Wedding Cake Adventures; or, Falling in Love

So two friends of mine recently asked me to make a wedding cake for them. After much time and deliberation, I agreed on the condition that I would not be making some many-tiered, fondant-covered monstrosity. This agreement lasted about as long as it took me to discover Jess's Pinterest.

Details after the break!

In the end, we eventually settled on flavors, recipes, and such. I had some proposals for decoration as well, amongst them some edible acorns we occasionally use at work and some fondant leaves my mother had played around with.

It's 50% mini Nilla wafer, 50% Hershey's Kiss, and 100% adorable.

Please ignore what sure looks like a pot leaf up there.

Jess and Will were ecstatic, enjoying our breakfast of cake and black coffee. I remember Will being particularly pumped about the acorns. Something about Nilla wafers just seems to get that boy uncharacteristically excited.

The next day was a mere six days from the wedding, so it was time to get to work. Sadly, I was working from Monday to Thursday that week, so all of my prep work would have to happen in the evenings at work. To add to these troubles, we're short-handed at the bakery, so I was late getting home most nights. None the less, the show must go on, and so trudge on we did.

Monday night was all about the acorns. I got 165 of those bastards put together before dinner, then took a break to eat. I seriously considered throwing in the towel at that point, but wanting to get ahead, I buckled down and whipped out the vanilla buttercream for the cupcakes. For those interested parties, the recipe was as follows (enough for ~75 cupcakes):

• 2 c. butter (4 sticks), softened
• 6 c. powdered sugar
• ~1/4 t. salt
• 2 T. vanilla extract (I prefer the Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla stuff)
• 2-4 T. heavy cream, to consistency

Using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, whip up butter slightly until color just lightens. Add powdered sugar and mix slowly until combined, then whip until white and fluffy. Add salt and vanilla and mix until combined. Add cream as needed and whip until desired consistency is reached (icing should be smooth and light, but not runny).

Tuesday night saw me make the filling and the chocolate buttercream. The raspberry filling doesn't really deserve a proper recipe callout: it was two bags of frozen raspberries (12 oz. each), 1/4 cup of lemon juice, 1/2 cup of white sugar, and a little bit of water, cooked down in a saucepan until the raspberries had lost their cohesion. I strained out the solid bits, put the liquid back in the saucepan, and thickened it with ~1/4 cup of corn starch over low heat. I chilled it and put it in a plastic container to save until I was ready to fill the cake. The chocolate buttercream recipe was very similar to the above vanilla recipe, with the following changes: I halved the vanilla extract, removed the heavy cream, and added 5 oz. of melted unsweetened baking chocolate (cocoa powder changes the consistency too much and doesn't mix evenly).

Wednesday night was my first big goof. I used a white cake recipe that I really enjoy, and a double batch of the white cake batter didn't yield as many cupcakes as I thought. I was expecting 4-5 dozen and ended up with only 30 or so cupcakes for my troubles. I'll post my single batch recipe here, anyway: this will apparently yield 2 7" cake layers or ~18 cupcakes:

• 2 eggs, separated
• 1 3/4 c. cake flour, sifted
• 2 t. baking powder
• 1/4 t. salt
• 1/2 c. (1 stick) butter, softened
• 1 c. white sugar
• 1 t. vanilla extract
• 1/2 c. whole milk
• 1/8 t. cream of tartar (optional)

Let the egg yolks and whites come to room temperature (~30 minutes). Preheat oven to 350°F.

Sift together cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Beat the butter until it's soft, then add 3/4 cup of the sugar and beat until fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks, one at a time. Mix in the vanilla. Add in the flour mixture, alternating with the milk, beating until combined each time (beginning and ending with the flour mixture). In a stand mixer with whip attachment, whip the egg whites until foamy. Add the remaining sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. If you have trouble getting the egg whites to form up, add the cream of tartar and keep whipping. Gently fold the egg whites into the butter/flour mixture in stages. Dish out into prepared cake/cupcake pans and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (20-25 minutes-ish).

The very same day, my mother set about working on the fondant leaves (which you may have seen pictured above). The small-ish leaves on the right had come from a mold I'd picked up at a craft store, and those were the favorites, so we'd decided to stick with those for all of the decorations. I needed roughly 75 large leaves and 150 small ones (or 75 full runs of the mold) to top all of the cupcakes, not to mention extras for the cake itself. I was expecting this to be a whole-day project, but Ma knocked it out in a few hours.

This is why it's nice to have a painter in the family.

For the original run, she'd used some of the gel icing colors thinned out a tad. The finished product, however, was powdered food dye mixed up in a little lemon extract (because it's alcohol-based, clear, and tasty). Imitation vanilla extract or vodka would have worked just as well for a base for the colors.

Thursday, trying to make up for my folly, I baked off the rest of the white cupcakes. It was about this time that I was beginning to panic about the amount of work that still lay before me. Fortunately, I had a recipe, and I had a plan. Unfortunately, my plan involved asking my father for help.

I had run out of vanilla extract while making the last of the white cupcakes, so I sent my father a text, imploring him to bring home more vanilla extract. He was gracious enough to do so! Sadly, he'd neglected to put on his glasses before picking out the bottle. Rather than vanilla extract, he brought home vanilla bean paste. My first instinct was to panic. My secondary thought processes, however, began to spin this in a positive light.

Friday morning came and I ran out to grab whatever bullshit vanilla extract I could find (for a background flavor in chocolate cakes, McCormick would do just fine). I set out to bake all of my chocolate cupcakes and my cake layers. It took a quintuple (x5) batch of the following chocolate cake recipe (strongly based on the Hershey's chocolate cake recipe) to make all of the above. The single batch recipe follows:

• 2 c. white sugar
• 1 7/8 c. + 1 T. (or 1 15/16 c.) cake flour, sifted
• 3/4 c. cocoa
• 1/2 T. baking powder
• 1/2 T. baking soda
• 1 t. salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 c. milk
• 1/2 c. vegetable oil
• 2 t. vanilla
• 1 t. espresso powder
• 1 c. boiling water

Preheat your oven to 350° F.

Stir or sift together your sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the eggs, milk, oil, vanilla, and espresso powder, and mix until just combined. Add the boiling water and mix until combined (make sure you scrape down your bowl thoroughly!). Bake 30-35 minutes (for 2 9" cake layers) or 22-25 minutes (for cupcakes), until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few moist crumbs. If you don't have espresso powder, simply replace the espresso powder and boiling water with hot, freshly brewed coffee (1 cup).

This took up the vast majority of my morning on Friday (and involved me breaking the passenger side mirror on my truck, and surely would have failed without the help of my friend Martha). Pictured below is the entirety of my cupcake run (it came out to an even 13 dozen), laid out on my dining room table without icing:

The beer, pictured above, was definitely necessary.

While I'd forgotten to get the cupcake icings out the previous night to warm up, I had the sense to do so first thing in the morning, so we were nearly ready to use them by the time I'd finished baking all of the cupcakes and they were cool enough to ice. For the record, if you're making these simple buttercreams ahead of time, keep them in the fridge, let them sit at room temperature for a couple of hours before using them, and whip them up until they're nice and fluffy before icing with them. I did all of that, iced the cupcakes, then set about gently placing the decorations on the cupcakes.

All of the cupcakes, iced. It's hard to pretend I'm not bragging at this point.

A closer cupcake shot. Note the Christmas-ass tablecloth with fall-ass cupcakes on it.

Once all of that was done, I had to start thinking about the cake itself. The buttercream recipe above was just fine for the cupcakes, but it wasn't going to flat-ice terribly well for the cake itself. Fortunately, my friend Lucy stepped up and presented me with a Swiss buttercream recipe directly from Smitten Kitchen. I present the recipe below, for those who don't want to follow the link, adjusting for additional decorations as I did:

• 6 egg whites
• 1 1/2 c. white sugar
• 39 T. (5 sticks, less one T.) unsalted butter, softened 
• 1/2 T. vanilla bean paste (replacing the vanilla extract)

Whip the egg whites until foamy. Add the sugar and whip until the mixture has turned white and doubled in volume (medium peaks are ideal here). Add the vanilla and the butter (a stick at a time) and whip. Whip, whip, whip. Keep whipping until the mixture goes from fluffy to curdled to smooth again. It will seem like you screwed this up part way through, but keep whipping and all will turn out well (I promise).

Finally, I was in a position to finish this thing off. Late afternoon/early evening was approaching, and I was determined to finish it off. I split the cake layers, and between the layers of cake, I put the raspberry filling (with some buttercream borders to hold that shit in). Sadly, the buttercream didn't work as well for the top layer. I suspect I overfilled it, as the raspberry started leaking out the sides as I was trying to ice the cake. Between some paper towels, extra buttercream, and carefully placed decorations, I think we pulled it off. Still, it's hard to convey the sense of panic that comes with seeing your filling leaking out from between the cake layers.

Once I'd put all the layers together, the order was as follows (bottom to top): cake, raspberry, cake, buttercream, cake, raspberry, cake. I guess it's actually some kind of palindrome. I iced over the lot with the Swiss buttercream (some of it turned pinkish as a result of my spilling raspberry filling). I used an offset spatula, but didn't bother to finish with a smoother or some such, as I knew I'd be covering it with decorations shortly.

The final decorations were done with combinations of the cupcake buttercreams from above and store-bought "decorator icings" (very stiff chocolate/vanilla icings you can get from most craft stores). The store-bought icings are stiff enough to be good for roses and the like, but too stiff to be good for the things I needed (leaves, mums, branches, and the like). Mixing these icings with the buttercream led to an icing that was relatively tasty, stiff enough to be good for decorating, and that held color well. I mixed four colors of icing (red, orange, yellow, and green) and set about combining them in various ways.

The branches on the sides of the cake were made from chocolate decorator icing and the buttercream, done in a couple of layers with a tiny ribbon tip (#47). The detail branches, as well as the little red berries, were done with a positively diminutive straight tip (#5). I combined all four colors of icing into a single bag with a leaf tip (#352) for the autumn leaves. You'll want to put all the colors in different corners of the bag and squeeze out a few leaves on parchment until all of the colors start to show (remember: squeeze, pull, and release).

The hardest part (by far) was the mum. I foolishly agreed to do this thing on the top of a cake, forgetting that I'd only really done it successfully ONCE. There's a special tip made basically just for this (#81), but it still requires some practice to do it successfully. The tricks are: do a little mound of icing in the center (wide and low) and make sure that your petals are long and flat. You really need to pull out pretty far on the petals; start at a nearly flat angle to the cake and gradually work your way up toward vertical petals in the center. Make sure you cover your initial icing mound! I filled the bag with orange icing initially, squeezed it out, then filled it with the yellow icing and used that for the petals. After all else was said and done, I just did a basic shell border with the Swiss buttercream.

The final product, captured from the angle I like better.

The cake, from the angle that really makes me cringe.

Of course, I was left cringing at the result. I could still see pinkish bits from the raspberry icing leaking out, the obvious dips where I failed to flat-ice properly, and the cartoonish branches. Everything about this cake made me want to vomit all over it, chuck it out, and start again. Unfortunately, at this point, I'd been baking for close to 12 hours. So, I decided to wait for the groom to arrive with the cake carrier and tell me what he thought.

Finally, the good news: he loved everything he saw. I decided to call it even and drank my own body weight in alcoholic beverages (special thanks to everyone who brought me beer & booze: Jon, Dave, and Martha, I'm looking at you). We boxed up the cupcakes in some bargain-ass carriers I'd gotten from work, watched some silly shit, and drank some more. A good night was had by all.

I won't bore you all any further with the details of my granny-ass drive with all of the cupcakes and the cake in tow to the wedding location. Suffice it to say that I was overwhelmed by the compliments of a grateful bride and groom and some apparently quite-satisfied wedding guests. Will and Jess even decided to embarrass me somewhat by calling me to the foreground during the cake cutting. Well, allow me to return the favor:

The happy couple during their first dance

I can say this: All of the stress, craziness, and baking flurry was worth it in this moment. I love these two and I'm happy to have been a part of this day. I couldn't hope for any better.

Happy baking,

Brendan