Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Making Your Own Wedding Cake - Instructions

Wedding Wednesday

I know I promised you the instructions for making our daughters wedding cakes a few weeks ago and I apologize for the delay in the post.

We decided to make our daughters cakes to help defray costs. My husband made this a project to do with our daughters, while I made all the sheet cakes. It was such a great bonding and special time between father and daughter.

Did you know that the average wedding cake cost $548 according to the Bridal Association of America.

Bakeries and specialty shops can charge from $1.50 to over $10 per slice, depending on your choice of a standard flavored 2 - 3 tiered cake or a high end gourmet cake. Additional cost are added for fresh flowers, fillings, fondant, delivery and assembly changes. Cutting fees can run up to a dollar per slice.

The cakes we made were fuax with the exception of the top layer on our youngest daughters cake.

Here is what we did....

1. Purchased 4 inch green Styrofoam from Michael's craft store.

2. Cut it in three circles of varying sizes.

3. Applied a thin layer of joint compound.

(The photo below shows the groom to be helping apply the joint compound)



4. Applied a layer of latex paint.


5. Purchased fondant from Michael's craft store.

(Fondant makes the cake looks smooth and satiny)
We added food coloring paste and worked it well into the fondant followed by rolling it out thinly.


6. Applied rolled fondant onto the painted Styrofoam.


7. Trimming fondant even with the bottom of the Styrofoam, and
adding ribbon at the bottom.


8.
Added decorative sugar pearls ...


and decorative scroll work.

(reinforcement wooded blocks were added to help
support the weight of the cake and prevent any leaning before adding the frosting decorations.
)


9. A Monogram was added to the top of the cake along with fresh flowers the day of the wedding.
( The monogram was a Christmas tree ornament purchased for only $1.99 on sale,
compared to $10 - $20 @ Bridal shops.)

Finished cakes!!!

Because the cakes were faux, I baked sheet cakes to serve to the guests.
I used a special recipe given to me by a lady who made wedding cakes for many years.
I topped them off with butter cream frosting.

I made a total of 11 sheet cakes.

I received many complements of these cakes and the great flavor.


Making your own sheet cakes is a great way to keep the cost of the wedding cake low.

The sheet cake costs around $3.50 each, compared to buying them at $20 a cake.






(Cake cost facts from - costhelper.com)


5 comments:

  1. That is such an amazing idea! I paid over $1,200 for my cake! (It was done by Duff from Charm City Cakes, the "Ace of Cakes" guy from Food Network, but that was before he was famous. I can't imagine what they charge now.) To pay all that money just to have it sit out as a decoration and be whisked away to the kitchen when it was time to cut it for the guests does seem dumb. I would have never thought of doing it this way. Great tip!

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  2. Wow! I have read your blog from time to time and I missed this! Very cool!

    Cheryl

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  3. Interesting idea. I NEVER would have thought of this. They turned out gorgeous!

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  4. What a wonderful (tricky!) idea! Is the green a couple's cake and the brown a groom's cake?

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  5. Just happened upon your blog while out looking for ideas for our daughter's wedding this summer. The fake cakes are beautiful! Any chance you would be willing to share the recipe for the sheet cakes you made? You can email me at dar (dot) sieb @ gmail (dot) com

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