Yesterday, I shared the recipe for Florrie & Mohit’s main wedding cake: an 8-inch round, 2-layer chocolate cake, filled with a cardamom-infused buttercream and a homemade cherry jam, decorated with dark chocolate curls and fresh cherries.

Today, I’m sharing the recipe for the scaled up version of that cake: all the same flavours and components, just in a bigger, 13 x 9-inch rectangular cake. I made this cake for the wedding, to be kept in the kitchen and sliced once the main cake was cut, so that there was enough cake for all of the guests. This is an approach I’ve taken before, with the Orange & Olive Oil wedding cake I made last year. I think it’s really great, because it means the couple can have exactly what they want for their ‘official’ cake, without needing to worry about size/servings.

This is a big cake, so the recipe probably won’t be super useful to you if you’re looking for a gentle Saturday afternoon bake… However, sometimes you need a big cake (I’m thinking parties, events, large family gatherings?), so I wanted to share the share the recipe for this version with you as well!

Because this cake is exactly the same as yesterday’s recipe, I won’t be going through all of the ins-an-outs of the ingredients in this post. If you want to read about that, check out yesterday’s post! In this post, I’ll be focusing on the specifics of this particular size cake: working with large amounts of batter, handling bigger bakes and the logistics of scaling the recipe up to line up with your required servings.

Enough chit-chat: let’s make a ginormous chocolate cake!

A Note on Customising Serving Sizes

The recipe below makes 1 x 13 x 9-inch chocolate cake. Once the cake is cool, the top is levelled and the remaining cake is cut in half horizontally, leaving you with two separate cake layers.

Technically, the cake I made for Florrie & Mohit’s wedding was 1 + 1/2 of the recipe I’m sharing today, because I made it with three layers of cake (I made 2 cakes, cut each in half horizontally and used 3 of the resulting 4 layers). For ease, I’m just giving you the recipe for the single rectangular cake, with 2 layers, but you can adapt it to suit your required servings super easily.

For reference, the 2-layer version of this cake should yield about 50 wedding servings. The cake I made was designed to yield about 75 wedding servings. 2 x 2-layer cakes would yield about 100 servings, and so on.

Obviously, there is a limit to how many cake layers you can realistically stack on top of each other. Three layers was absolutely fine, but I probably wouldn’t push it too far past that. If you want 100 servings or more, I’d recommend making multiple cakes, each with 2-3 layers!

Whatever you’re doing, just remember to multiply up/down the buttercream and jam too, so that you have enough of it. For a three layer cake, you’ll need 1.5x the quantity of both buttercream and jam listed in the recipe.

Components

This rectangular cake is made up of 4 components:

• Chocolate cake layers
• Cardamom-infused buttercream
• Homemade cherry jam
• Handmade chocolate curls

All 4 of these components are exactly the same as the main cake: it’s the same chocolate cake batter, the same cardamom buttercream, the same cherry jam and the same chocolate curls— there’s just much, much more of each one!

Unlike the main cake, I didn’t bother putting fresh cherries on top of this cake, because it wasn’t on display and they were a more of a style-over-substance addition. Instead, I just covered the surface with as many chocolate curls (which have both style and substance) as I possibly could!

Making a 9 x 13-inch Chocolate Cake: The Differences

This cake is made using the exact same chocolate cake batter as yesterday’s round cake recipe, but, as I’m sure you’ve gathered by now, is much bigger (not to mention rectangular!). Because of this, there are a few differences in the baking process between the two cakes:

• Oven temperature

This cake is baked at a lower temperature (150°C) than the 8-inch round cakes, which are baked at 180°C (both temperatures are conventional oven, not fan). This is a pretty standard rule for baking: the bigger the cake, the lower the temperature you bake it at to ensure it is cooked through.

• Baking time

Much like the oven temperature, the bake time changes based on the size of the cake too. This cake takes much longer to bake (90-95 minutes) compared to the 8-inch round cakes (50-55 minutes), because, again, it is so much larger (and because with the 8-inch cakes, the batter was divided between two tins. In this cake, it’s all in one, big tin, so the heat needs more time to permeate through it!).

• Lining the tin

This is mainly personal preference: for round cakes, I find that I usually only need to line the base of the tin with a circle of baking paper, after greasing the bottom and sides. For rectangular cakes, I tend to line the whole tin, base and sides, with the paper, just because it’s easier to cut the baking paper for and because it makes it easier to get the cake out of the corners. I still grease the whole tin with Stork (a margarine baking spread— but you can use softened butter instead) though!

• Releasing the air bubbles

This particular cake batter is a little prone to ‘tunnelling’, where large air bubbles bake into the cake and form these harmless, but kind of random, ‘crater-like’ holes. Truly, no one is going to notice them, but the perfectionist in me wants them gone, so I always tap the tins down on the work surface to help release the air.

The problem with this cake is that a) it’s very heavy, so it’s kind of hard to tap down and b) it’s big, so there’s even more space for air bubbles to form. Ultimately, with a cake this large, I find that it’s easier to give it a few taps (if you can manage), then run a blunt knife back and forth through the batter to pop any lingering bubbles. I know it sounds like a bit of a faff, but it really does help!

Assembling the Cake

In theory, this cake is assembled in exactly the same way as the main cake, so:

Cake + icing + jam + cake + icing + jam + chocolate curls

However, the process is a tiny bit different because of the size difference.

Just like with the main cake, you start by levelling the cake. For this, I levelled the domed top off, then cut the remaining cake in half horizontally, leaving me with two thinner layers of cake. It’s easier to get a clean cut if the cake has been chilled in the fridge (wrap it tightly with clingfilm to keep it fresh and moist), though this does make it a little harder to cut through, because the butter in the layers hardens up. Pick whichever way you prefer, but be aware that these layers will be a bit more fragile than the round ones, because of their increased surface area, so be careful when handling them!

You’re welcome to leave the domed top on, if you’d prefer. Just remember that you can’t add another layer of cake on top of that domed layer, or it won’t sit flat: if you’re keeping the dome, it needs to be at the top.

Then, spread on half of the icing.

Make sure it’s in a flat, even layer.

I wanted to make sure I had an even distribution of jam across the cake, so I made myself some guidelines using a blunt knife.

I added the jam along those lines (in a kind of haphazard manner, but the thought was there!).

Then I started my swirling by dragging the jam through the buttercream perpendicular to the original lines.

With a pretty even coverage established, I finished swirling the jam through the buttercream. I recommend swirling the jam in, instead of adding a whole layer of jam with a buttercream dam, because a) I think it’s nice to be able to see the jam once the cake is stacked up and b) it will make your cake much more stable.

Then, I added the second layer of cake and repeated the whole process, all over again.

Once you’ve added the icing and swirled in the jam, if you’re following the recipe below, you’ll be done and you can get on with decorating the cake (aka: throwing copious amount of chocolate curls on it).

However, if, like me, you’re making an extra tall cake, you’ll need to repeat the process all over again with a third layer of cake.

Then it’s time to decorate. As I mentioned, there are no fresh cherries on this one, because the cherries were more for the aesthetic on the main cake, so it’s all down to the chocolate curls. Again, just like with the main cake, the goal is to be exceedingly liberal: more is more!

And with that, your giant Chocolate, Cherry and Cardamom Cake is done! Just like the main cake, it can be stored at room temperature or in the fridge, preferably in an airtight container, where it will keep for a few days before it starts drying out.

Baking Giant Cakes 101

In case you still weren’t 100% sure, this cake is big.

Really big.

It’s weird, because a 13 x 9 inch tin doesn’t look that big, but somehow, when it’s filled with the (very heavy) chocolate cake batter… it seems bigger.

I remind you of this because I find that you kind of have to adjust your mindset when making big cakes like this. There are a few things you really need to consider ahead of time, otherwise everything’s going to start going south pretty quickly:

• Bowl sizes

You need a lot of batter to fill this tin. Because of that, you really need to use the biggest bowls you can find to make it! I’ll tell you now: the bowl of a KitchenAid stand mixer is not big enough. I had to crack out the big guns, the big bowl for this one.

Put your dry ingredients into the biggest bowl, because that’s the one that all the batter will be mixed in eventually. Whisk your wet ingredients together in your second biggest bowl (preferably one with a spout, for easy pouring!).

• Weight

This sounds silly, but this cake is heavy. It’s heavy before it goes into the oven and it’s heavy afterwards: it’s a dense, heavy cake (but, like, in a delicious way).

Be super careful when taking it in and out of the oven— make sure that you have a good grip on it and aren’t going to drop it all over your oven. If you happen to be baking with kids, this is definitely a job for an adult!

• Baking time

The cake takes a long time to bake: 90-95 minutes to be exact. It really does need that amount of time (and it’s at a relatively low temperature, 150°C, if that makes you feel any better about the energy usage…?) to ensure the cake is cooked through. On the bright side, that’s 90-95 minutes of completely passive work, which is always nice!

• Cooling time

As long as the cake takes to bake, it takes even longer to cool. Literally, hours. It’s big, it’s dense and it’s going to retain heat. Just be patient, keep it away from any pets/hungry family members, turn it out onto a wire rack once it’s cool enough to handle (probably about an hour or so), then leave it until it’s really, truly cold before icing/storing it in the fridge (wrapped in a tight layer of clingfilm, of course).

Recipe

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Chocolate, Cherry and Cardamom Cake (Rectangular Version)

A big, rich, chocolate sponge, filled with cardamom-infused buttercream and a homemade cherry jam, topped with fresh cherries and homemade dark chocolate curls.

Course Dessert

Cuisine German

Keyword Cake, Cardamom, Cherry, Chocolate

Prep Time 2 hours hours 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Infusing Time 12 hours hours

Total Time 16 hours hours

Servings 50 wedding servings

Equipment

• 13 x 9 x 2 inch rectangular cake tin (see Note 1).

Ingredients

For the cardamom-infused milk:

• 45 cardamom pods
• 80 ml whole milk

For the chocolate cake layers

• Stork or softened butter, for greasing.
• 1 1/2 tbsp instant coffee granules (I used decaf).
• 450 ml boiling water
• 150 g cocoa powder (see Note 2).
• 210 g salted butter, diced.
• 600 g plain flour
• 690 g golden caster sugar
• 1 3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 450 g buttermilk
• 180 g sunflower oil
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 6 eggs

For the cardamom buttercream:

• 400 g unsalted butter, room temperature.
• 800 g icing sugar, sifted.
• 6 tbsp cardamom-infused milk (see above).
• 1/4 tsp lemon juice
• 1 pinch fine sea salt

To assemble:

• 240 g cherry jam (approx. 1/2 of my Homemade Cherry Jam recipe- see Note 3).
• Dark chocolate curls (see Note 4).

Instructions

Infuse the milk for the buttercream:

• Bash the cardamom pods to crack open the pods. Place them in a heatproof container along with the milk and microwave for 10 seconds on high until the milk is hot. Cover, cool to room temperature, then leave in fridge overnight to infuse.
• The next day, strain the milk through a sieve, pressing down on the cardamom pods to extract as much flavour as possible. Discard the pods and keep the milk to use in the buttercream later.

Make the chocolate cake layers:

• Preheat the oven to 150°C (conventional, not fan). Grease a 9 x 13 x 2 inch cake tin with Stork (or softened butter) and line completely with baking paper. Set aside.
• Place the instant coffee granules into a medium bowl. Pour over the boiling water and stir to dissolve. Add the cocoa powder and whisk until smooth.
• Gradually add the diced butter to the hot cocoa mixture, whisking in each addition until all of the butter has been added and everything is smooth.
• Sift the flour, caster sugar and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl. Whisk together until well-combined, then set aside.
• Add the buttermilk, oil and vanilla extract to the warm cocoa mixture. Whisk until incorporated.
• The cocoa mixture should now be cool. Add the eggs and whisk thoroughly, until completely incorporated.
• Pour the cocoa mixture into the dry ingredients gradually, whisking all the time, until the batter is smooth and well-combined, with no lumps of flour.
• Pour the batter into the prepared tin. It will be pretty full, but it shouldn't overflow when baking. Firmly tap the tin down on the work surface a few times to help release any large air bubbles, then drag a blunt knife back and forth through the mixture a few times. This helps to prevent 'craters' from forming in the cake when it is baked (but don't worry too much— no one will notice once it's filled with icing anyway!).
• Bake the cake in the centre of the preheated oven for 90-95 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean, or with just a few moist crumbs. The cake will be very domed and the surface will be quite cracked— don't worry, that's how it's supposed to be!
• Leave the cake to cool in the tin for about an hour or so, then run a palette knife around the edge of the tin to loosen it before turning it out onto a wire rack. Allow the cake to cool completely before assembling (or wrapping tightly in clingfilm and storing)— this is a large, dense cake so it will take a long time to cool (like… 3-4 hours!).

Make the cardamom buttercream:

• Place the butter into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat on medium-high until smooth, fluffy and noticeably paler in colour.
• Turn the speed to low and gradually add the icing sugar, mixing all the time until it is incorporated.
• Add the cardamom-infused milk, lemon juice and sea salt and mix on low until incorporated.
• Turn the speed up to high and beat until light and fluffy. Use immediately or transfer to an airtight container and store in the fridge. The chilled icing should be brought to room temperature and given a gentle whip on low speed before using.

Assemble the cake:

• Start by levelling and splitting the cake. Use a cake leveller or serrated palette knife to trim the domed surface off the cake, then cut the cake in two horizontally. The cake layers will be a little fragile (because of their large surface area), so handle them with care.
• Spread a thin layer of buttercream on the serving board, and place one cake layer on top. Spread half of the remaining buttercream on top of the cake, then swirl half of the cherry jam through the icing.
• Place the second cake layer on top and spread the remaining buttercream on top of that layer. Swirl the remaining jam through the icing, then generously top with the chocolate curls, remembering that more is more!

Notes

This recipe makes a 2-layer rectangular cake. You can increase this to 3 or 4 layers by doubling the chocolate cake ingredients and baking a second cake, which is then cut into two layers, horizontally, like the first. For the wedding, I made two cakes, cut each in half and used 3 of the resulting 4 layers to get the right amount of servings.

Leftover cake can be stored in the freezer and defrosted overnight/warmed in the microwave for a delicious and easy sweet treat!

1. I used this tin from Silverwood.
2. Using really good cocoa powder will take your chocolate cake from amazing to absolutely incredible. My favourite is the Valrhona cocoa powder, but it is… very expensive. I did use it for this recipe (because I figure weddings deserve the best stuff!), but you can use a cheaper alternative if you prefer— your cake will still be delicious, just not quite as amazing!
3. You can find my Homemade Cherry Jam recipe here. If you’d prefer to use store-bought jam, that’s absolutely fine— just get the most delicious one you can find!
4. I made the curls for this cake using a 72% dark chocolate, which I think contrasts nicely with the sweet icing and brings out the chocolatey-ness of the cake. However, you can absolutely use whatever chocolate you prefer to make your curls! You can find my chocolate curl tutorial here.

In today’s post, I’m sharing the recipe for the main wedding cake: a 2-layer, 8-inch round chocolate cake filled with a cardamom-infused buttercream and homemade cherry jam, then decorated with dark chocolate curls and fresh cherries.

Let’s not hang around— it’s chocolate cake time!

Components

This cake is made up of 5 individual components:

• Chocolate Cake

I used my go-to chocolate cake recipe for this cake: it’s intensely chocolatey, incredibly moist and super stable, so it’s great for wedding/celebration cakes like this that need to be made in advance. I developed this recipe for my brother’s wedding cake and it has become one of my most popular recipes here on the blog!

The original recipe was for a 10-inch round cake, but I’ve scaled it down here to make an 8-inch version.

• Cardamom Buttercream

This is a classic, American buttercream made with cardamom-infused milk, which adds a really subtle, earthy spice. I opted to infuse the milk with cardamom pods, rather than add ground cardamom directly to the icing, because I didn’t want the icing to be dappled with the little flecks of cardamom. However, you could absolutely skip the infusing step and add a small amount of ground cardamom instead, if you prefer.

• Cherry Jam

I used a homemade cherry jam for this, because I wanted the cake to be extra special, but there are some lovely ready-made cherry jams available, so you could absolutely use one of those instead to make things a little easier!

You’ll only need about 1/4 of a batch of my Homemade Cherry Jam recipe, so you can either scale it down or keep the rest for toast, scones, porridge, etc.

• Dark Chocolate Curls

These dark chocolate curls are SO easy to make, but they look pretty fancy and really elevate the cake. All you need is a bar of chocolate and a large, sharp knife! Check out yesterday’s post for the tutorial.

• Fresh Cherries

A handful of fresh cherries are placed on top of the cake as a super easy and simple decoration. The cherries just need to be washed and dried completely before you use them.

Ingredients

To make the cake batter, you will need the following ingredients:

• Instant coffee granules

I use decaf coffee here, but caffeinated coffee will also work. You won’t be able to taste the coffee, it just enhances the chocolate-y flavour.

• Boiling water

Boiling water is used to dissolve the instant coffee granules, bloom the cocoa powder (adding a hot liquid to cocoa helps it to release its flavour) and dissolve the butter. The water should be freshly boiled, so that it’s still nice and hot, to accomplish all of this.

• Cocoa powder

I hate to say it, but the type of cocoa powder you use makes a huge difference! Ideally, you want a rich, dark cocoa powder that has been ‘dutched’ (a process where the cocoa is alkalised to reduce the natural acidity), because this will give you the most intense, chocolatey flavour. Unfortunately, the best quality cocoa powders can be very expensive, so you do have to weigh up the flavour vs the price. A chocolate cake made with the best cocoa powder will be absolutely amazing, while a chocolate cake made with a regular, run-of-the-mill cocoa powder will still be good (it is chocolate cake, after all), just not quite so incredible.

My favourite is the very expensive, but absolutely incredible, Valrhona cocoa powder, which is what I used for this cake. However, there seems to have been a bit of a mass shortage of this cocoa powder over the past 6 months or so, so it can be a bit tricky to obtain. By the looks of it, it’s coming back onto the market a bit more readily now (you can buy it here, on Amazon), which is a big relief!

• Salted butter

Salt is an important ingredient in chocolate cake because, like coffee, it helps to bring out the chocolate-y flavour of the cocoa. Instead of adding salt manually, I just use salted butter for this recipe and I find that it incorporates just the right amount of salt!

• Plain flour

Don’t use self-raising flour here, or the ratio of the raising agents will be thrown off.

• Caster sugar

I used golden caster sugar, because I prefer using that in my cakes (I think it gives a nicer flavour), but white caster sugar would also work.

• Bicarbonate of soda

This is the only raising agent in the cake. Don’t use baking powder— it needs to be baking soda (i.e. bicarbonate of soda).

• Buttermilk

Buttermilk helps to keep the case really moist, which is perfect for a wedding cake like this, when you want to make it ahead of time but don’t want it to dry out!

• Sunflower oil

Using butter and oil as the fat in the cake means you get the superior flavour of the butter and the increased moisture from the oil, so it’s the best of both worlds!

• Vanilla extract

Much like coffee and salt, vanilla also enhances the flavour of the chocolate. The aim is not for the cake to taste like vanilla, but for it to taste even more like chocolate.

• Eggs

I use large eggs.

To make the icing, and to fill/decorate the cake, you will need:

• Whole milk

You can use skimmed/semi-skimmed milk, but whole milk will give you a richer, creamier buttercream.

• Cardamom pods

I’ve used the whole pods for this recipe, because I didn’t want my buttercream to be speckled with the ground spice. If you prefer, you can skip the pods and the infusing step and just add a little ground cardamom to your icing instead.

• Unsalted butter

I like to use unsalted butter for buttercream, so that I am able to control the amount of salt.

• Icing sugar

Make sure to sift the icing sugar first, because it can get quite clumpy.

• Lemon juice

American buttercream can be very sweet. To mellow out that sweetness a little bit, I added a very small amount of lemon juice. The tartness of the lemon balances out the sweetness of all the sugar, making the buttercream a little more rounded.

• Salt

Just like the lemon juice, I added a small amount of salt to the buttercream, just to temper the sweetness a little. It’s important to use a fine salt here so that it doesn’t affect the texture of the buttercream.

• Cherry jam

I used my Homemade Cherry Jam for this, which I specifically developed to be full of cherry flavour and have quite a firm set, so that it works well in a layer cake. If you want to skip the extra step of making jam, you can absolutely use a shop-bought jar— just try and find a really delicious one!

• Dark chocolate curls

I used a 72% dark chocolate to make the curls for this cake. You can find my tutorial on how to make the curls here.

• Cherries

I’ve decorated this cake with a handful of fresh cherries. I used black cherries for this, because I think that they’re the prettiest (and they tend to be the most readily available cherries here in the UK!).

Chocolate Cake Layers

This cake uses a scaled-down version of my favourite chocolate cake recipe. It’s a super chocolate-y, super moist cake that keeps really well, so it’s perfect for wedding cakes.

The original recipe was for a 3-layer, 10-inch round cake. For that cake, I made each layer separately, because I can only fit one 10-inch tin in my oven at a time. For this cake, you need 2 x 8-inch layers, which you fortunately can bake at the same time in a standard oven!

The process for making the batter itself is exactly the same and I have a photo tutorial in my ‘The Chocolate Tier’ post from the first Wedding Cake Week, if you’d like to check out the in-depth instructions!

8-inch Cake vs 10-inch Cake

The only differences that you need to be aware of with this cake (compared to the original ‘Chocolate Tier’ recipe) all stem from the change in size:

• Tin size

For this version, you’ll need 2 x 8-inch round tins.

• Oven temperature

The 8-inch cakes are baked at 180°C (conventional, not fan). This is because the cakes are smaller, so they can be baked at a higher temperature.

• Bake time

The cakes take 50-55 minutes to bake, which is ever so slightly less time than the 10-inch cake (though the oven is more full, because we’re baking two at a time, so it kind of balances out!).

• Batter quantity

Despite the fact we’re making fewer, smaller layers than the original recipe, the batter quantity at the start is actually greater, because we’re making both 8-inch cakes at once, as opposed to making each 10-inch layer individually. All this means is that you need to use both a bigger jug (for the wet ingredients) and a bigger bowl (for the dry ingredients)! I actually used a large bowl with a spout instead of a jug for the wet ingredients, to make sure I had plenty of room for whisking.

A Note on Cracking

This chocolate cake recipe is really delicious: it’s super chocolate-y, moist and structurally strong, making it a perfect option for layer cakes. However, it is unusual in that it is specifically baked to form a super cracked top, which I know can be disconcerting, because we’ve all been taught that the cracking/volcano-esque explosion is persona non grata when it comes to cakes! You just have to trust me on this one though— it’s what makes this cake so great!

Typically, cakes form large cracks for one of two reasons: either the oven temperature is too hot or the batter contains too much raising agent. I’ve tested this recipe many, many times, using less bicarbonate of soda and varying lower oven temperatures and it simply does not work as well: the cake still cracks and the crumb just ends up kind of gummy (ew…) or too dry. With this method, yes, you get cracks, but the interior of the cake is perfectly cooked and perfectly moist, and you’ll be trimming off the cracked parts anyway, so it’s definitely my preferred approach.

Making the Cake Layers in Advance

These cake layers are great for making in advance, because they stay super moist. For best results, wrap each individual layer tightly with clingfilm. This will keep the edges of the cakes from being exposed to the air and drying out.

You can store the wrapped cakes at room temperature or in the fridge. If you’re making your cakes in a hot environment (like I was, thanks to the heatwave!), I’d recommend storing them in the fridge to keep them as fresh as possible. Cold cakes are also easier to level neatly, so that’s a plus! If you’re making the cakes in cooler weather, they’ll be absolutely fine at room temperature for a couple of days.

Cardamom Buttercream

This buttercream is a simple, American-style buttercream. To get the cardamom flavour, milk is infused with cardamom pods overnight, then strained the next morning and added to the buttercream.

This icing can be made in advance (which is very handy when you’re making a wedding cake!). Once you’ve made the buttercream, transfer it to an airtight container and store it in the fridge. It will last for about a week. You just need to let the icing come to room temperature and give it a gentle beat with the mixer on low speed before you use it.

Infusing the Milk

Start by bashing the cardamom pods with the end of a rolling pin (or a similar, heavy object/mortar and pestle). The aim is just to crack the pods open and expose the seeds.

Heat the milk in the microwave for about 10 seconds on high, until it is hot. If you don’t have a microwave, you can warm the milk in a small saucepan.

Pour the milk over the cardamom pods, cover and leave to cool to room temperature before transferring to the fridge to chill and infuse overnight.

The next morning, strain the milk through a fine sieve, pressing down on the cardamom pods to extract as much flavour as possible.

The cardamom pods can now be discarded. Thank you for your service, pods! The cardamom-infused milk is now ready to be used in the buttercream.

Making the Buttercream

Place the butter into the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment. The butter needs to be at room temperature (or softened ever so slightly), so that it will whip up evenly.

Beat the butter on medium-high speed until it is smooth, fluffy and noticeably paler in colour, like this.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, then turn the speed down to low and gradually add in the sifted icing sugar, mixing all the time until everything is well-incorporated. The icing will be very stiff at this point, but don’t worry— we’re about to add the milk!

Add the cardamom-infused milk, lemon juice and salt and mix in on low speed until everything is combined, then turn the mixer up to high speed and beat the buttercream until it is light and fluffy.

At this point, you can either use the icing immediately or transfer it to an airtight container to be stored in the fridge for another day.

If your buttercream looks slightly split, don’t worry! I find this can happen when you add lemon juice to buttercream, but it’s easily remedied. Just place a spoonful of the icing into a microwaveable bowl, and heat it for 10-15 seconds on high until it has melted. Pour the melted icing back into the bowl with the rest of the buttercream, then mix it in on the lowest speed, until everything is smooth and emulsified. This technique also helps to get rid of air bubbles, making your buttercream super silky!

Assembly

With the chocolate cakes baked, the cardamom buttercream made and the cherry jam, chocolate curls and fresh cherries to hand, it’s time to assemble!

Levelling the Cake Layers

My chocolate cake recipe bakes up quite domed, so the layers do need to be levelled before you can stack them up. Actually, I only levelled one of the cake layers for this cake— I left the dome on the top cake so that I could achieve the look of a big pile of icing on top without needing to use a ridiculous amount of buttercream that would overpower the rest of the cake.

To level the bottom cake layer, I used a cake leveller. If you’re better than me at cutting in a straight, horizontal line, feel free to use a large, serrated knife instead! The aim is to be left with a perfectly flat surface, but to cut off as little cake as possible (though any cake you do cut off can be snacked on as you work so… maybe that’s not wholly necessary!).

Even though I didn’t level the top cake layer, I did use a small, serrated knife to carve away some of the sharper edges around the cracks on the surface. This isn’t strictly necessary, but those edges can be a little bit crispy and I wanted to keep the texture of the cake as consistent as possible. This also helped to smooth out the domed shape of the cake, making the ‘pile’ of icing look a little more perfect.

Layering Up

Once the cake layers are ready to go, it’s time to stack them up with the delicious fillings!

I always use a little smear of buttercream to stick the first cake layer to the cake board. This just makes it easier to move the cake around without it slipping and sliding everywhere (which is particularly important when, like this one, the cake needs to be transported to a venue).

Place half of the cardamom buttercream on top of the first cake layer.

Then use an offset spatula to spread the icing out evenly. It doesn’t need to be perfect— in fact, with this style, I actually think imperfect is better!

Dollop half of the cherry jam on top of the icing, allowing some to drip over the edges so that you can see it when the cake is assembled. Use a blunt knife to ripple the jam through the buttercream. Doing this not only means that every slice gets some of the cherry jam, but also ensures that the cake is nice and stable, because there is still lots of contact between the buttercream and the next cake layer.

Add the second, domed cake layer on top, making sure it is centred.

Top that with the remaining buttercream, again, spreading it out with an offset spatula.

Add the remaining cherry jam and swirl it through the buttercream, just like before.

Now it’s time to decorate! I had some pretty big drips of cherry jam on the serving board, so I cleaned those up first.

Then, position the fresh cherries on top. Make sure you’ve washed and thoroughly dried the cherries before adding them. I put one cherry in the centre and then arranged six others around the edge.

Once the cherries are stuck on, you can add the chocolate curls. I am firmly of the opinion that more is more here, so be as liberal with the curls as you can!

With that, the cake is ready!

Storage Instructions

The cake can be stored at room temperature or in the fridge, ideally in an airtight container, to help stop it from drying out. It will keep for 2-3 days before it starts drying out a little (remember that the sides of the cake are undecorated and, as a result, exposed to the air, which will cause it to dry out quicker!).

If the weather is warm, I would recommend storing it in the fridge. This will keep it fresher, but it will also ensure that the buttercream stays firm and the cake doesn’t start slipping around. However, the cake is best enjoyed at room temperature, so make sure to take it out of the fridge an hour or so before you plan to serve it.

Recipe

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Chocolate, Cherry and Cardamom Cake

A rich, chocolate sponge, filled with cardamom-infused buttercream and a homemade cherry jam, topped with fresh cherries and dark chocolate curls.

Course Dessert

Cuisine German

Keyword Cardamom, Cherry, Chocolate

Prep Time 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 55 minutes minutes

Infusing Time 12 hours hours

Total Time 14 hours hours 25 minutes minutes

Servings 24 wedding servings (approx. 10-12 regular servings)

Equipment

• 2 x 8-inch round sandwich tins

Ingredients

For the cardamom-infused milk:

• 35 cardamom pods
• 60 ml whole milk

For the chocolate cake layers:

• Stork or softened butter, for greasing.
• 1 tbsp instant coffee granules (I used decaf).
• 300 ml boiling water
• 100 g cocoa powder (see Note 1).
• 140 g salted butter, diced.
• 400 g plain flour
• 460 g golden caster sugar
• 1/2 tbsp bicarbonate of soda
• 300 g buttermilk
• 120 g sunflower oil
• 1/8 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 eggs

For the cardamom buttercream:

• 300 g unsalted butter, room temperature.
• 600 g icing sugar, sifted.
• 4 tbsp cardamom-infused milk (see above).
• 1/4 tsp lemon juice
• 1 pinch fine sea salt

To assemble:

• 120 g cherry jam (approx. 1/4 of my Homemade Cherry Jam recipe, see Note 2.)
• 7 fresh black cherries, washed and dried.
• Dark chocolate curls (see Note 3).

Instructions

Infuse the milk for the buttercream:

• Bash the cardamom pods to crack open the pods. Place them in a heatproof container along with the milk and microwave for 10 seconds on high until the milk is hot. Cover, cool to room temperature, then leave in fridge overnight to infuse.
• The next day, strain the milk through a sieve, pressing down on the cardamom pods to extract as much flavour as possible. Discard the pods and keep the milk to use in the buttercream later.

Make the chocolate cake layers:

• Preheat the oven to 180°C (conventional, not fan). Grease two 8-inch round sandwich tins and line each with a circle of baking paper. Set aside.
• Place the instant coffee granules into a medium bowl. Pour over the boiling water and stir to dissolve. Add the cocoa powder and whisk until smooth.
• Gradually add the diced butter to the hot cocoa mixture, whisking in each addition until all of the butter has been added and everything is smooth.
• Sift the flour, caster sugar and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl. Whisk together until well-combined, then set aside.
• Add the buttermilk, oil and vanilla extract to the warm cocoa mixture. Whisk until incorporated.
• The cocoa mixture should now be cool. Add the eggs and whisk thoroughly until completely incorporated.
• Pour the cocoa mixture into the dry ingredients gradually, whisking all the time, until the batter is smooth and well-combined, with no lumps of flour.
• Divide the batter evenly between the two tins. They will be pretty full, but they shouldn't overflow when baking. Firmly tap each tin down on the work surface a few times to help release any large air bubbles. This helps to prevent 'craters' from forming in the cakes when they are baked (but don't worry too much— no one will notice them once they're filled with icing anyway!).
• Bake the cakes in the centre of the preheated oven for 50-55 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean, or with just a few moist crumbs. The cakes will be very domed and the surface will be quite cracked— don't worry, that's how it's supposed to be!
• Leave the cakes to cool in the tins for 20 minutes or so, then run a palette knife around the edge of the tins to loosen them before turning them out onto a wire rack. Allow the cakes to cool completely before assembling (or wrapping tightly in clingfilm and storing).

Make the cardamom buttercream:

• Place the butter into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat on medium-high until smooth, fluffy and noticeably paler in colour.
• Turn the speed to low and gradually add the icing sugar, mixing all the time until it is incorporated.
• Add the cardamom-infused milk, lemon juice and sea salt and mix on low until incorporated.
• Turn the speed up to high and beat until light and fluffy. Use immediately or transfer to an airtight container and store in the fridge. The chilled icing should be brought to room temperature and given a gentle whip on low speed before using.

Assemble the cake:

• Level the top of one of the cake layers so that it is completely flat. Use a small, serrated knife to gently carve away any particularly sharp cracks on the surface of the other cake, leaving the domed surface intact.
• Use a smear of buttercream to stick the levelled cake layer to the serving board. Spread half of the buttercream on top of the cake, then swirl half of the cherry jam through the icing.
• Place the second, domed cake layer on top and spread the remaining buttercream on top of that layer. Swirl the remaining jam through the icing, then arrange the fresh cherries on top. Generously top with the chocolate curls, remembering that more is more!

Notes

1. Using really good cocoa powder will take your chocolate cake from amazing to absolutely incredible. My favourite is the Valrhona cocoa powder, but it is… very expensive. I did use it for this recipe (because I figure weddings deserve the best stuff!), but you can use a cheaper alternative if you prefer— your cake will still be delicious, just not quite as amazing!
2. You can find the recipe for my Homemade Cherry Jam here.
3. I made the curls for this cake using a 72% dark chocolate, which I think contrasts nicely with the sweet icing and brings out the chocolatey-ness of the cake. You can of course use whatever chocolate you prefer to make your curls! You can find my chocolate curl tutorial here.

Yesterday, I shared the recipe for my Homemade Cherry Jam, which is used to fill and decorate the cake. Today, I’ll be talking all about how I made the chocolate curl decorations: there’s no tempering and no melting, so it’s a really quick and easy process!

I can’t take credit for this technique— I learned it from ✨Jamie Oliver✨, but I’m pretty sure it’s a classic chef technique? Nevertheless, I did want to share it with you, along with the tips & tricks that I picked up during my own curl-making process. However, if you’re more of a visual learner, you can find the video tutorial on the Jamie Oliver YouTube channel!

What You’ll Need

To make these chocolate curls, you only really need two items:

• A bar of dark chocolate

Obviously, the main thing to look for when you’re choosing your chocolate is the flavour: a good chocolate will make the most delicious chocolate curls! However, for this particular technique, it’s also important that the bar has a large, flat surface, like this one.

• A large knife

You’ll need a knife with a large, flat-edged blade that you can drag across the surface of the chocolate evenly. If you don’t have a large knife, a kitchen bench scraper would also work.

While those two items are the only essentials, I also recommend using two chopping boards, one large one as a base and one smaller one (that can fit on top of the larger one), as a barrier. This will just make the process a lot easier (and prevent you and your clothes from getting too messy!).

The Technique

First, you need to set up your workspace. Place the large chopping board in front of you on the work surface, then set the smaller chopping board on top of that larger board, positioning it at the end closest to you, like above.

Then, unwrap the chocolate bar and place it flat side up, with one of the short ends pushed up again that smaller chopping board.

Allow the edges of both chopping boards to push against your lower abdomen. This will provide resistance, which will allow you to make the curls without the bar of chocolate flying across your kitchen! You can do this without the extra chopping board ‘backstop’, as Jamie Oliver and Kerryann Dunlop (from the YouTube video) both do, but you then run the risk of getting your clothes all chocolate-y which… is not for me! I found that the extra chopping board worked well for me, but choose whichever method works best for you. The aim is just to stop the bar of chocolate from moving around as you make the curls.

Rest the blade against the surface of the chocolate, at about a 45° angle. You can adjust this angle to change the size/shape of your curls a little, but 45° is a good starting point!

Hold the dull side of the blade of the knife with one hand on each end. Obviously, you’re working with a knife here, so be careful, but at no point should your fingers be close to the sharp edge of the blade itself.

Apply an even pressure and carefully drag the knife down the length of the chocolate bar. As you drag, you’ll see the curl forming!

Repeat this process until you have as many curls as you need (or until your chocolate bar gets so thin that it breaks— whichever’s first!). I find it easiest to transfer the curls to a container as I go, otherwise I think everything gets a bit overcrowded, but do whatever works for you.

The curls can be stored in a cool place at room temperature, just like a regular chocolate bar. Don’t leave them in a super warm/sunny spot, or they’ll just melt together, but, as long as the weather’s cool enough, they don’t need to be stored in the refrigerator.

Variations

In my chocolate-scraping endeavours, I found that the temperature of the chocolate bar had a big effect on the finished size, shape and colour of the curls:

• Colour

Slightly warmer chocolate creates curls with a darker colour, more similar to the original colour of the chocolate bar. Cold chocolate creates curls that have a slight ‘bloom’ to them, which dulls the colour.

• Shape

Cold chocolate makes stronger, more defined curls. Slightly warmer chocolate makes less defined curls, but they can be gently nudged back into a proper curl shape.

• Texture

Slightly warmer chocolate creates smooth curls. Cold chocolate creates curls with a more jagged surface, showing off the hitches of the knife during the ‘dragging’ process.

• Size

Slightly warmer chocolate makes slightly longer curls, while cold chocolate makes slightly shorter curls.

For reference, I tried this technique with three different temperature chocolate bars: the first bar was at room temperature during a 30°C+ heatwave (the temperature it was when I made this wedding cake— can you believe it?!), the second bar was right out of the fridge and the third bar was at a pretty humid, but otherwise gentle, summery room temperature (about 22°C).

The fridge-cold bar was the easiest to work with, but I wasn’t happy with how much the colour of the chocolate was dulled down. The heatwave bar made the darkest, prettiest curls, but they were a bit more fiddly to make. The 22°C bar was somewhere in between the two. I found that the colder the chocolate was, the more I had to increase my angle (bring the knife closer to 90°) to get the curls. I assume that there’s a scientific reason for this, but I’m a linguist at heart, so who knows? My favourite were definitely the curls I made during the heatwave, which were the ones I used for this wedding cake.

However, because it was a heatwave, I did spread the curls out onto trays lined with baking paper and give them a blast in the fridge after I made them, just to make sure they didn’t melt! After an hour or so in the fridge, I transferred them to an airtight container, where they sat at (a still very warm!) room temperature perfectly happily, so make of that what you will!

And that is everything I learned while making the chocolate curls for the top of the wedding cake! I love this method: I think the curls look so professional and fancy, but they are so, unbelievably easy to make!

Gemma

xxx

If you missed yesterday’s post, I recently made another wedding cake (my third overall!) and I’m sharing all of the recipes/behind-the-scenes info with you this week!

This time around, the cake in question was a Cherry, Chocolate and Cardamom Layer Cake: a rich chocolate sponge, filled with a cardamom buttercream and homemade cherry jam, then decorated with heaps of chocolate curls and fresh cherries.

In today’s post, I’m sharing the recipe for the Homemade Cherry Jam! Making your own jam isn’t strictly necessary for the cake: if you’re short on time, or want to make the process a bit quicker/easier for yourself, you can absolutely use a good, store-bought cherry jam (insert Ina Garten meme here)— I recommend looking for one made with morello cherries for the most delicious results! However, if you have time, making your own jam is pretty straightforward and makes your cake extra special (and extra delicious!).

Using Jam as a Cake Filling

Jam is a super common cake filling (Victoria Sponge, I’m looking at you!), but it can be a little tricky to work with when you’re aiming for a super stable finished product. While jam is very sticky (all that sugar!), it’s more… slippery?… than buttercream, which can lead to your cake layers sliding a bit if you use too much of it to sandwich the layers (a little bit like lemon curd… which, if you were here for the last Wedding Cake Week, you’ll know is my ultimate nemesis!).

To avoid this problem, particularly because the cake had quite a long distance to travel to get to its destination, I opted to swirl the jam into the buttercream: you still get all the flavour of the jam, but it’s the buttercream that’s doing the heavy work keeping the cake upright, so you’ve got the best of both worlds!

This is a chunky jam, but the chunk is controlled: instead of a more natural-style jam, where the cherries break up a little, but not completely, as it cooks, I’ve made a smooth jam and then added diced cherries to it part of the way through the cooking process. There were two main reasons for this: aesthetics and taste. The smoother jam (with intentional chunks) looked a lot better on the cake, while the added pieces of cherry really amplified the overall flavour. If you’d prefer to make a more natural-style jam, though, go for it— it will still taste lovely!

Ingredients

To make this homemade cherry jam, you will need the following ingredients:

• Frozen cherries

I like to use frozen cherries, because they’re available year-round and I find them more convenient. I prefer to buy the darker cherries, because I think they give the jam a better colour, but as long as they’re pitted, any type will do.

• Dried cherries

Cherries have quite a subtle flavour so, to amp up the intensity of this jam, I use a small amount of dried cherries alongside the fresh fruit.

• Caster sugar

I like to use white caster sugar when making jam, because I find that golden caster sugar adds too much of a caramel flavour and is more prone to burning.

• Lemon juice

Cherries are pretty low in pectin, so I add a little bit of lemon juice to help the jam set properly. The tartness of the lemon juice also helps to balance the sweetness of the jam, so it’s a win-win!

• Water

The water is just there to help everything melt and cook together into a delicious jam.

How to Make Homemade Cherry Jam

Before you start making the jam, place a small plate into the freezer. This will be used later on to check whether the jam is ready or not.

To make the jam, put all of the ingredients into a large saucepan and place it over a medium heat.

Stir the mixture every now and then until the sugar has completely dissolved and the frozen cherries have defrosted— you should be able to squish them pretty easily with a wooden spoon.

Use a slotted spoon to remove about 1/3 of the cherries (just the frozen ones, not the dried ones) from the mixture and transfer them to a chopping board. Set them aside to cool slightly.

Use a stick blender (or whatever blender you have, really) to purée the remaining mixture in the saucepan, aiming to get the jam as smooth as possible.

Strain the puréed jam mixture through a heatproof sieve into a clean saucepan, using the back of a spoon to push as much of the pulp through the sieve as you can.

Finely dice the reserved cherries (they should be cool enough to handle now!), then stir them into the strained jam mixture. This method allows you to control the size of the cherry chunks, while still ensuring that the jam base is perfectly thick and smooth.

Set the pan back over medium heat and bring the mixture to a rolling boil, stirring gently every so often.

Once the mixture reaches a rolling boil, keep it on the heat and monitor the temperature. I tend to use a digital probe thermometer for this, because I find it the most accurate and easy to use, but a regular candy thermometer would also work.

You might find that a layer of foam starts forming on the surface of the jam as it cooks— use a spoon to skim as much of it off as you can, but don’t worry about it too much!

When the jam reaches 105-110°C, remove the pan from the heat and grab your plate from the freezer. Place a small spoonful of jam onto the cold plate and leave it for 1 minute. After 1 minute, push the jam gently with your finger. If the surface wrinkles, your jam is ready! If it doesn’t wrinkle, return the plate to the freezer and the pan to heat for a further minute, then test it again. Repeat this process until the jam wrinkles.

Once the jam is ready, pour it into a heatproof container. Cover it with clingfilm or a lid, then allow it to cool to room temperature before transferring it to the fridge, where it can chill until you’re ready to use it.

Troubleshooting

Making jam isn’t hard, but it can feel a bit overwhelming at first! The main difficulty is getting the right set on it and, while it doesn’t need to be perfect, there are a couple of things you can do if you run into problems.

If your jam is too liquid:

The most likely culprit for this is that the jam was not boiled to the correct temperature: it needs to hit at least 105°C, at which point it should ‘pass’ the wrinkle test on the frozen plate. If your jam is too liquid, you can put it back on the heat and boil it again, testing it every minute or so until it passes that test.

Your jam will also stay more liquid if you omit the lemon from the recipe. Cherries don’t contain much pectin, which is what helps jam to set. Lemons, on the other hand, contain lots of pectin, so the juice is not just a flavour-based addition here: it’s a vital ingredient!

If your jam is too firmly set:

This jam recipe was specifically designed as a cake filling, so it is a little more firmly set than your average jam. You’ll probably find that, once it’s been chilled in the fridge, it is too firm to work with: that’s what you want! It gives you the ability to warm it up slightly, work with it, then let it firm back up to give your cake more structure and stability.

To get your jam to working temperature, warm it for 10 seconds in the microwave. It will be perfectly drizzle-able!

Recipe

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Homemade Cherry Jam

A homemade jam, made with frozen and dried cherries, perfect for filling a cake.

Course Component

Keyword Cherry, Jam

Prep Time 45 minutes minutes

Total Time 45 minutes minutes

Servings 475 grams

Equipment

• Handheld blender (or your preferred blending device)
• Digital probe thermometer (see Note 1)

Ingredients

• 600 g frozen cherries, pitted.
• 120 g dried cherries
• 320 g white caster sugar
• 2 tsp lemon juice, freshly-squeezed.
• 60 ml water

Instructions

• Before you start making the jam, put a small plate into the freezer. This will be used for testing the consistency of the jam later on.
• Place all of the ingredients into a large saucepan and cook on medium heat, stirring every now and then, until the frozen cherries have defrosted and the sugar has dissolved.
• Use a slotted spoon or tongs to remove about a third of the frozen cherries (not the dried cherries) from the mixture and set aside on a chopping board to cool slightly.
• Use the handheld blender to purée the jam, making it as smooth as possible.
• Strain the mixture through a sieve into a clean saucepan, using the back of a spoon to push as much of the pulp through as possible.
• Finely dice the reserved cherries, then add them to the strained jam mixture in the new pan.
• Set the pan over medium heat and bring the jam to a rolling boil, stirring gently. Use a metal spoon to remove as much foam as possible from the surface of the jam as it cooks.
• Use a thermometer to monitor the temperature of the jam as it boils. Once it reaches between 105-110°C, remove the pan from the heat and grab the plate from the freezer.
• Place a small spoonful of jam onto the frozen plate, let it sit for 1 minute, then gently push the jam with your finger. If the jam wrinkles, it's ready. If not, return the plate to the freezer and the pan to the heat. Boil the jam for a further minute, then test again. Repeat this until it passes the 'wrinkle test'.
• Once the jam is ready, pour it into a heatproof container. Cover and leave to cool to room temperature before placing into the fridge until ready to use.
• The jam will firm up significantly in the fridge. If it is too firm to use when it first comes out of the fridge, just give it a 10 second blast in the microwave to thin it back out a little.

Notes

1. You can use a regular candy thermometer for this, but I prefer to use a digital probe thermometer, like this one, because I think it is easier to use and gives a more precise measurement. If you don’t have a thermometer, you can still make this jam, you’ll just need to rely more heavily on the ‘wrinkle test’ to check if it’s ready!

If you’re new here, I am by no means a professional baker, but I did stumble into the world of wedding cake baking last year, when I made the cake for my brother’s wedding (a deconstructed, three-tier, chocolate, coffee & lemon cake that you can find here!). I then fell even further down the wedding cake rabbit hole later on in the year, when I made an Orange & Olive Oil cake for a family friend’s big day!

Before this year, then, the number of wedding cakes I had made was a grand total of… 2. Over the last month, that total has doubled, because from mid-August to mid-September, I made another two wedding cakes! After my brother’s wedding, a couple of his friends asked me to make their wedding cakes (SO exciting!!) and I got to working on the designs & recipes straight away. Both weddings have now taken place, vows have been made and cakes have been sliced, so I can finally share the recipes with you!

So, with that…

Welcome to Wedding Cake Week: Season 2!

Over the next 4 days, I’ll be sharing all of the recipes, techniques and behind-the-scenes info for the first of the wedding cakes: the Chocolate, Cherry and Cardamom cake that I made for Florrie and Mohit.

This cake was inspired by a recipe created by Meera Sodha for a chocolate cake that is filled with a cardamom & mascarpone cream icing and cherry jam. My version is made using my all-time favourite chocolate cake recipe (the one I developed for my brother’s wedding cake!), a cardamom-infused American buttercream, a homemade cherry jam and an abundance of chocolate curls (which, as it turns out, are incredibly easy to make at home!).

Tuesday: Homemade Cherry Jam Recipe

Wednesday: Easy Chocolate Curls

Thursday: Chocolate, Cherry and Cardamom Cake Recipe

Friday: Chocolate, Cherry and Cardamom Cake (The Rectangular Version) Recipe

A little note: because we’ll be deep in chocolate curls on Wednesday, there won’t be a WIP Wednesday post this week! Don’t worry though, you won’t be missing anything— in Week 4 of making my Porcelain Sweater, I knit a grand total of… 6 rows of rib. Check back in next week for some more interesting progress (hopefully!).

Florrie & Mohit specifically requested a simple, 8-inch round cake as their main cake, so, to ensure that there was plenty of cake to go round all of their friends and family, I also made a bigger, rectangular version of the cake that could be sliced in the kitchen and served to the guests once the main cake had been cut (kind of like a loaves-and-fishes situation, where the cake just miraculously keeps coming!).

I used this approach with my last wedding cake and I think it’s a really neat way of doing things because it gives you SO much more flexibility with the size of the main cake. Because of this, you guys get two recipes for the price of one: an 8-inch round version of the cake (on Thursday) and a 13 x 9-inch rectangular version of the cake (on Friday)!

I hope I’ll see you back here tomorrow to talk all things cherry jam!

Gemma

xxx

I recently made a wedding cake for a family friend and, this weekend, I’ve been sharing the recipes & all of the fun, summer-y details! This was only my second time making a wedding cake (check out my Wedding Cake Week series for the first time, where I made the cake for my brother’s big day!), so I am by no means a professional, but I’m so happy with how these cakes turned out and I’m so excited to be sharing them with you now!

Yesterday, I shared the recipe for the main cake: an 8-inch, circular, 4-layer, naked cake, made up of an orange & olive oil sponge, filled with a honey-yoghurt icing and decorated with edible pressed flowers & homemade candied orange peels.

Along with the main cake, I made two rectangular traybake versions of the same cake (same sponge, same icing, same decoration), to ensure that there was plenty of cake to go around! In today’s post, I’m sharing that scaled-up, traybake version of the original recipe, plus some tips/tricks for working with larger cakes (which these traybakes, coming in at 9 x 13 inches inch, definitely are!).

Let’s get into it!

The Tin

For each of the two traybakes, I used this tin from Silverwood: it’s a 9 x 13 x 2 inch, rectangular tin with straight sides and a loose base. This is such a good tin: you get super neat, perfectly straight sides on your finished cake, it’s really easy to get the cake out of it once it’s baked (thanks to the loose base) and the cake cooks really evenly. It is on the pricier side, but, like all Silverwood tins, I think it’s a really good investment: particularly if you’re making a naked cake like this, where it’s really important that the cake itself is super neat and tidy!

The quantities/temperatures in this recipe are specifically formulated for a baking tin of this size. If you want to use a different size/shape tin, you will need to adjust the amounts/temperatures accordingly.

Just like with the circular cake, it’s really important to prepare the tin properly for this recipe, so that the cake doesn’t stick to the tin. This includes:

• Brushing the whole tin with a layer of my DIY Cake Release.
• Lining the bottom of the tin with a rectangle of baking paper.
• Brushing a thin layer of DIY Cake Release on top of the baking paper layer.
• Once the cake comes out of the oven, gently pushing the edges of the cake inwards, towards the centre, to loosen them from the sides of the tin.

I know it sounds a bit overkill, but this cake can be a bit of a menace when it comes to sticking to the tin, so it’s better to be safe than sorry!

Baking the Traybakes

The only differences between the traybake sponges and the circular sponges are a) the tins, b) the ingredient quantities and c) the baking times/temperatures. Otherwise, the whole process of preparing the tins, making the cake batter and checking for the doneness of the cake are exactly the same. Because of this, I won’t be doing a deep-dive into the step-by-step process here. If you want to check out my previous two posts on this particular cake batter for more detailed instructions, you can find them here:

• Mini Orange & Olive Oil Layer Cakes with Greek Yoghurt and Honey Icing
• Orange & Olive Oil Layer Cake with Honey-Yoghurt Icing (Wedding Cake Weekend #2)

The traybakes are larger than the original, circular cake. This means that:

• The quantity of cake batter required is larger.
• The baking temperature should be lower.
• The baking time will be longer.

This is standard practice for larger cakes: obviously, they require more cake batter, but also, in order to ensure they are fully cooked through (and don’t burn on the top!), they need to be baked at a lower temperature for a longer time. Therefore, these traybakes are baked at 160°C (conventional oven, not fan) for 55-60 minutes (compared to the smaller, 8-inch, circular layer cake, which is baked at 165°C for 35-40 minutes).

Assembling the Traybakes

Unlike the main cake, which is split into 4, thin layers, I split each of these traybakes into two layers, so I had two separate, 2-layer cakes. You could absolutely split each traybake into 4 layers by splitting each half into half again horizontally, but it can be quite tricky to work with larger cakes than this, so you would need to be very gentle and careful to ensure that you do not break any of the layers. Also, be aware that you will need twice as much icing (because you’ll be filling 2 extra layers!), so plan accordingly. Because my traybakes were for a (very important!) event, I decided that it was easier to go for two thicker layers: you still get plenty of the delicious icing, but it significantly lowers the risk factor involved!

As with the circular cake, I found it easiest to use a cake leveller to split each cake in half (I use this one). Because these cakes have such a large surface area and have such clean, sharp edges, using a cake leveller makes it much easier to cut through the sponges in a perfectly neat, straight line. Having said that, if you’re confident in your ability to cut in straight lines (I am not), you could absolutely use a large, serrated knife instead!

I used the exact same method as the circular cake to fill the traybakes: just piping dollops of the icing all over the surface of the cake. Because these are rectangular cakes, I piped the dollops in rows (as opposed to the concentric circles of the main cake!).

Decorating the Traybakes

While, with the main cake, I added the flower/candied orange peels in a ring around the circumference of the cake, with the traybakes, I opted to just scatter the decorations all over the surface. I actually love how this approach turned out: I think these traybakes ended up looking so pretty, summer-y and fun!

Just like with the main cake, I started with the bigger, more dramatic edible flowers, then worked my way down to the smaller flowers. Once all of the individual flowers were placed, I added the candied orange peels. Finally, I sprinkled over some mixed dried petals, to give the whole thing a colourful, celebratory feel.

Tips for Working with Large Cakes

As cakes go, a 9 x 13 inch one is pretty large and, as a result, can be a little unruly to work with!

Below are a few tips for working with large cakes, to make the process as easy as possible for you:

• Use a cake leveller.

As I mentioned, you can absolutely use a large, serrated knife to split a large cake in half horizontally, as you need to do for this recipe, but the large area does mean that there’s more room for things to go a bit askew! I find it easier to use a cake leveller for this, because you can just slowly walk it through the sponge and let it do all the hard work for you. I use this one.

• Use a cake lifter.

With such a large surface area, there’s a greater potential for cracking/breakages whenever you move the cake around, particularly if you’ve sliced it in half and are working with thinner, more fragile layers. While you’re unlikely to find a cake lifter that can hold the full surface area of this cake, it will still do a better job than your hands at supporting more of the cake at any given time, so it’s worth using one if you have it!

• When holding the cake, let it rest on your forearms.

I know that hands are a cook’s best tools and all that, but I think forearms are underrated. Anything you can do to increase the amount of cake you’re supporting will help prevent breakages, so letting the cake rest on your forearms if you need to transfer it from Point A to Point B is a helpful workaround, particularly if you don’t have a cake lifter.

• Make sure you have a serving plate/board large enough!

This one seems pretty obvious, but the bigger the cake, the bigger the serving plate you’ll need for it! If you can’t find anything big enough, you could always use a chopping board or baking tray (though, if you’re making the cake for an event, I would recommend purchasing a sturdy, professional cake board, like this one!).

Recipe

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Orange & Olive Oil Traybake with Honey-Yoghurt Icing

A traybake-ified version of my Orange & Olive Oil Layer Cake, filled with honey-yoghurt icing and decorated with edible pressed flowers & homemade candied orange peels.

Course Dessert

Keyword Greek yoghurt, Honey, Olive oil, Orange

Prep Time 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour

Total Time 2 hours hours 19 minutes minutes

Servings 50 wedding servings

Equipment

• 9 x 13 x 2 inch traybake tin (see Note 1).
• 1 piping bag, fitted with a large, round nozzle
• cake leveller (or a large, serrated knife).

Ingredients

For the tin:

• 2 batches DIY Cake Release (see Note 2).

For the cake:

• 450 g golden caster sugar
• 6 oranges (zest of 6 + 180ml juice (approx. 3-4 oranges).
• 6 eggs
• 180 ml extra virgin olive oil
• 380 g plain flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 pinch fine sea salt

For the icing:

• 765 g Greek yoghurt (at least 10% fat)(see Note 3).
• 385 ml double cream
• 110 g runny honey (see Note 4).

To decorate:

• Edible pressed flowers (see Note 5).
• Candied orange peels (see Note 6).

Instructions

Prepare the cake tin:

• Brush the cake tin all over with a layer of DIY Cake Release. Line the base of the tin (not the sides) with baking paper, then brush the surface of the paper with a little more Cake Release. Set aside.

Make the orange & olive oil cake:

• Preheat the oven to 160°C (conventional oven, not fan).
• Place the caster sugar into the bowl of an electric stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment. Zest all 6 oranges directly into the bowl with the sugar, then use the back of spoon to press the zest into the sugar until evenly distributed.
• Add the eggs to the sugar, then whisk on high speed until the mixture has become pale and doubled in size. It should be thick and creamy, like the consistency of softly whipped cream.
• While the egg mixture is whisking, combine the flour, baking powder and sea salt in a mixing bowl. Set aside.
• With the mixer running, pour the olive oil into the egg mixture in a slow, steady stream, until it is all incorporated.
• Repeat this process with 180ml of freshly-squeezed orange juice, pouring it in in a slow, steady stream with the mixer running, until it is all incorporated.
• Remove the bowl from the stand mixer and sift 1/4 of the dry ingredient mixture directly over the surface of the batter. Use a handheld balloon whisk to fold the dry ingredients in gently, but thoroughly.
• Repeat this process 3 more times, adding 1/4 of the dry ingredients each time, until they are completely incorporated. Switch to a spatula for one final, brief stir to make sure no flour remains at the bottom of the bowl.
• Pour the batter into the prepared tin, then bake in the preheated oven for 55-60 minutes, until the edges of the cake are starting to pull away from the sides of the tin and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
• As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, use your fingers, or the flat edge of a palette knife, to very gently push the edges of the cakes inwards, towards the centre. This helps the cake to release from the sides of the tin, making it easier to get it out of the tin once they are cool and ensuring that the cake has neat edges later.
• Allow the cake to cool most of the way in the tin, then turn out onto a wire rack, carefully remove the baking paper from the bottom and allow to cool completely before assembling.

Make the icing:

• When the cake are cool, make the icing. Place the yoghurt, cream and honey into the bowl of a stand mixer. Whisk on high speed until the mixture just holds stiff peaks. Don't over-whip. Transfer to a piping bag, fitted with a large, round nozzle.

Assemble the cake:

• Once the cake is cold and the icing is made, it's time to assemble. Start by dividing the cake into two layers horizontally. I use a cake leveller for this, but you can use a large, serrated knife instead.
• Add a generous smear of icing to the centre of your serving plate/board, then stick the first layer of cake on top, making sure it is centred and level.
• Pipe rows of icing dollops all over the surface of the first cake layer, making sure the dollops around the perimeter of the cake are neat, as they will be on show.
• Carefully top with the second layer of cake, then repeat the icing process again. Make sure that all of the piping on this layer is neat, because this will be the top of the cake.
• Place the cake into the fridge to chill for 15-20 minutes, then arrange the edible flowers and orange peels all over the surface.
• The cake must be stored in the fridge until you are ready to serve it. As long as the cream/yoghurt were well within their use-by date, it will last for 2-3 days.

Notes

1. I use this tin from Silverwood.
2. My recipe for DIY Cake Release is absolutely essential for this recipe, because the cake batter is very prone to sticking to the tins.
3. Make sure to use a Greek yoghurt that has a fat content of 10%: this will make for a perfectly thick, creamy and stable icing.
4. I used a selection of pressed, edible flowers from Nurtured in Norfolk.
5. You can find my recipe for Homemade Candied Orange Peels here.

I recently made a wedding cake for a family friend and, this weekend, I’m sharing the recipes & all of the fun, summer-y details! This was only my second time making a wedding cake (check out my Wedding Cake Week series for the first time, where I made the cake for my brother’s big day!), so I am by no means a professional, but I’m so happy with how these cakes turned out and I’m so excited to share them with you!

Yesterday, I shared the recipe for the Homemade Candied Orange Peels that I used to decorate the cakes. Today, I’m sharing the recipe for the main cake itself: an 8-inch, single-tier (but 4-layer!), naked number, featuring an orange & olive oil sponge and a super easy Greek yoghurt & honey icing. To top it all off, the cake is decorated with a ring of edible pressed flowers, along with some of the candied orange peels.

This cake is a scaled-up version of my Mini Orange & Olive Oil Layer Cakes with Greek Yoghurt and Honey Icing (from my Bridgerton Watch Party series!). The flavours and basic recipe are the same, just, well, bigger! I’ve also made this recipe multiple times now (in various iterations!), so I’ve definitely picked up a few tips and tricks for getting perfect results every time, which I’ll share in this post too.

Equipment

To make this cake, you will need the following specialist equipment:

• 2 x 8-inch circular sandwich tins

I use these tins from Silverwood, which have removable bases. They’re my absolute favourite baking tins.

• DIY Cake Release

You absolutely need to use my DIY Cake Release to line the tins when making this recipe: the cake is very prone to sticking to the tin and the cake release is the only thing I’ve found that prevents this!

• 2 x 8-inch circles of baking paper

Just for some extra peace of mind, along with the DIY Cake Release, I like to line the base of each tin with a circle of baking paper. You can buy these ready cut (a lifesaver if you bake a lot!), or you can trace the base of your tins and cut them out yourself.

• Electric whisk

There’s a lot of whisking in this recipe, so I really do recommend using an electric whisk for it. I used a stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment, but if you’re feeling a bit more energetic, you could use a handheld electric whisk, instead.

• Cake leveller/large serrated knife

You’ll need to split each cake into two layers horizontally (for a total of 4 layers). I like to use a cake leveller for this because then I know the layers will be even and straight, but, if you don’t have one, you can use a large serrated knife instead. This is the cake leveller I use.

• Piping bag + large round piping nozzle

The icing on this cake is piped in a series of dollops, both between the layers and on top. Because it’s a naked cake, this is a really nice way of getting a pretty finish to the top and the sides and, as an added bonus, it means you’ll always have an even layer of icing between each layer. To get this effect, you will need a piping bag and a large, round piping nozzle (the exact size of the nozzle isn’t too important, so use whatever you have!).

Ingredients

To make the cakes, you will need:

• Caster sugar

I use golden caster sugar because I like the flavour better, but you can use white caster sugar if you prefer.

• Oranges

You’ll need the zest of 4 oranges and 120ml of freshly squeezed orange juice (approx. 2-3 oranges) for this recipe. I recommend using unwaxed oranges.

• Eggs

As always, I use large eggs.

• Extra-virgin olive oil

Use a strong, extra-virgin olive oil, so that the flavour really shines through in the cake.

• Plain flour

Make sure to use plain flour, not self-raising, for this recipe, otherwise there will be too much raising agent (we’re adding baking powder in separately!).

• Baking powder

This helps the cakes to rise and become super light and fluffy.

• Salt

A fine sea salt works best for this recipe.

To make the icing, you will need:

• Greek yoghurt

Not all Greek yoghurts are made equal! For best results, look for a Greek yoghurt that has a fat content of about 10% and a neutral flavour— this will ensure you end up with a thick, creamy icing. Try to avoid yoghurts with additional stabilisers, as these will affect the final texture.

• Double cream

If you’re in the US, use heavy cream.

• Honey

For best results, use a runny honey (as opposed to a set honey, which is waxier and will affect the final texture of the icing).

To decorate the cake, you will need:

• Candied orange peels

You can find the recipe for these here. They can be made in advance and stored in an airtight container in a cool, dry place for 6-8 weeks.

• Edible pressed flowers

I used an assortment of pressed flowers from Nurtured in Norfolk (my go-to source for edible flowers!). My selection included yarrow leaves, lavender heads, primulas, violas, pansies and daisies. I also used their Dried Petal Mix to add a confetti-esque vibe to the cake, which I think really elevated it!

Making the Orange & Olive Oil Sponges: Tips & Tricks

I’ve already shared a step-by-step tutorial for this orange & olive oil cake batter here on the blog, as part of my Bridgerton Watch Party series (you can find that post here!), so I won’t do a deep dive into this scaled up version here. However, as I mentioned, I have perfected the method for this cake during my practices, so I thought I’d share some tips & tricks with you in this psot!

• The DIY Cake Release is essential.

I don’t know what it is about this particular sponge recipe, but it sticks. I found that greasing the cake tin with butter/oil didn’t work, but using my homemade, DIY Cake Release (thankfully!) seemed to do the trick! I do also add a circle of baking paper to the bottom of the tin, just for an extra layer of protection, but don’t be tempted to line the sides too, because the cake needs to ‘cling’ to them to rise properly. I had the best results when I brushed the base and sides of the tin with a layer of DIY Cake Release, then added the baking paper, then brushed another, thin layer of the cake release just on top of the baking paper. It sounds a bit overkill, but it works!

• Zest the oranges directly over the bowl with the sugar.

Zesting the oranges directly over the mixing bowl containing the sugar means that all of the essential oils that are released from the fruit as you zest drop directly into the bowl, so you get even more orange flavour!

• Mix the zest and sugar together before adding the eggs.

Use the back of a spoon to press the zest and sugar together until it’s evenly combined. This is another trick that really helps to amplify the orange flavour, while also ensuring that the zest is evenly distributed throughout the batter.

• Whisk the eggs and sugar together until super thick.

It’s so easy to under-whisk the eggs and sugar when making foam cakes! You want the mixture to be super thick (like the consistency of softly whipped cream!), pale and fluffy, so whisk it for a good while. You can also use the ‘ribbon stage’ test to see if the mixture is ready: you should be able to draw a complete figure of eight with the ribbon of batter falling off the beater before the shape you’ve drawn settles back into the rest of the mixture.

I would definitely recommend using an electric whisk for this: I like to use my stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment for best results, but if you’ve got more arm strength than me, you could use a handheld whisk instead.

• Add the olive oil/orange juice in slow, steady streams, with the mixer running.

You want both of these liquids to incorporate into the egg/sugar mixture fully before you add the dry ingredients. The best way to do this is to add them each in a slow, steady stream, with the mixer running, to ensure that they are fully and evenly incorporated.

• Add the dry ingredients 1/4 at a time.

Adding the dry ingredients is the main pitfall with this recipe, because the flour mixture has a tendency to clump and then ‘hide’ in the batter, so, when you cut into your cakes, you find pesky lumps of unmixed flour! One way to help prevent this is to add the dry ingredients in batches and folding in each one fully (but gently) before adding the next batch. I like to do this in quarters (i.e. 4 separate additions).

• Sift each batch of dry ingredients directly over the top of the batter.

Sifting the dry ingredients into the mixture helps to prevent the batter from losing too much air, because you’re distributing the weight over a larger area and only a light layer is added each time.

• Use a handheld balloon whisk to ‘fold’ in the dry ingredients.

Look, I wouldn’t normally recommend using a balloon whisk to ‘fold’ in ingredients, but a whisk is much better at breaking up any clumps of flour than a spoon/spatula. Additionally, you’re less likely to get a build up of flour on the whisk itself, which means less risk of clumps! To ‘fold’ in the ingredients with a whisk, just use the exact same motion that you would use with a spoon/spatula, cutting under and back through the mixture, making sure to be gentle, but thorough, to evenly mix the batter without knocking out too much of the air.

• Use a spatula for the final stir.

I use a spatula to make sure I get all of the batter out of the bowl anyway, so I like to use it to do one final, gentle stir of the batter to catch any lingering bits of flour, particularly at the bottom of the bowl. Keep this brief though, you don’t want to knock too much air out!

• Check for doneness with a skewer.

This particular sponge cake feels quite soft when it first comes out of the oven, so, while I usually recommend gently touching the surface of the cake with your finger to check for doneness, that won’t work here. Instead, I like to insert a skewer into the very centre of the cake: if it comes out clean, the cake is ready. You’ll also notice that the cake will start to pull away from the sides of the tin when it’s ready, so you can use that as an indicator too.

• Gently release the cakes from the edges of the tin as soon as they come out of the oven.

I mentioned that this cake has a tendency to stick to the tin and, sadly, that continues even after it is baked. The DIY Cake Release will have done the hard work for you, but it’s very important that as soon as you take the cake out of the oven, you gently push the edges of the cake inwards, away from the sides, to help release them. If the cake’s too hot for your fingers, you can use the flat edge of a palette knife, or the back of a spoon for this. Be gentle, though, because you don’t want to tear the sponge. If you don’t do this, you won’t get a neat edge to your cake later on (believe me, I’ve been there!).

Making the Honey-Yoghurt Icing: Tips & Tricks

Just like with the cake batter, I’ve already got a tutorial for the honey-yoghurt icing here on the blog (you can find it here). Again, I’ll just be sharing a few tips & tricks for getting perfect icing every time in this post:

• Use a Greek yoghurt containing 10% fat.

This one took a bit of trial and error to uncover, but it’s really important that your Greek yoghurt has a fat content of at least 10%. The higher fat content gives a thicker yoghurt without the need for stabilisers, and will make your icing the perfect consistency.

• Use a runny honey.

Set/creamed honeys typically have a higher wax content than runny honey, which will affect the mouthfeel/texture of your icing, so I’d recommend opting for a runny honey for the best results.

• Whisk until the mixture reaches stiff peaks, but don’t over-whip.

Because of the cream in this icing, it can be overwhipped, at which point it will start to look curdled. You want the icing to be stiff enough to hold its shape and support the weight of the cake (which it can do— it’s a surprisingly strong and stable icing!), but you don’t want to overwhip it, so I recommend whipping until it just holds stiff peaks (if you tilt the bowl slightly, the icing inside shouldn’t ‘slip’ around— that’s when you know it’s ready!). Be aware that as you pipe the icing it will thicken up a little more too, so it’s better to under-whip it to begin with: you can always squeeze it back out and whip it again if needed.

Assembling the Cake

Once your cakes are baked and your icing is made, it’s time to assemble the cake. Assembling the bigger version of this recipe is a similar process to the mini cakes, but not exactly the same (mainly because we’re working with 4 layers here, as opposed to 3!).

First up, you need to split each cake into two separate layers, so that you end up with a total of four thin layers of cake. You can do this with a large, serrated knife but I prefer to use a cake leveller, because this cake is quite delicate (and I don’t trust myself to cut in a straight line freehand!).

Once you’ve split the cake layers, you can start assembling. Because this was a wedding cake, I assembled it directly onto the board I would be transporting/serving the cake on, so I started by spreading a generous amount of the icing onto the middle of the board, to stick down the first layer.

Make sure that first cake layer is sitting level and is centred on the serving board/plate, then pipe the icing all over the surface in dollops, arranging them in concentric circles. I like to work around the circumference of the cake first (making sure to be neat, as those are the dollops that will show once the cake is assembled), before working inwards until the whole surface is covered.

Once the first icing layer is finished, you can carefully add the next layer of cake, making sure it is level and lined up with the cake below. Then, you just repeat the same icing process all over again.

Keep going like this until you’ve added the final cake layer, then add the final layer of icing, still in that piped dollop formation, making sure to be extra neat this time around because this top layer will be on show!

As I mentioned, this is a deceptively sturdy icing that will really keep your cake standing strong. However, it will benefit from a quick chill in the fridge, just to help it firm up. I like to do this before I add the decoration, so that I don’t jostle it about too much as I add the candied peels/flowers, but the cake needs to be stored in the fridge anyway, so you can do this after you’ve decorated it instead, if you prefer.

Decoration

The decoration on this cake super easy: you’re basically just adding an assortment of pressed, edible flowers and homemade orange peels around the circumference of the cake, right on top of that final icing layer. If it helps, you can picture it as a kind of ‘flower crown’, topping off the cake!

I like to start with the bigger pressed flowers/leaves, then work my way down to the smaller, ‘filler’ flowers. Once I’d added all of the individual flowers, I added the orange peels. Finally, I scattered over some of the flower petal ‘confetti’, to really add a bit of life and celebration to the cake.

With that, it was done! As I mentioned, the cake does need to be stored in the fridge until you’re ready to serve it, because of the cream in the icing. As long as both the cream and the yoghurt are still within their use-by date, this cake will keep for 2-3 days in the fridge.

Recipe

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Orange & Olive Oil Layer Cake with Honey-Yoghurt Icing

A scaled-up version of my mini orange & olive oil cakes, decorated with edible pressed flowers and homemade candied orange peels: this is a perfect, summer celebration cake!

Course Dessert

Keyword Cake, Greek yoghurt, Honey, Olive oil, Orange

Prep Time 1 hour hour 25 minutes minutes

Cook Time 35 minutes minutes

Servings 36 wedding servings

Equipment

• 2 x 8-inch round sandwich tins (see Note 1).
• 2 x 8-inch round circles of baking paper
• 1 piping bag, fitted with a large, round nozzle
• 1 cake leveller (or a large, serrated knife).

Ingredients

For the tin:

• 1 batch DIY Cake Release (see Note 2).

For the cake:

• 300 g golden caster sugar
• 4 oranges (zest of 4 + 120ml juice (approx. 2-3 oranges)).
• 4 eggs
• 120 ml extra virgin olive oil
• 250 g plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• Fine sea salt

For the icing:

• 630 g Greek yoghurt (at least 10% fat)(see Note 3).
• 320 ml double cream
• 90 g runny honey

For the decoration:

• Edible pressed flowers (see Note 4).
• Candied orange peels (see Note 5).

Instructions

Prepare the cake tins:

• Brush each cake tin all over with a layer of DIY Cake Release. Add a circle of baking paper to the bottom of each tin, then brush the surface of the paper with a little more Cake Release. Set aside.

Make the cakes:

• Preheat the oven to 165°C (conventional oven, not fan).
• Place the caster sugar into the bowl of an electric stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment. Zest all 4 oranges directly into the bowl with the sugar, then use the back of spoon to press the zest into the sugar until evenly distributed.
• Add the eggs to the sugar, then whisk on high speed until the mixture has become pale and doubled in size. It should be thick and creamy, like the consistency of softly whipped cream.
• While the egg mixture is whisking, combine the flour, baking powder and sea salt in a mixing bowl. Set aside.
• With the mixer running, pour the olive oil into the egg mixture in a slow, steady stream, until it is all incorporated.
• Repeat this process with the orange juice, pouring it in in a slow, steady stream with the mixer running, until it is all incorporated.
• Remove the bowl from the stand mixer and sift 1/4 of the dry ingredient mixture directly over the surface of the batter. Use a handheld balloon whisk to fold the dry ingredients in gently, but thoroughly.
• Repeat this process 3 more times, adding 1/4 of the dry ingredients each time, until they are completely incorporated. Switch to a spatula for one final, brief stir to make sure no flour remains at the bottom of the bowl.
• Divide the batter between the two prepared tins, then bake in the preheated oven for 35-40 minutes, until the edges of the cakes are starting to pull away from the sides of the tins and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cakes comes out clean.
• As soon as the cakes come out of the oven, use your fingers, or the flat edge of a palette knife, to very gently push the edges of the cakes inwards, towards the centre. This helps the cakes to release from the sides of the tin, making it easier to get them out of the tin once they are cool and ensuring that the cakes have neat edges later.
• Allow the cakes to cool most of the way in the tin, then turn out onto a wire rack, carefully remove the baking paper from the bottom and allow to cool completely before assembling.

Make the icing:

• When the cakes are cool, make the icing. Place the yoghurt, cream and honey into the bowl of a stand mixer. Whisk on high speed until the mixture just holds stiff peaks. Don't over-whip. Transfer to a piping bag, fitted with a large, round nozzle.

Assemble the cake:

• Once the cakes are cold and the icing is made, it's time to assemble. Start by dividing each cake into two layers horizontally, so you're left with 4, thin layers. I use a cake leveller for this, but you can use a large, serrated knife instead.
• Add a generous smear of icing to the centre of your serving plate/board, then stick the first layer of cake on top, making sure it is centred and level.
• Pipe a circle of icing dollops all around the circumference of the first cake's surface, then work your way inwards until the surface is completely covered with icing.
• Carefully top with the second layer of cake, then repeat the icing process again.
• Repeat this twice more, taking extra care with the final layer of icing, as this will will be on show.
• Place the cake into the fridge to chill for 15-20 minutes, then arrange the edible flowers and orange peels on top, placing them around the circumference of the cake, right on top of that final icing layer.
• The cake must be stored in the fridge until you are ready to serve it. As long as the cream/yoghurt were well within their use-by date, it will last for 2-3 days.

Notes

1. I use these tins from Silverwood.
2. My recipe for DIY Cake Release is absolutely essential for this recipe, because the cake batter is very prone to sticking to the tins.
3. Make sure to use a Greek yoghurt that has a fat content of 10%: this will make for a perfectly thick, creamy and stable icing.
4. I used a selection of pressed, edible flowers from Nurtured in Norfolk.
5. You can find my recipe for Homemade Candied Orange Peels here.

If you missed yesterday’s post, I recently made a wedding cake for a family friend and, this weekend, I’m sharing the recipes & all of the fun, summer-y details here on the blog!

This was only my second time making a wedding cake (check out my Wedding Cake Week series for the first time, where I made the cake for my brother’s big day!), so I am by no means a professional, but I’m so happy with how these cakes turned out and I can’t wait to share them with you!

We’re starting small with today’s post and focusing on the homemade candied orange peel decorations. These can be made way in advance (to minimise the inevitable, last-minute wedding stress) and make such a pretty, twinkle-y (and delicious) cake decoration. Plus, they’re surprisingly easy to make!

Ingredients

You only need 4 ingredients to make these candied orange peels:

• An unwaxed orange

You only need the rind of the orange for this recipe, so feel free to make yourself a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice after you’ve made these candied peels! I recommend using an unwaxed orange for this recipe, seeing as you’ll be eating the rind.

• Caster sugar

The orange peels are gently cooked in a sugar syrup to candy them, so you’ll need sugar! It’s best to use caster sugar for this step, because it dissolves more quickly/easily than granulated sugar, but you can choose either golden or white sugar. I prefer to use white caster sugar here, because I think it maintains the vibrant, orange hue of the peels better.

• Water

Does water even count as an ingredient? Who knows… Either way, you need some water to make the sugar syrup.

• Granulated sugar

The candied peels are tossed in granulated sugar to give them a pretty, sparkly appearance and make them easier to handle (read: less sticky). I like to use golden granulated sugar for this, but you can use different types of sugar to achieve different finishes to your candied peels. Granulated sugar gives a sparser, crunchier and more sparkle-y appearance than caster sugar, which provides a denser, crispier coating to the peels. Using golden sugar means there’s less contrast between the shade of the candied peels and the sugar, which gives them a more subtle, twinkle-y vibe, while white sugar will give them a more noticeably ‘frosty’ look. All of this to say: it’s up to you! Pick your favourite, or just use what you have on hand: they’ll taste great whatever!

How to Make Candied Orange Peels

These orange peels are deceptively easy to make and go a long way: you don’t need many to add a touch of citrus decoration to your bakes! Having said that, you can easily scale up this recipe, just use more oranges and increase the amounts of sugar/water proportionally.

To make the candied peels, start by preparing the orange. Use a sharp vegetable peeler to peel all of the rind off the orange, aiming for long strips. I like to peel the orange vertically, from the stem down, so that all of my strips are a similar length.

Once you have all of your peelings ready, use a sharp knife to cut each one into very thin ribbons.

The next step is to boil the peels in water for a few minutes, to help remove some of the bitterness. Fill a small saucepan with water and bring it to the boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer, then add the peels and allow them to simmer for 3 minutes.

After the peels have simmered, strain them and rinse them in cold water. While you’re there, rinse out the saucepan, ready for the sugar syrup.

For the sugar syrup, place the caster sugar and the water into the saucepan and set it over medium heat. You don’t want to stir the syrup, because this might make it crystallise. Just let it sit over the heat until the sugar has dissolved.

Once the sugar has dissolved, keep the pan over the heat until the syrup comes to a steady boil.

At this point, add the drained, rinsed peels to the sugar syrup and turn the heat to low.

Allow the peels to cook in the syrup for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes, strain the peels through a heatproof sieve, pressing down on them gently with the back of a spoon to remove any excess syrup. You can keep this syrup to use in orange-flavoured drinks, if you want! It will keep in the fridge for a few days days.

Place the golden granulated sugar (or the sugar of your choosing) into a bowl and add the strained, cooked peels.

Use two forks to toss the peels in the sugar, until the individual ribbons have separated out and each peel is well-coated in the sugar.

Remove the peels from the bowl and spread them out on a large baking tray, lined with baking paper. I usually do this with my hands, picking out the peels one at a time (they should be much cooler at this point, but make sure to check first so you don’t burn yourself!), so that I can really separate them out, but, if you’re in a rush, you can shake the whole lot through a clean, dry sieve, to remove all of the excess sugar.

Set the baking tray aside in a cool, dry place overnight, to dry out completely before using to decorate your cake/bake (or just snacking on them, because they’re pretty tasty!).

Storing the Candied Orange Peels

These candied orange peels can be made way in advance, which is perfect for minimising any last-minute event/wedding stress!

After the peels have dried out overnight, just transfer them to an airtight container and store them in a cool, dry place. Like this, they’ll keep for 6-8 weeks, so you can get way ahead with your prep!

Recipe

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Candied Orange Peel

This versatile treat can be enjoyed by itself, dipped in chocolate, chopped & stirred into batters, or used to decorate other bakes!

Course Snack

Keyword Orange

Prep Time 22 minutes minutes

Cook Time 18 minutes minutes

Drying Time 12 hours hours

Total Time 12 hours hours 40 minutes minutes

Ingredients

• 1 unwaxed orange
• 100 g white caster sugar (see Note 1).
• 100 ml water
• 50 g golden granulated sugar (see Note 2).

Instructions

• Start by preparing the orange. Use a vegetable peeler to peel the rind off the orange in long strips. Then, use a large, sharp knife to cut the peelings into very thin ribbons.
• Bring a small saucepan of water to the boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer, then add the orange peel strips and simmer for 3 minutes.
• Drain the orange peels through a heatproof sieve and rinse thoroughly in cold water. Set the peels aside and wash out the saucepan.
• Place the white caster sugar and the water into the saucepan. Set over medium heat and allow the sugar to dissolve (do not stir at this stage, or the syrup might crystallise).
• Once all of the sugar has dissolved, bring the syrup to a steady boil, then add the drained orange peels to the pan. Turn the heat down to low and cook the peels in the syrup for 15 minutes.
• After 15 minutes, pass the peels through the heatproof sieve to remove the syrup (you can reserve this orange syrup to use in drinks later!).
• Transfer the drained peels to a bowl containing the granulated sugar and toss with two forks until all of the peels are coated.
• Remove the peels from the sugar bowl (you can pick them out individually or use a dry sieve to shake away the excess sugar). The excess sugar can now be discarded (or, like the syrup, used for some orange-y drinks).
• Spread the peels out on a baking tray, lined with greaseproof paper, making sure they are in a single layer. Set them aside in a cool, dry place, overnight to dry out, then transfer them to an airtight container and store in a cool, dark place until ready to use/serve. The peels can be stored like this for 6-8 weeks.

Notes

1. I like to use white caster sugar for the syrup, because I find that it helps to preserve the vibrant, orange hue of the peels, but you can use golden caster sugar if that’s what you have on hand. I would recommend using caster sugar for this stage, because it dissolves more quickly/easily than granulated.
2. I like to use golden granulated sugar for tossing the candied peels in, because I think it gives a pretty, twinkle-y effect, but you can use whatever sugar you have on hand/prefer. White sugar will gives a slightly frostier effect, while caster/finer sugar will give a crispier, denser coating. 

Back in April, I made my first ever wedding cake for my brother & sister-in-law’s big day. Naturally, I documented the whole process here on the blog (in a series that I called Wedding Cake Week), so if you missed it, you can catch up with that here!

Now, though, it’s time for Wedding Cake Weekend (or Wedding Cake: The Sequel)! That’s right, another happy couple, another big day and, yep, another cake. This time, the cake was for a family friend and the wedding is much closer to home (which takes out a whole element of preparation/planning— phew!).

In today’s post, I’ll be sharing a general overview of the cake: a bit on the background and a bit on the logistics. I’ll also be sharing the schedule for Wedding Cake Weekend, so you know when to check back in if there’s something you’re particularly excited for (you can also sign up to my newsletter, which will send you an email whenever a new post goes live here on the blog! You can find the subscribe button to the right of the webpage on a desktop, or, if you’re on a mobile device, it’ll be towards the bottom of the page.).

With that, it’s time to kick off Wedding Cake Weekend!

The Cake

Okay, let’s talk about the important stuff: the cake itself. This time around, the main cake is a simple, 8-inch round, single-tier number. However, it comes with backup (in the form of two rectangular traybakes (13×19 inches each)), to make sure there’s plenty of cake to go around!

All three cakes are the exact same flavour: orange & olive oil, with a honey-yoghurt icing, decorated with homemade candied orange peels and pressed edible flowers. Sound familiar? It should! It’s basically a scaled-up, extra-special version of my Mini Orange & Olive Oil Layer Cakes with Greek Yoghurt and Honey Icing from my Bridgerton Watch Party series!

This cake is actually pretty simple to make: the cake itself is inspired by a traditional Moroccan Meskouta, which is vaguely reminiscent of a (extremely citrus-ified) genoise sponge, so it’s super light & fluffy. The icing is, quite literally, a throw it all in a bowl and whisk situation, while the candied orange peels are so much easier to make than you might expect. Finally, the edible flowers add a pretty, summer-y vibe with minimal effort! As wedding cakes go, then, this one is pretty straightforward (but still super fun & delicious, of course!).

Wedding Cake Weekend: Schedule

Okay, so, technically, this Wedding Cake ‘Weekend’ is running from today (Friday) to Monday, so I guess it’s kind of a… long weekend? No matter though, that just means more cake content for us!

Here’s what you can look forward to over the next 3 days:

Day 1 (Saturday 30th August): Candied Orange Peels

Day 2 (Sunday 31st August): The Main Cake

Day 3 (Monday 1st September): The Traybakes

Annnnnddddd that’s Wedding Cake Weekend! I’ll come back and update this schedule with links to the posts as they go live.

I hope I’ll see you back here tomorrow for Day 1!

Gemma

xxx

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!

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