It's classy, beautiful, and looks delicious. And I'll be making one just like it (my own recipe though).Yes, that's right, I am baking and decorating my own wedding cake. Before I get to the the nitty gritty of how it went today, I thought I would answer a few frequently asked questions.
Q: Are you crazy?!
A: No, I'm not, thanks for asking though.
Q: Why are you doing your own cake, then?
A: Several reasons. To begin, even accounting for supplies (cake circles, pans, ingredients, etc) and my cake trial, I am saving approximately 300 bucks by doing my own cake. Also, I don't like fondant and I'm picky about my buttercream. Lastly, and I don't mean to toot my own horn or anything, but I am a rather good baker, so I know my cake will be delish.
Q: So what flavor are you going with?
A: The cake will be a four-tiered coconut cake. There will be three flavors of fillings: raspberry, lemon curd, and pineapple. It will be frosted in a lemon buttercream frosting.
Q: Are you getting any help?
A: Of course! My wonderful sister and Matron of Honor, Kayla is going to help me with the process.
Now, on to how it went today during the baking process...
I was a bit nervous about the entire process. I've done cute little cakes before and my brother's groom's cake but never a four-tiered monstrosity.
...which is why I accidentally doubled the amount of baking soda in the first batch.
Darn. Notice the big ol' sink in the middle of it? Not off to a great start. Oh well, that tier will just be a bit smaller than the others.This is where it gets a bit trickier. For three tiers I needed to multiply the recipe by approximately 3.25. I rounded up to 3.5 for the sake of adding one tiny little top tier to save for our first anniversary. However, you can't multiply one egg by .5.
Due to logistics, what I did was multiply the recipe by two in order to fill one twelve inch pan and one six inch pan, then my little bitty springform. This of course made more batter than was needed and I added a bit too much in the first batch. It took forever to bake and the top got a bit dark- but that part will be shaved off when I make the tiers equal heights anyway.
The third batch I did the same thing- until I noticed that somewhere in my calculations I didn't factor in all the butter I needed- I was one stick short. So I used margarine- which, in my mind, is one of the hugest sins of baking. This batch turned out pretty darn good, though!
A bit of a sink, but nothing I can't handle. Four hours after I began, I was finished baking. Yay!My kitchen was destroyed.
It doesn't look too bad, but believe me- coconut and flour everywhere.So here is what I learned/took note of during part one of my trial run:
1.) PAY ATTENTION TO MEASURING... sheesh, adding an extra teaspoon of baking soda... what was I thinking?
2.) Try to get the pans filled equally- mark the sides of the the 9 inch pans, then mark the same way up on the others.
3.) I am a bit worried about mixing the cake up in Spokane. Due to my HUGE kitchenaid mixer, I was able to double the recipe but still keep it in the bowl.
...barely. I know most people don't own the huge one... so I might have to use a hand mixer and Mama's large yellow bowl instead.4.) Measuring out the ingredients before you begin mixing is a huge time saver. While one batch was in the oven I was able to clean the mixing bowl, separate the eggs, sift the drys, and measure out the rest of the ingredients in bowls/measuring cups. I think that's why this took me 4 hours instead of 8.
5.) Put Spartacus in his kennel while baking- though I don't think this will be a problem when I'm cooking the real thing up in Spokane. :)
Stay tuned for tomorrow's post, I'll be making the fillings, adding the crumb coat layer of frosting, and hopefully assembling and decorating!
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