A wedding cake "disaster"

I'm going to share my experience of my 5th wedding cake, but before I do let me share this. I am a taste tester and product reviewer for peppers and more, peppers and more. I have made a few people upset because if I do not like a product I state why, now I hold myself to the same standards because I do not know everything and cannot do everything. I am not the kind of guy that thinks or says everything I do is the best and cannot do anything wrong. I feel if I am honest and admit I made something that bombs, then I can learn from my mistakes and people can take me seriously since I can admit I messed up.

Now, I say this because this 5th wedding cake I did just so happens to be the worst one I have ever made. I made this cake for a really good friend. I told her if the day ever comes that she gets married, I will not miss the wedding and I will make the cake at cost. Well, here it is 10 years later, she gets married, and I happen to have a bad week and make the worst looking cake ever. The cake tasted great, just looked horrible. I made a 3 tier along with an added 1/2 sheet. All but one cake was white cake with raspberry filling; the single cake was poppy seed cake with a lemon filling.

Let me break down what I did. For those who cannot bake, I will show how to assemble a cake. Part of my problem was that I am going to school full time and working 2 part-time jobs. I had classes and worked both jobs while trying to work on the cake. I first want to give a big thanks to Chef Carrie for allowing me to use her classroom to bake my cakes.

Now part of my problems were: one cake broke, I baked a new one at home, that set me back, and the half sheet broke, but I simply made the best of it. My kitchen was so hot, I put in a single window unit air conditioner. The room still never got below 70 degrees. Now a big thing for me is that I am bound and determined to make "EVERYTHING" from scratch, even the rolled fondant. I did make the fondant from scratch and found a new recipe that I like the best, the only problem is, it still needs to be made a few times to get the feel for it, so it is not too wet or too dry. Mine was too dry, and it made it hard to roll out.

Now after the cakes were baked, some people would simply take 2 cakes and put filling in between them. Not me, I split them in half so I would have 3 layers of filling.



You can buy a knife that has some bar that holds a blade sorta like a hacksaw, so this way you can slice the cake in half evenly, or you can do what I do and save some money. I run the blade all around the cake leaving a mark on the cake to make sure it is even all the way around, then start slicing through.


After you get all the cakes sliced through, then put one layer down and run a ring of icing around the cake to hold in the filling, then add whatever filling you are using. Add another layer, and add the ring and filling. Just make sure your very top cake does not get covered with any filling.



After your cake is done, put icing on the cake and just run a plastic bowl scrapper or bench knife or something around it so you have a real thin layer of icing. You do not need a lot and it does not need to be super smooth and perfect since you will cover your cake in rolled fondant.





Now before you put the fondant onto your cake, you need to insert wooden dowels or something like that. That will give your cake structure and support for when you stack them. For a really large base cake, like 14 inches or bigger, I would put 5 or more dowels into the cake. Anything smaller, you can use less. I insert them, then pull them out and cut them down to size, then stick them back in.



My friend wanted eucalyptus green, chocolate brown and a very light pink color, so that was what I did. I could not find eucalyptus green, so I had to do my best to make that color. Then, I put a border around the 1/2 sheet with pink. As much as I hated the cake and thought, "This is the worst cake I have ever made," the bride and her family thought it was great. I told the bride's mother that she was crazy.





I am always looking to learn and improve what I do. I was watching "Ace of Cakes" and while they do not go into detail on how they make their cakes and only show them putting them together, I was watching a little closer hoping to learn. I think, from what I could see, that they roll the fondant thicker than what I did. I think that was part of my problem. If anyone has any ideas, feel free to share your experience with me and any one else. Store bought fondant, and/or giving up, is not an option.

Below is a picture of me, Paula, my good friend, and her husband, Alex. Congrats to you, my friends!



In the days to come, I will post recipes for the two different cakes, the fondant, and butter cream. Rick b