sharing a detailed tutorial for how I assembled these layer cakes tomorrow, so be sure to check that out.

To assemble this, particular cake, I used the following equipment:

• 6-inch, circular cake drum.
• 8-inch, square cake board.
• Adhesive paper stickers (I used these, folded in half to make them ‘double-sided’ and easy to cut through with a cake lifter, but any thin, temporary adhesives will work).
• Cake lifter.
• Cake turntable.
• Piping bag and large round piping tip (I used a #1A tip).
• Offset palette knives (I used a 4-inch one for this tier).
• Cake dowels (I used these ones).
• Icing smoother (I used this one by Wilton).
• 8-inch, heavy duty cake box.

Just like the other two tiers, I assembled the lemon cake directly onto a cake drum that was the exact same diameter/shape as the cake itself (and which I had temporarily adhered to a thinner, square cake board, the same size as the cake box I would be transporting the cakes in, to prevent it slipping in transit). I layered up the cakes with buttercream and lemon curd filling, added 4 cake dowels, applied a crumb coat then added a thick, smooth layer of icing all over the cake.

The lemon curd filling does make this cake much less stable than the other two tiers, so do be particularly careful when assembling it, making sure to give it plenty of time to chill in between stages. There’ll be more detailed instructions for this in tomorrow’s post!

Then, the cake was done! I set the cake aside at a cool room temperature until it was time to transport it.

Decorating the Lemon Cake

Just like with the other two cakes, the lemon tier was decorated with a simple arc of pressed, edible violas. On all of the tiers, I used a combination of the ‘Cream‘ and ‘Midnight Blue and Cream‘ colourways from Nurtured in Norfolk.

I added the flowers at the venue, on the morning of the wedding, to ensure they didn’t rehydrate too much and go limp (and so that there was one less thing that could get damaged on the way there!). I just laid the flowers out on top of the cake, in a nice arrangement. Because the buttercream was set and had formed a crust, it was easier to rearrange the flowers until I was completely happy with the layout, before I used a small amount of leftover lemon icing on the blunt end of a skewer to stick each flower down individually.

Recipe

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The Lemon Tier (Wedding Cake Week #3)

The full recipe for the 6-inch, 3-layer lemon cake tier of my brother's wedding cake!

Course Dessert

Cuisine British

Keyword American buttercream, Cake, Cake release, Lemon, Lemon curd

Prep Time 4 hours hours 25 minutes minutes

Cook Time 50 minutes minutes

Chill Time: 1 hour hour 45 minutes minutes

Servings 15 Wedding servings

Equipment

• 3 6-inch, circular cake tins (see Note 1).
• 6-inch, circular cake drum
• 8-inch, square cake board (See Note 2).
• Temporary adhesives (I used paper adhesive stickers)(see Note 2).
• Cake lifter
• 1 piping bag
• #1A piping tip (or similar, large, round nozzle)
• Offset palette knife
• 4 cake dowels
• Icing smoother (see Note 3).

Ingredients

For the lemon curd:

• 1 whole egg + 1 egg yolk
• 150 g white caster sugar (see Note 4).
• 2 lemons, zest and juice.
• 110 g unsalted butter, diced.

For the lemon cake layers:

• 2 batches DIY Cake Release (see Note 5).
• 260 g plain flour
• 20 g cornflour (see Note 6).
• 280 g caster sugar (see Note 7).
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 170 g unsalted butter, diced and softened.
• 180 ml whole milk
• 70 g sunflower oil
• 2 eggs
• 2 lemons (zest of both, juice of 1).

Lemon buttercream:

• 300 g unsalted butter, softened.
• 600 g icing sugar, sifted.
• 2 lemons, juice only.
• Splash of milk, if necessary.

To decorate

• Edible, pressed violas (see Note 8).

Instructions

Make the lemon curd:

• In a small saucepan, whisk together the whole egg, egg yolk, sugar, lemon zest and juice until thoroughly combined.
• Add the butter and place over a medium-low heat. Stir constantly with a heatproof spatula while the butter melts.
• Once the butter has melted, keep the pan over the heat and continue stirring until the curd becomes thick and smooth.
• Remove the curd from the heat, pass through a heatproof, fine mesh sieve then cover the surface of the curd directly with cling film and allow to cool to room temperature before placing into the fridge to chill and thicken up even more (at least 1-2 hours, but can be made a few days in advance).
• This recipe makes more lemon curd than you will need. Any leftovers can be stored in the fridge for 4-5 days.

Make the lemon cake layers:

• Preheat the oven to 160°C (conventional oven, not fan-assisted). Brush each cake tin with a layer of DIY Cake Release and line the base of each with a circle of greaseproof paper. Set aside.
• Place flour, cornflour, caster sugar, baking powder, baking soda and lemon zest into bowl of electric mixer, fitted with paddle attachment. Mix on low speed to combine.
• Add butter and continue to mix on low speed until mixture resembles breadcrumbs and no large pieces of butter remain.
• In the meantime, whisk together the milk, sunflower oil, eggs and lemon juice in a jug.
• With the mixer on low, pour the milk mixture into the batter in a slow, steady stream until it has all been added.
• Turn the mixer speed up to medium and beat the batter until it is light, fluffy and smooth: this will take about 30-60 seconds.
• Divide the batter evenly between the three prepared tins and smooth out the tops, then bake in the preheated oven for 45-50 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre of each cake comes out clean.
• Allow the cakes to cool in the tins completely, then carefully run a palette knife around the edges to loosen them. Level the cakes, then turn them out onto wire racks.

Make the lemon buttercream:

• Fit mixer with paddle attachment. Beat butter until smooth, pale and creamy (about 3-5 mins), scraping down the sides when necessary.
• With mixer on low, add half of the icing sugar to the butter, a spoonful at a time, pausing to scrape down the sides of the bowl as you go.
• With mixer still on low, pour lemon juice into buttercream in a slow, steady stream.
• Add the rest of the icing sugar with the mixer still running, a spoonful at a time. 
• Once everything has been added, turn the mixer up to high and beat until fluffy and fully mixed (about 1 minute). Don't worry if the icing is quite stiff at this stage— it needs to be.
• Remove a spoonful of icing and microwave on high for 10-15 seconds to melt. Stir to ensure evenly melted, then mix into the rest of the icing by hand to smooth it out and return the icing to an even consistency if it has split a little from the lemon juice.

Assemble the cake:

• Secure the 6-inch cake drum to the 8-inch cake board (if using), using paper adhesive stickers (or other similar, temporary adhesive). Set on a turntable, with a layer of non-slip fabric in-between the turntable and the boards.
• Spread a dollop of icing onto the cake drum, then set the first, cooled cake layer on top, making sure it is level and centred on the drum. It should line up with the sides of the drum.
• Pipe an even layer of lemon buttercream all over the surface of the cake layer, making sure to go right to the edges. Use an offset palette knife to spread the icing out evenly, ensuring there is some overhanging icing at the edges.
• Pipe another circle of buttercream on top of that layer, just around the circumference of the circle. This will act as a buttercream 'dam' to keep the lemon curd filling contained.
• Spread a thin layer of lemon curd on top of the buttercream, making sure not to go over the edges of the buttercream 'dam'.
• Place the next layer of cake on top, making sure it is centred and level, then smooth off the excess icing around the sides and place the cake into the fridge to chill for 15 minutes before repeating the process all over again with the buttercream, curd and final cake layer. Place the whole cake back into the fridge for a further 15 minutes.
• Add 4 cake dowels, if using. Add a splash of milk to the buttercream to thin it out slightly, then use to apply a thin crumb coat all over the top and sides of the cake. Place back into the fridge to chill for a final 15 minutes.
• Apply a generous layer of icing all over the top and sides of the cake. At this stage, cover the sides of the cake drum with icing too. Smooth out the top, making sure to leave some overhanging icing all around the top edge, then use the icing smoother to smooth out the sides, moving the turntable, rather than the smoother for best results. The overhanging icing should be pushed upwards and inwards during this process, forming a nice 'lip' around the top of the cake.
• If needed, apply more icing to any uneven sections and smooth again.
• Once happy with the finished cake, set aside at cool room temperature to firm up, until ready to eat/transport.

Decorating the cake with pressed flowers:

• As close to serving as possible, lay the pressed flowers onto the surface of the cake (on which the buttercream is now hardened), making sure you are happy with the arrangement before sticking them down. Use a small amount of icing on the end of skewer to stick down each flower individually.

Notes

Notes:

1. I use the 6-inch sandwich tins from Silverwood.
2. You can skip the extra board/adhesive if you don’t need to transport the cake— these just make it easier to manoeuvre the cake without worrying about it slipping/sliding.
3. If you want smooth sides on a cake, you really do need to invest in an icing smoother. I use this one by Wilton.
4. I like to use white caster sugar (not golden caster sugar) for this lemon curd, to ensure that it has a really bright, yellow colour, but either will work.
5. This cake does tend to stick to the sides of the tin a little, so I recommend using my DIY Cake Release recipe to help it release cleanly. 
6. Cornflour gives this cake a slightly more tender, soft crumb. If you don’t have cornflour, feel free to use an additional 20g of flour instead.
7. For the cake, I do use golden caster sugar, but white caster sugar would work too.
8. I purchased the violas from Nurtured in Norfolk. On this cake, I used the colourways ‘Cream’ and ‘Midnight Blue & Cream‘.

 

Curd recipe developed from ‘Gran’s Kitchen‘ cookbook by Natalie Oldfield.

Cake recipe developed from ‘Homemade French Fancies‘ recipe from My Baking Madness.

In this series, I’m sharing a behind-the-scenes look at the process of making my brother’s wedding cake, including the recipes I developed, the issues I encountered and all the things I learned.

If you missed Day 1, you can check out my post on the Chocolate Tier here! Today, though, it’s all about the Coffee Tier.

Let’s get into it, shall we?

Table of Contents

• A Bit of Recipe Backstory
• Making the Cake Layers
  • Photo Tutorial: Coffee Cake Layers
• Making the Coffee Buttercream
  • Tutorial: Coffee Buttercream
• Assembling the Coffee Cake
• Decorating the Coffee Cake
• Recipe

A Bit of Recipe Backstory

As you’ll have seen in the intro post to this series, I will be doing a whole post on how I went about developing these recipes, but, like I did with the chocolate tier, I wanted to share a little bit of coffee-specific backstory here too!

For this recipe, I used the Coffee Layer Cake recipe by Sugar and Sparrow as my starting point. I made a number of initial changes to the recipe, based on what I wanted for this coffee cake specifically, then made my first test and… it was pretty much exactly what I wanted it to be! I never expect the first try to be right, especially after I made so many changes to the starting recipe, and, particularly after the chocolate cake drama, this felt like an absolute miracle!

The problem with this one came when I tried to scale it up… I just couldn’t get the bake time/temperature right and, somehow, the flavour seemed to be affected by those problems too! It was no longer the perfect coffee cake, so, as I attempted to nail down the baking instructions I also had to embark upon a little bit more trial and error to get the really intense, not-too-sweet coffee flavour with the perfect, soft and moist texture that I really wanted.

A few more iterations later and I was finally happy: the coffee cake was ready to go!

Making the Cake Layers

For the 8-inch coffee cake (unlike the 10-inch chocolate cake), I was able to fit two layers at a time in my oven (though, sadly, not all three). As a result, I made and baked the batter for two of the layers at once, then made and baked the batter for the final, single layer afterwards.

In fact, I actually made the first two layers the day before the final layer (on the Wednesday, the same day I made the chocolate cake). To keep them from drying out overnight, I wrapped each layer individually in clingfilm, only unwrapping them when the final layer was baked and cooled, and I was ready to assemble the coffee tier.

Photo Tutorial: Coffee Cake Layers

The process of the making the coffee cake batter is the same, no matter how many layers you are making at once (1, 2 or, if you have a large oven, 3): the only thing that changes is the ingredient quantities.

Preheat your oven to 150°C (conventional oven, not fan-assisted). Grease the 8-inch sandwich tin(s) with Stork (or softened butter, if you prefer) and line the base with a circle of greaseproof paper. Set aside while you make the batter.

Add the brewed espresso to a large measuring jug.

Top up with boiling water (to 100ml for 1 layer, to 200ml for 2 layers or to 300ml for 3 layers), then add the instant coffee granules and whisk to dissolve.

I found that using this combination of coffee types gave the best flavour and colour to the cakes, but you can use one or the other, if you prefer. For the brewed espresso, I used these Ristretto Decaffeinato capsules from Nespresso.

Add the milk, sour cream and vanilla extract and whisk again.

Allow the mixture to cool slightly, then add the eggs. Whisk until completely incorporated, then set aside.

Sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Set aside.

Place the Stork, caster sugar and light brown muscovado sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment.

Cream the Stork and sugars together on medium-high speed, until well combined and pretty fluffy (there’s such a high proportion of sugar in this recipe that the mixture won’t be as pale and fluffy as you might normally expect, so just beat it until evenly combined and looking creamy).

Turn the mixer down to medium-low and gradually add 1/3 of the dry ingredients. Mix until just incorporated.

Gradually add 1/2 of the wet ingredients, still mixing on medium-low.

Repeat this process, adding another 1/3 of the dry ingredients, then the remaining wet ingredients, then, finally, the last 1/3 of the dry ingredients, making sure to incorporate everything after each addition.

Turn the mixer up to medium and give it a final, brief mix, just to ensure everything is incorporated and mixed together.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared tin(s) (I find it helpful to divide it by weight, if baking more than one layer at a time) and bake in the preheated oven for 60-65 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean.

Allow the cake(s) to cool in the tin (until they feel cool to the touch), then run a palette knife around the edges of the tin to loosen them. Level the top(s) using a large, serrated palette knife (see the Chocolate Tier post for more detailed instructions on this), then turn out onto a wire rack, in case any traces of heat remain on the underside, to cool fully.

If baking in batches, repeat the whole process again, with the necessary quantities, until you have 3 baked, cooled and levelled coffee cake layers.

Making the Coffee Buttercream

Once your cakes are cooled and ready to go, you can make the coffee buttercream. Again, just like with the chocolate cake, this cake requires a fairly large amount of buttercream, so I’d recommend making the icing in two separate batches.

As I mentioned in the last post, I prefer to soften my butter in the microwave (blasphemous, I know!), rather than leave it at room temperature, because my house does tend to be quite cold. For such a large amount of butter, I weigh it out first, then heat it in the microwave on the medium setting for about 30 seconds, so that it’s soft enough for me to press my finger into relatively easily.

Tutorial: Coffee Buttercream

I’ll be honest, I did forget to take photos of the majority of this process— so sorry! Luckily, it’s super similar to the chocolate buttercream in the last post (just without the cocoa powder), so you can follow the full photo tutorial there!

To make the coffee buttercream:

Heat the milk in the microwave, just until it is warm enough to easily dissolve the coffee granules in (20 seconds on the high setting should be absolutely fine). Stir in the coffee granules and set aside to cool slightly.

Place the softened butter into the bowl of an electric stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on high speed, pausing every now and then to scrape down the sides of the bowl, until the butter is smooth, significantly paler in colour and super fluffy.

While the butter is being whipped, sift the icing sugar into a large bowl.

Once the butter is ready, turn the mixer speed down to low and add half of the icing sugar, a spoonful at a time, to the butter. Doing it slowly like this may feel tedious, but it will help to stop the icing sugar from getting everywhere and ensure that the icing is thoroughly mixed, so it is important!

After you have added half of the icing sugar, with the mixer still on low, gradually add in all of the coffee-infused milk.

Add the remaining icing sugar in exactly the same way as before, a spoonful at a time, until all of the sugar has been incorporated. If the icing seems too stiff at this point, add another splash or two of milk.

Turn the mixer up to high speed and beat the icing for a minute or so, just to get it super fluffy and ensure everything is nicely mixed.

Then, remove the bowl from the mixer and transfer a generous amount of the icing (about 2 dessertspoon’s worth) to a small, microwaveable bowl.

Melt the smaller amount of icing in the microwave (the high setting for 10-15 seconds will be plenty), until smooth and fluid, then add back to the main bowl of icing and stir in by hand, using a large spatula.

This process may seem a little strange, but it really does help to smooth out the icing, while still allowing it to retain all of the fluffiness we whipped into it!

Assembling the Coffee Cake

With the cake layers and buttercream made and ready, it’s time to assemble! I’ll be sharing a detailed tutorial for how I assembled these layer cakes on Thursday, so be sure to check that out!

To assemble this, particular cake, I used the following equipment:

• 8-inch, circular cake drum.
• 10-inch, square cake board.
• Adhesive paper stickers (I used these, folded in half to make them ‘double-sided’ and easy to cut through with a cake lifter, but any thin, temporary adhesives will work).
• Cake lifter.
• Cake turntable.
• Piping bag and large round piping tip (I used a #1A tip).
• Offset palette knives (I used an 8-inch AND a 4-inch one, but you could get away with just one or the other).
• Cake dowels (I used these ones).
• Icing smoother (I used this one by Wilton).
• 10-inch, heavy duty cake box.

Just like the chocolate tier, I assembled the coffee cake directly onto a cake drum that was the exact same diameter/shape as the cake itself (and which I had temporarily adhered to a thinner, square cake board, the same size as the cake box I would be transporting the cake in, to prevent the cake from slipping in transit). I sandwiched up the cake layers with two thick layers of buttercream in between, added 4 cake dowels, applied a crumb coat then added a thick, smooth layer of icing all over the cake.

Then, the cake was done! I set the cake aside at room temperature until it was time to transport it.

Decorating the Coffee Cake

As I mentioned in the last post, the decoration on these cakes was very minimal. All three cakes were topped with a little arc of pressed, edible violas from Nurtured in Norfolk (you can find the tutorial for that in the last post!).

However, the coffee cake tier was going to sit in the centre of the deconstructed cake display, so it had a little extra bit of decoration, in the form of the gingerbread bride and groom ‘figurines’, which were my little nod to my brother’s sometimes-ginger hair and a fun, foodie play on the traditional wedding cake toppers.

I’ll be giving a full recipe/tutorial for the gingerbread bride and groom (and how to fix them to the top of the cake!) on Friday, so stay tuned for that! In the meantime, just know that they exist and that this coffee cake was their home for the evening!

Recipe

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The Coffee Tier (Wedding Cake Week)

The full recipe for the 8-inch, 3-layer coffee cake tier of my brother's wedding cake!

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword American buttercream, Coffee, Espresso, Wedding cake

Prep Time 4 hours hours

Cook Time 2 hours hours 10 minutes minutes

Chill Time 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 6 hours hours 26 minutes minutes

Servings 36 wedding portions

Equipment

• 3 8-inch round sandwich tins (see Note 1)
• 1 piping bag
• #1A piping tip (or similar, large, round nozzle).
• 8-inch round cake drum
• 10-inch square cake board (see Note 2).
• Temporary adhesives (I used paper adhesive stickers, see Note 2).
• Cake lifter
• Offset palette knife
• 4 cake dowels
• Icing smoother (see Note 3).

Ingredients

For the coffee cake layers (quantities for 1 layer in italics, quantities for 2 layers in bold):

• 180 ml brewed espresso (60ml, 120ml) (see Note 4).
• 120 ml boiling water (40ml, 80ml) (see Note 4).
• 3 tsp instant coffee granules (caffeinated) (1 tsp, 2 tsp).
• 180 ml whole milk (60ml, 120ml).
• 240 g sour cream (80g, 160g).
• 3 splashes vanilla extract (1 splash, 2 splashes).
• 6 eggs (2 eggs, 4 eggs).
• 570 g self-raising flour (190g, 380g).
• 3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda (1/4 tsp, 1/2 tsp).
• 3 pinches fine sea salt (1 pinch, 2 pinches).
• 330 g Stork baking spread (110g, 220g), plus extra for greasing (see Note 5).
• 420 g caster sugar (140g, 280g).
• 120 g light brown muscovado sugar (40g, 80g).

For the coffee buttercream (half quantities in bold italics):

• 500 g unsalted butter, softened (250g).
• 1 kg icing sugar, sifted (500g).
• 70 ml whole milk (35ml).
• 4 tsp instant coffee granules (caffeinated) (2 tsp).

To decorate:

• Pressed, edible violas (see Note 6).
• Gingerbread toppers

Instructions

Make the coffee cake layers:

• If you have 3 x 8-inch tins (and your oven is big enough to fit all three tins on one shelf), you can make the whole amount of batter at once and bake the 3 layers simultaneously. Alternatively, you can bake the layers one at a time (using the single layer quantities listed in italics in the ingredients list), or bake two layers at once (using the 2 layer quantities listed in bold), then make the final layer individually (which is what worked best for me).
• Preheat the oven to 150°C (conventional oven, not fan-assisted). Grease the baking tin(s) with Stork and line the base(s) with a circle of greaseproof paper. Set aside.
• Place the brewed espresso, boiling water and instant coffee granules in a large measuring jug. Stir to dissolve.
• Add the milk, sour cream and vanilla extract and whisk until smooth. Allow to cool slightly, then add the eggs and whisk again until fully incorporated. Set aside.
• Sift together flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Set aside.
• Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream Stork, caster sugar and light brown muscovado sugar together on high speed until well-combined and fluffy.
• With mixer on medium-low, gradually add 1/3 of the dry ingredients. Continue mixing until just incorporated.
• With mixer still on medium-low, gradually add 1/2 of wet ingredients. Continue mixing until just incorporated.
• Repeat this process with the next 1/3 of the dry ingredients, followed by the remaining 1/2 of the wet ingredients and finishing with the final 1/3 of the dry ingredients.
• Turn the mixer speed up to medium and mix briefly to ensure everything is incorporated and batter is smooth.
• Divide the batter between the prepared tin(s) and bake in preheated oven for 60-65 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
• Allow the cakes to cool completely in the tins, then carefully run a palette knife around the edges to loosen them. Use a large, serrated palette knife to level the tops of the cakes while still in the tins, then carefully turn out onto wire racks.

Make the coffee buttercream:

• I recommend making the buttercream in two batches, using the half quantities listed in (bold italics) in the ingredients list.
• Fit mixer with paddle attachment. Beat butter until smooth, pale and creamy (about 3-5 mins), scraping down the sides when necessary.
• While the butter is beating, warm the milk in the microwave (20 seconds on high), then add the coffee granules and stir to dissolve.
• With mixer on low, add half of the icing sugar to the butter, a spoonful at a time, pausing to scrape down the sides of the bowl as you go.
• With mixer on low, gradually pour milk mixture into buttercream and mix until incorporated.
• Add the rest of the icing sugar with the mixer still running, a spoonful at a time. 
• Once everything has been added, turn the mixer up to high and beat until fluffy and fully mixed (about 1 minute). Add a little more milk if icing is too stiff.
• Remove a spoonful of icing and microwave on high for 10-15 seconds to melt. Stir to ensure evenly melted, then mix into the rest of the icing by hand to smooth.

Assemble the cake:

• Secure the 8-inch cake drum to the 10-inch cake board (if using), using paper adhesive stickers (or other similar, temporary adhesive). Set on a turntable, with a layer of non-slip fabric in-between the turntable and the boards.
• Spread a dollop of buttercream onto the cake drum, then set the first, cooled cake layer on top, making sure it is level and centred on the drum. It should line up with the sides of the drum.
• Pipe an even layer of coffee buttercream all over the surface of the cake layer, making sure to go right to the edges. Use an offset palette knife to spread the icing out evenly, ensuring there is some overhanging icing at the edges.
• Place the next layer of cake on top, making sure it is centred and level. Repeat the icing process, adding another even layer of icing on top, then topping with the final layer of cake.
• Smooth the excess icing around the sides with a palette knife/icing smoother, then chill in the fridge for 15 minutes.
• Add 4 cake dowels, if using.
• Apply a thin crumb coat, then chill again for 15 minutes.
• Apply a generous layer of icing all over the top and sides of the cake. At this stage, cover the sides of the cake drum with icing too. Smooth out the top, making sure to leave some overhanging icing all around the top edge, then use the icing smoother to smooth out the sides, moving the turntable, rather than the smoother, for best results. The overhanging icing should be pushed upwards and inwards during this process, forming a nice 'lip' around the top of the cake.
• If needed, apply more icing to any uneven sections and smooth again.
• Once happy with the finished cake, set aside at cool room temperature to firm up, until ready to eat/transport.

Decorate the cake:

• As close to serving as possible, lay the pressed flowers onto the surface of the cake (on which the buttercream is now hardened), making sure you are happy with the arrangement before sticking them down. Use a small amount of icing on the end of skewer to stick down each flower individually, then press the gingerbread cake toppers into the top, making sure they are centred.

Notes

Notes:

1. I use these 8-inch sandwich tins by Silverwood. If you only have one, that’s absolutely fine— just make and bake each layer individually using the single layer quantities listed in (italics) in the ingredients list. If you have two, you can make two layers at once (using the quantities listed in (bold) in the ingredients list), then bake the final layer using the single layer quantities. I did it this way, because my oven can’t fit 3 8-inch layers on the same shelf at once.
2. You can skip the extra cake board/adhesive if you don’t need to transport the cake— these just make it easier to manoeuvre the cake without worrying about it slipping/sliding.
3. If you want smooth sides on a cake, you really do need to invest in an icing smoother. I use this one by Wilton.
4. This roughly equates to 3 lungo settings on a Nespresso machine, so feel free to use that too (I used 3x Ristretto Decaffeinato on the lungo setting directly into a measuring jug, then made up the difference to 300ml (100ml, 200ml) with boiling water. If you prefer, you can omit the espresso, double the amount of instant coffee granules and use all boiling water, but the coffee flavour won’t be as strong.
5. Using Stork makes this cake extra light, fluffy and moist, but you can use softened, unsalted butter if you prefer.
6. I purchased the violas from Nurtured in Norfolk. On this cake, I used the colourways ‘Cream’ and ‘Midnight Blue & Cream‘.

 

Cake batter recipe developed using the Coffee Layer Cake recipe by Sugar and Sparrow as a starting point.

If you missed yesterday’s post, I made the cake for my brother’s wedding last month and, over the next week, I’ll be sharing all of the recipes that I developed for it (as well as some fun, behind-the-scenes content too)!

Today, we’re starting with the largest tier of the cake itself: the Chocolate Tier. This 10-inch tier was made up of three layers of a deep, rich chocolate sponge and copious amounts of chocolate-y, American-style buttercream. This was a super popular tier at the wedding (which is good, because there was a lot of it!), so I’m really excited to share the recipe with you!

Table of Contents

• A Bit of Recipe Backstory
• Making the Cake Layers
  • Photo Tutorial: Chocolate Cake Layers
• Making the Chocolate Buttercream
  • Photo Tutorial: Chocolate Buttercream
• Assembling the Chocolate Cake
• Decorating the Chocolate Cake
• Scaling Down the Recipe
• Recipe

A Bit of Recipe Backstory

As you’ll have seen in the intro post to this series, I’ll be sharing a whole post on how I went about developing these recipes on Saturday, but I did want to share a little bit of chocolate cake-specific backstory here too!

I started out with a recipe that I had used in the past, which vaguely resembled the style of chocolate cake I wanted for this. However, when I made that, it just… wasn’t good, like, at all? The bake was bad and the flavour was significantly un-chocolate-y. It was… a bad start (to say the least!) and it did throw me a little bit, but it also made me more determined to get this cake right.

A few iterations later, after trying a plethora of adaptations to inject some more chocolate flavour into that sad, sad sponge, I decided to go back to square one and do some more research into different recipes.

In the end, I started working from the chocolate cake recipe in the Crumbs & Doilies Cookbook (which was, coincidentally enough, bought for me as a present by my new sister-in-law: a fun, full-circle moment that I have only just realised!).

Using that recipe as my starting point, I tweaked and changed and basically pretended I was a mad chocolate cake scientist, until I had (what was, by that point, essentially a brand new), ultimate chocolate cake recipe. Also, I discovered that good-quality cocoa powder actually does make a difference (who knew?), so I decided to splurge and use fancy, Valrhona cocoa for this cake for the best, richest chocolate flavour (I mean, if you can’t go all out for a wedding, when can you?)!

It was, if I do say myself, perfect.

And, as a bonus, it was incredibly easy to make!

Making the Cake Layers

Once I had my recipe nailed down, (multiple) practices made and fancy cocoa powder obtained, it was time to make the final cake. The chocolate cake was the moistest (so sorry for the use of that uncomfortable word— but it was!) of the three sponges and I actually felt that it improved with age, so I decided to make it first.

For reference, the wedding took place on a Saturday and I made the whole chocolate cake (layers, assembly, and final icing) on the Wednesday.

If you’re making the cake ahead, you do need to cover the whole thing in icing as soon as you’ve assembled it, because any cake that is exposed to the air will start to dry out (not the vibe). If you want to make the cake layers the day before you ice it, you can, but I would recommend wrapping each cooled layer individually in clingfilm to protect it from the air overnight.

I only had one 10-inch tin (and I could only fit one 10-inch tin at a time in my oven!), so I baked each layer separately. Cake batter doesn’t like to be left sitting around for too long before it is baked (and these cakes take a good while to bake), so I made the batter for each individual cake separately too. Honestly, this batter is so easy to make that it wasn’t that labour-intensive, just a little repetitive! While a bit of a faff, doing it this way was quite handy because it did ensure that all of my cake layers were exactly the same size, which made the finished cake feel very perfect.

Photo Tutorial: Chocolate Cake Layers

After a whole load of waffle then, we finally get to the recipe! Here’s how you make the cake layers for the chocolate cake tier…

Start by greasing a 10-inch sandwich tin with softened butter. Line the base of the tin with a circle of greaseproof paper, then set aside. Preheat the oven to 165°C (conventional setting, not fan-assisted).

Dissolve the instant coffee granules in the boiling water.

Add the cocoa powder and whisk until the mixture is smooth. The hot water will bloom the cocoa and helps make the cake taste extra chocolate-y.

Gradually add the diced, salted butter to the hot cocoa mixture, stirring each addition in until it has melted before adding more. Keep going until all of the butter has been added and everything is melted and smooth.

Next, add the buttermilk, oil and vanilla extract. Whisk again to incorporate.

By this point, the hot mixture will have cooled down to room temperature (the addition of all those cool ingredients really speeds this along), so you can add the egg without risk of scrambling! Add the egg and whisk one final time until you have a homogenous, chocolate-y mixture. As delicious as it looks, you shouldn’t eat this (if not for the raw egg, for the fact that there’s no sugar in it at this stage, so it will definitely not taste as good as it looks!).

Sift the flour, sugar (here it is!) and bicarbonate of soda together into a large bowl. Whisk briefly to combine everything.

Pour the wet ingredients (i.e. the forbidden chocolate mixture) into the dry ingredients, whisking as you go, until all of the chocolate mixture has been added and you have a smooth, liquid batter.

Use a spatula to stir through the batter one final time, just to make sure that there are no lumps of flour. If there are any lumps, they will bake into the cake as little flour-y pockets, which is not the vibe, so don’t skip this step!

Once you’re happy with the batter, pour it into the prepared tin. The tin will be quite full, but it shouldn’t overflow in the oven (though, if you want, feel free to place the tin on a cold baking tray on the oven shelf, just in case).

At this point, give the filled tin a few taps on the work surface, just to get rid of any large air bubbles. I don’t usually condone this with cakes, but this particular recipe does seem to end up with some large crater-ish holes if you don’t do this!

Bake the layer in the preheated oven for 55-60 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean, or with just a few moist crumbs.

Leave the cake to cool in the tin completely, then use a large, serrated palette knife to level off the cake, using the rim of the baking tin as a guide. It’s easier to cut a cooler cake, so don’t do this while it is still hot from the oven. I like to do it this way because it ensures that all of the cake layers are the same height, but you can level the cakes using your favourite method.

If you are using the tin method, I recommend keeping the flat of the palette knife pressed gently against the top of the tin as you gently ‘saw’ your way around the whole circumference of the cake before carefully sawing back and forth right across the surface. This will make it easier to cut through the crust of the cake and get a neat, even finish.

Once levelled, turn the cake out onto a wire rack (the cake is so large that there might still be a bit of warmth in the centre of the underside and you don’t want it to sweat if you turn it out onto a solid surface!), making sure to peel off the baking paper circle from the bottom.

Wash out the tin and dry it thoroughly, then repeat the whole process twice more, until you have three, perfectly even, levelled and cooled, chocolate cake layers.

Making the Chocolate Buttercream

Once the cakes are baked and cooled completely, you can make the buttercream. This is a super easy buttercream to make: it really is just a basic, American-style, chocolate buttercream, with the chocolate-y flavour turned up a notch through some extra little additions (and made extra smooth and creamy with a super simple technique!).

You need a lot of buttercream for this cake! I recommend making it in (at least) 2 separate batches (unless you’re using an industrial-sized stand mixer, which, who is?), just to make things easier on yourself.

You’re always supposed to use ‘room temperature’ butter for icing, but I must confess, I always microwave it gently to ‘soften’ it instead. My house isn’t the warmest, so ‘room temperature’ for me isn’t really warm enough!

To soften the butter (and this is specifically for a large amount of butter like this), weigh it out beforehand, then place the whole block in a heatproof bowl in the microwave and warm it for about 30 seconds on the medium heat setting. You should be able to press your finger into the surface quite easily (and, if it’s slightly over-softened, don’t worry: the beating stage will bring it back to a smooth and cohesive consistency!).

Photo Tutorial: Chocolate Buttercream

Now to make the chocolate buttercream!

Fit an electric stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Add the softened butter and beat on medium-high speed until smooth, significantly paler in colour and super creamy, pausing every now and then to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

This will take about 3-5 minutes— you can’t really over-mix it at this stage, so I like to just leave the mixer running while I prepare the other ingredients.

While the butter is mixing, sift the icing sugar and cocoa powder together to remove any lumps. I also like to give these dry ingredients a little whisk at this stage, just to ensure that they are nicely combined, so that the cocoa flavour/colour distributes evenly throughout the icing later on.

Warm the milk gently, just enough so that you can dissolve the instant coffee granules in it (I gave it about 20 seconds, on the high setting, in the microwave).

By this point, the butter should be looking super light and silky, so you can get on with the buttercream. Turn the mixer down to low, then start adding the icing sugar/cocoa powder mixture, a spoonful at a time, until you’ve incorporated about half of it. This may sound tedious, but it’s just to protect you and your kitchen from an icing sugar mushroom cloud! It also helps to ensure that the icing is completely combined, with no sneaky patches of unincorporated ingredients.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, then turn the mixer back to low and add all of the milk/coffee mixture, as well as the vanilla extract.

With the mixer still on low, add the remaining icing sugar mixture, still going a spoonful at a time.

Once everything has been incorporated, scrape down the sides of the bowl again, then turn the mixer back up to high and beat the icing for about 1 minute, until fluffy and well-mixed.

Take a generous amount of the icing (about 2-3 dessertspoon’s worth) and put it into a small, microwavable bowl.

Melt this in the microwave (on high heat, this will only take about 10-15 seconds), until it is super runny.

Give this a quick stir, then use a spatula to mix it back into the rest of the icing by hand.

This sounds like a weird step, but it really does help to smooth out the icing (which is particularly important if, like I was, you’re aiming for smooth sides on your cakes!). Additionally, it also helps to bloom the cocoa powder a little, which darkens up the icing and intensifies the chocolate flavour (it’s a win-win!).

If you’ve split the icing into two batches, you will need to repeat the whole process again once you’ve used up the first lot. The first half will be enough to fill the cake, but there won’t be quite enough to finish the crumb coat, so you’ll need to make the second batch before moving onto that stage.

Assembling the Chocolate Cake

With the cake layers and buttercream made and ready, it’s time to assemble! I’ll be sharing a detailed tutorial for how I assembled these layer cakes on Thursday, so be sure to check that out then!

To assemble this, particular cake, I used the following equipment:

• Cake lifter.
• Cake turntable.
• Piping bag and large round piping tip (I used a #1A tip).
• Offset palette knives (I used an 8-inch AND a 4-inch one, but you could get away with just one or the other).
• Cake dowels (I used these ones).
• Icing smoother (I used this one by Wilton).

Because I knew I would need to transport this cake to the venue, I assembled it directly I onto a cake drum (a thick cake board that could withstand the weight of the cake), which was the exact same size/shape as the cake. This meant that I could move the cake around more easily.

To keep the cake from sliding about in the transport box in transit, I temporarily adhered the cake drum to a thinner, square cake board that fit exactly into the box. When I arrived at the venue, I just slid my cake lifter (though you could also use a palette knife) between the boards, cutting through the adhesives in the process and separating them.

If you want to do this too, you’ll also need the following equipment:

• 10-inch, circular cake drum (the same size/shape as the cake layers).
• 12-inch, square cake board (the same size/shape as the cake box I planned to transport the cake in).
• Adhesive paper stickers (I used these, folded in half to make them ‘double-sided’ and easy to cut through with a cake lifter, but any thin, temporary adhesives will work).
• 12-inch, heavy duty cake box.

To assemble the cake, I spread a thick layer of chocolate buttercream in between the cake layers, added 4 cake dowels (for extra stability), applied a crumb coat and, finally, added a smooth layer of buttercream all over the top and sides of the cake (including the cake drum, for a clean, seamless look). As I mentioned, a detailed tutorial for this will be coming on Thursday, so keep an eye out for that!

Then, the cake was done! I set the cake aside at a cool room temperature until it was time to transport it. As I mentioned, I made this cake on the Wednesday, transported it on the Friday, then set it up at the venue on the Saturday (the day of the wedding!), so it can definitely be made in advance.

Decorating the Chocolate Cake

My brother and sister-in-law wanted very little in terms of decoration on the cake: aside from the gingerbread toppers on the coffee tier, the only extra adornment on each cake was a little arc of dried & pressed edible violas on the top. I used these ones, from Nurtured in Norfolk (in the shades: ‘Cream’ and ‘Midnight Blue and Cream’).

I didn’t want the violas to re-hydrate too much and look limp and sad, so I opted to put them on the cake at the venue, on the morning of the wedding. Once I had manoeuvred the tier onto the cake stand, I laid the flowers out on top of the hardened icing. This was actually really handy, as it meant that I could rearrange them if needed, before committing to sticking them down.

Once I was happy with the layout, I used some extra chocolate buttercream on the end of a skewer to attach each flower individually to the cake. I brought the icing to the venue in a piping bag, sealed using food bag clips back on Wednesday, when I made it, which worked really well. It did, however, need a little bit of warming up between my hands to bring it back to buttercream consistency!

Scaling Down the Recipe

This is a big cake: the biggest one I’ve ever made! If you’re not making it for a wedding/other event, you probably won’t need to make one this big. On the bright side, it’s quite an adaptable batter and icing, so you can easily scale the recipe down!

For reference, for 1 x 6-inch, round cake layer, the batter ingredient quantities are as follows:

• 3/4 tsp instant coffee granules
• 75ml boiling water
• 25g cocoa powder
• 35g salted butter
• 75g buttermilk
• 30g oil
• 1 egg
• 1 splash vanilla extract
• 100g plain flour
• 115g caster sugar
• 1/3 tsp bicarbonate of soda

For this size cake, you can bake it at a slightly higher temperature (170°C), for 45-50 minutes, or, again, until a skewer comes out clean.

To make enough icing to frost the top and sides of this single, smaller cake layer, use the following quantities:

• 55g unsalted butter
• 105g icing sugar
• 10g cocoa powder
• 2 tsp milk
• 1 generous pinch instant coffee granules
• 1 splash vanilla extract

If you want to make a multi-layered 6-inch cake, simply multiply both the batter and icing ingredients by the number of tiers you want.

Recipe

Print

The Chocolate Tier (Wedding Cake Week)

The full recipe for the 10-inch, 3-layer chocolate cake tier of my brother's wedding cake!

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword American buttercream, Chocolate, Chocolate cake, Wedding cake

Prep Time 4 hours hours

Cook Time 3 hours hours

Chill time 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 7 hours hours 30 minutes minutes

Servings 57 wedding portions

Equipment

• 10-inch, circular cake tin (see Note 1).
• 1 piping bag
• #1A piping tip (or similar, large, round nozzle).
• 10-inch, circular cake drum
• 12-inch, square cake board (see Note 2).
• Temporary adhesives (I used paper adhesive stickers) (see Note 2).
• Cake lifter
• 4 cake dowels
• Icing smoother (see Note 3).
• Offset palette knife

Ingredients

For the 3 cake layers (quantities for 1 layer in italics):

• 2 tbsp + 3/4 tsp instant coffee granules, decaf (2 1/4 tsp).
• 675 ml boiling water (225ml).
• 225 g Valrhona cocoa powder (75g) (see Note 4).
• 315 g salted butter, diced (105g), plus extra for greasing (see Note 5).
• 900 g plain flour (300g).
• 1035 g golden caster sugar (345g).
• 3 tsp bicarbonate of soda (1 tsp).
• 675 g buttermilk (225g).
• 270 g sunflower oil (90g).
• 3 splashes vanilla extract (1 splash).
• 9 eggs (3).

For the chocolate buttercream (quantities for half batch in italics):

• 600 g unsalted butter, softened (300g).
• 1200 g icing sugar, sifted (600g).
• 110 g Valrhona cocoa powder (55g) (see Note 4).
• 110 ml whole milk (55ml).
• 1/4 tsp instant coffee granules, decaf (1/8 tsp).
• 2 splashes vanilla extract (1 splash).

To decorate:

• Pressed, edible violas (see Note 6).

Instructions

Make the first cake layer:

• Preheat the oven to 165°C (conventional, not fan-assisted). Grease a 10-inch round sandwich tin with butter and line the base with a circle of greaseproof paper. Set aside.
• Make the batter for one cake layer at a time, using the single layer quantities listed in italics in the ingredients list.
• Place the instant coffee granules (2 1/4 tsp) into a large jug. Cover with the boiling water (225ml), then stir to dissolve. Add the cocoa powder (75g) and whisk until smooth. 
• Gradually add the diced butter (105g) to the hot cocoa mixture, stirring in each addition until all the butter has been added and everything is melted and smooth.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the flour (300g), caster sugar (345g) and bicarbonate of soda (1 tsp) to combine. Set aside.
• Add the buttermilk (225g), oil (90g) and vanilla extract (1 splash) to the cocoa mixture. Whisk until incorporated.
• Add the eggs (3) to the wet ingredients and whisk again until completely incorporated. 
• Pour the cocoa mixture into the dry ingredients and whisk until fully combined and you have a smooth batter. Stir with a spatula to make sure everything has been incorporated.
• Pour the batter into the prepared tin (it will be quite full, but it shouldn’t overflow. Place on a cold baking tray on the oven shelf just in case), then bake in preheated oven for 55-60 minutes, until skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean, or with just a few moist crumbs. 
• Leave baked cake to cool completely in tin, then run a knife around the edge of the the tin to loosen the cake before levelling and flipping out onto a wire rack.

Make the chocolate buttercream:

• I recommend making the buttercream in two separate batches (use the half quantities listed in italics in the ingredients list).
• Fit mixer with paddle attachment. Beat butter (300g) until smooth, pale and creamy (about 3-5 mins), scraping down the sides when necessary.
• While the butter is beating, sift together the icing sugar (600g) and cocoa powder (55g) to remove any lumps. Whisk to ensure evenly combined. Warm the milk (55ml) in the microwave (20 seconds on high), then add the coffee granules (1/8 tsp) and stir to dissolve.
• With mixer on low, add half of the icing sugar mixture to the butter, a spoonful at a time, pausing to scrape down the sides of the bowl as you go.
• With mixer on low, pour milk mixture into buttercream, then add vanilla extract (1 splash) and mix until incorporated.
• Add the rest of the icing sugar with the mixer still running, a spoonful at a time. 
• Once everything has been added, turn the mixer up to high and beat until fluffy and fully mixed (about 1 minute). Add a little more milk if icing is too stiff.
• Remove a spoonful of icing and microwave on high for 10-15 seconds to melt. Stir to ensure evenly melted, then mix into the rest of the icing by hand to smooth and darken (this also helps to bloom the cocoa powder slightly). 

Assemble the cake:

• Secure the 10-inch cake drum to the 12-inch cake board (if using) with paper adhesive stickers (or other similar, temporary adhesive). Set on a turntable, with a layer of non-slip fabric in-between the turntable and the boards.
• Spread a dollop of icing onto the cake drum, then set the first, cooled cake layer on top, making sure it is level and centred on the drum. It should line up with the sides of the drum.
• Place some buttercream into the piping bag, fitted with the large, round nozzle. Pipe an even layer of chocolate icing all over the surface of the cake layer, making sure to go right to the edges. Use an offset palette knife to spread the icing out evenly, ensuring there is some overhanging icing at the edges.
• Place the next layer of cake on top, making sure it is centred and level. Repeat the icing process, adding another even layer of icing on top, then topping with the final layer of cake.
• Smooth the excess icing around the sides with a palette knife/icing smoother, then chill in the fridge for 15 minutes.
• Insert 4 cake dowels, if using.
• Apply a thin crumb coat, then chill again for 15 minutes.
• Apply a generous layer of icing all over the top and sides of the cake. At this stage, cover the sides of the cake drum with icing too. Smooth out the top, making sure to leave some overhanging icing all around the top edge, then use the icing smoother to smooth out the sides, moving the turntable, rather than the smoother, for best results. The overhanging icing should be pushed upwards and inwards during this process, forming a nice 'lip' around the top of the cake.
• If needed, apply more icing to any uneven sections and smooth again.
• Once happy with the finished cake, set aside at cool room temperature to firm up, until ready to eat/transport.

Decorating the cake with pressed flowers:

• As close to serving as possible, lay the pressed flowers onto the surface of the cake (on which the buttercream has hardened), making sure you are happy with the arrangement before sticking them down. Use a small amount of icing on the end of skewer to stick down each flower individually.

Notes

Notes:

1. I use the Silverwood 10-inch sandwich tin.
2. You can skip the extra board/adhesive if you don’t need to transport the cake— these just make it easier to manoeuvre the cake without worrying about it slipping/sliding.
3. If you want smooth sides on a cake, you really need to invest in an icing smoother.  I use this one by Wilton.
4. The cocoa powder you use makes a huge difference to the taste/chocolatiness of the finished cake, so, if you can afford to, I definitely recommend splashing out on the fancy stuff (I used this one, by Valrhona)!
5. I’ve used salted butter here, because salt really brings out the flavour of the chocolate, but you can use unsalted butter and add some fine sea salt separately, if you prefer.
6. I purchased the violas from Nurtured in Norfolk. On this cake, I used the colourways ‘Cream’ and ‘Midnight Blue & Cream‘.

Cake recipe developed using the End of the World Chocolate Cake recipe from the Crumbs & Doilies cookbook as a starting point. 

Buttercream recipe developed using the Favorite Chocolate Buttercream recipe from Sally’s Baking Addiction as a starting point. 

The Cake

I’d been planning, working on and honing this cake for 21 months (i.e. the entire length of my brother’s engagement) leading up to the wedding. Excessive? Perhaps! But my brother (and my new sister-in-law) are very important to me, so I really wanted to make this cake as amazing as possible for them.

After lots of discussions, we settled on a 3-tier, deconstructed cake, where each tier was a different flavour. My brother picked one flavour (lemon), which would be the smallest tier, my sister-in-law picked another flavour (chocolate), which would be the largest tier and the middle tier (coffee) was a joint decision, based on taste (them) and the potential for an ombré effect, from brown to beige to cream (me).

All of the cake tiers were comprised of 3 cake layers, filled and iced with American-style buttercream (the favourite buttercream of both the bride and groom!). The lemon cake had an additional filling of homemade lemon curd sandwiched in-between the layers, just for some extra zestiness.

In terms of decoration, the cakes were pretty simple, with the top of each tier adorned with only a little arc of pressed, edible violas.

The coffee tier had a little extra decoration in the form of homemade, gingerbread bride and groom figurines.

This worked out pretty well, because I also made the wedding favours, which were little bags of homemade gingerbread men.

Other than those little touches though, the cakes were very minimal!

Wedding Cake Week: Schedule

So, now you know the basics of the cake itself, here’s what you can look forward to over the next week:

Day 1 (Monday 19th May): The Chocolate Tier: Recipe

Day 2 (Tuesday 20th May): The Coffee Tier: Recipe

Day 3 (Wednesday 21st May): The Lemon Tier: Recipe

Day 4 (Thursday 22nd May): Assembling a Layer Cake 101

Day 5 (Friday 23rd May): Gingerbread Figurine Toppers: Recipe + Tutorial

Day 6 (Saturday 24th May): Behind-the-Scenes: Developing the Wedding Cake Recipes

Day 7 (Sunday 25th May): Making a Wedding Cake: Tips, Tricks & Lessons Learned

Anddddd that’s Wedding Cake Week!

I’m SO excited to share this with you: I really put my heart and soul into all of these recipes and I’m super proud of how they all turned out.

So, I’ll see you back here tomorrow?

Gemma

xxx