small wedding cake

[jessiquina]

hey there! i am making my first wedding cake next week. its going to be fairly small and modest. 12" bottom, 9" middle, and 6" top. they will be filled with lemon curd and iced with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream. and covered in fondant. im just wondering if it will be ok to cover them in fondant and store in my fridge at home for 12-15 hours before assembling and serving?. i have cake boxes to store them in- and i can wrap them with a plastic bag to keep moisture out.

thanks,

 

[rat]

Sounds like you have it all figured out, the bags in boxes will work fine.

One hint is to pipe a ring of buttercream around the edge of each cake layer, it will help the lemon curd in, with fondant that can be tricky.

Cheers.

 

[jessiquina]

thanks for the tip! its those little details that you sometimes forget when stressed!

 

[michaljohn]

its good to know that you making your first weeding cake..for that you reamber that To make a lighter cake, separate the eggs first. Add the yolks to the butter mixture, beat the egg whites then fold into the batter
[*] 

 

[rosesen]

I agree with rat, a dam of icing around the edge works great.

Also, after crumb coating, I like to let the cake settle in the cooler for at least a few hours to allow any bulging or movement of the cake to happen before covering in fondant. I like to have crumb coated tiers on a round board of their own, and then another "working" board underneath - a board used just for transferring the tiers around.

Thumbs up for boxing & bagging - the cake should be fine in the cooler for that amount of time. Where I am, my cakes still sweat a little, but that usually dries in an hour or two.

BTW, I loved the lemon curd recipe you shared! VERY tasty. It worked great in the cake, but I did get a little bit of bulging - I probably should have cooked it thicker.

 

[blwilson2039]

I've always had some "bulging" with cakes filled with curd or bavarian cream, especially on the larger tiers. I solved it by piping the buttercream dam on the layers separately (assuming you have space for this). Then I used a spatula to level the top of the dam. Then I chill it. That way, the buttercream is set when you fill each later. You just have to be really careful that the depth of each dam is the same on each layer and the tops are perfectly level and flat once filled. You can fill the cake and level further with a spatula or bench knife if you need to. A steady hand is vital. Anyway, once the layers are filled, I stack them and put them back into the cooler for about an hour before I crumb coat. And if you don't have an icing tip, get one. Saves a lot of time.

 

[rosesen]

That's a great idea with chilling the dam until set! I'll have to give that a try!

 

[jessiquina]

thanks for the help! i will post a pic when its finished (its due october 24th)

 

[jessiquina]

here it is.

im happy about the height of each tier. and i really like the top.

other than that, im not a great cake decorator, so you can see all the flaws under the fondant. but everything looks level to me.

i didnt like the ribbon. i dont have enough patience to do this kind of thing. but overall, i think it came out ok.

 

[chefpeon]

You did a wonderful job!

 

[chefbazookas]

I think it looks great!  I'd have been super happy with that as my own wedding cake. 

 

[chefbazookas]

Woops!  Sorry.  I didn't realize I was reading in the Professional forum.  /img/vbsmilies/smilies/blushing.gif

 

[jessiquina]

thanks!

 

[rat]

Yes, looks good and no bulging. Good job.

 

[blwilson2039]

Sorry I didn't get back on this forum to see the cake earlier. It looks great. I've also had the problem with small imperfections showing through and the only way you can hide those is to put a thicker coat of fondant on the cake. The only problem with this is that not many people like fondant, and it just adds to the cost. But you did a great job. How did you get the silver ribbon to stay in place? Last time I did a double ribbon (one thinner one in the center of a wide ribbon), I had to use a hot glue gun, and it looked horsey. I didn't have time to go to the fabric store to get that iron-on stuff that makes fabric stick to itself, which would have been my preference, but I also didn't have an iron. AND the double ribbon was given to me 6 hours before the wedding. AND the bride didn't give me enough. Sheesh!!!

 

[jessiquina]

i was given a tip by a fellow cake decorator: double sided tape. i used just a small piece of tape to stick the ribbon to itself. the tape doesnt stick to fondant. ALSO, i didnt know that the cake would sweat and cause the ribbon to kind of curl, that made it really hard to get it just right. (i put the ribbon on after i assembled it at the reception).