My First Wedding Cake

This wasn't a commissioned cake, just something I wanted to do. Part, "Oh, goody. An excuse to try a tiered cake," and part "I'm pretty sure the happy couple won't have a cake, so at least they'll have this, however imperfect it might turn out."



See, we were surprised by a phone call Tuesday night, letting us know that our engaged friends were getting married on Saturday. As in 4 days away. Wow! I knew they'd be dashing around getting the "have tos" done, and that a cake wouldn't be one of them. So I looked around for some decorating ideas and decided to give it a shot. I already knew what kind of cake, so that was set. (And I had the very good sense to nix my idea of using fondant. I've never used it before and this was NOT the time to experiment!)

1-2-3-4 Cake
You've seen this one before. It's my go-to cake recipe.
Adapted from Paula Deen
A delicious, easy, all-purpose yellow cake that stays nice and moist.

1 cup butter (2 sticks), room temperature
2 cups sugar
3 cups self-rising flour*, sifted
4 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup milk, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp butter flavoring
*An easy substitute for self-rising flour is to add 1-1/4 tsp baking powder and 1/4 tsp salt for EACH cup of flour. That's what I did.

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350°F. 
• Grease and flour 1 9-inch cake pan and 1 6-inch pan. Here's how! On parchment paper, trace around the bottom of each pan and trim just inside the line. Spray pan with cooking spray, then line with trimmed parchment. Spray again, making sure to coat entire pan. You can smooth it out with a pastry brush if you want. Then sprinkle with flour, tapping the edge of the pan with the heel of one hand as you rotate the pan with the other. This ensures that the flour is evenly distributed over the entire surface. Don't skip this step. You'll be sorry - trust me!
• Using an electric mixer, cream butter until fluffy. This will take a few minutes. Scrape the bowl and continue mixing.
• Add sugar and continue to cream well for 6 to 8 minutes, scraping down the bowl a couple of times to make sure it's all getting mixed in and fluffy.
• Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape.
• Add flour and milk alternately to creamed mixture, beginning and ending with flour.
  
• Add vanilla and butter flavoring and continue to beat until just mixed. 
• Scoop 2 generous cups of batter into the 6-inch pan. Fill the 9" with remaining batter. Level batter in each pan by holding pan 3 or 4 inches above counter, then dropping it flat onto counter. Do this several times to release air bubbles and assure you of a more level cake. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until done. Cool in pans 10 minutes. Run knife along edge of pan and invert cakes onto cooling racks lined with plastic wrap. Wrap tightly and put in the freezer for at least 1 hour prior to decorating, overnight would be good, too. Frozen cakes are MUCH easier to cut and decorate.

The Best Buttercream Frosting EVER
Seriously, this stuff is amazing. It frosts beautifully and isn't too sweet. If you've checked out Tasty Kitchen lately, you'll see that PW and others are gushing over this one, too. It's slightly different process, but same ingredients and end result.

1 cup sugar
6 Tbsp flour
1 cup milk
1 cup butter (2 sticks) {Do NOT use butter that has been frozen - it won't whip up properly}
1 tsp vanilla extract (you could use any flavoring you want)

Directions

• Measure sugar and flour into a medium sauce pan. Whisk together to incorporate the flour into the sugar. This makes it easier to dissolve. Add milk to pan and whisk until smooth. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens. It will seem like nothing is going to happen, when all of the sudden, it thickens up. Cook for just a few minutes after it begins to set up. Keep stirring; you don't want it to burn-and it will.
• Remove from heat and let cool completely.
• Once cooled, add vanilla and combine with butter in large mixing bowl or stand mixer and whip like crazy (use whisk attachment). Beat for at least 5 minutes until the mixture is light and fluffy. Use immediately. It can be kept in the fridge, but it hardens considerably and will need to warm up a bit before being spreadable.

 
I made a single batch of The Best Buttercream Frosting EVER. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Not the frosting — that's still the best. I CLEARLY needed to double the recipe. Something I realized way too late to make more. So, I had to make a more traditional buttercream:

Basic Buttercream Frosting
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
4 cups confectioner's sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
about 1/4 cup milk, whipping cream or half and half (Adjust amount for correct consistency. If you get heavy-handed and add too much, just add more sugar until you get it right.)

This cake has a wonderful surprise—raspberry buttercream filling. And it's SO easy to make. Take some of your Best Buttercream Frosting EVER and add THIS to it:


For one batch of frosting, add the entire can. I made mine super concentrated and added about 3/4 can to half a batch of frosting. This works great as filling OR as regular on the outside of the cake frosting. Trust me, you'll love this. I got the recipe from a woman at work who's cakes are the stuff of legend. Everyone loved the raspberry filled cakes.




****************************************************************
I'm no expert. I'm not even a good novice. I'm a tiered cake virgin, so I'm not going to attempt to tell YOU how to make a wedding cake. Instead, here are some progress pictures and a few notes on what I did.


This was for the 6" top tier. I cut down a 10" cardboard cake round to size and wrapped it in foil per the directions on the back of the cake rounds package.


Piping a ring of plain buttercream around the edge of the layer keeps the filling in check and from squishing out the sides.



Because the top layer needs something to keep it from squishing the bottom layer, you use dowels. Cut to size using garden shears or similar tool.


I lightly rested the empty 6" cake pan on the 9" bottom layer and marked the edges to keep the dowels in the right place.


These are "crumb coated" and have been in the fridge a few minutes to set the icing. Longer would have been better. I left them in the fridge while I whipped up the basic buttercream.




Quick tip: quickly bring butter to room temperature buy cutting it in small pieces. Better than microwaving because you don't want to risk melting it. Melting = not good.


After covering the entire cake with the basic buttercream, I added the super cute ribbon, then pipied small dots around all of the edges.



When I picked up the ribbon, I also got a pick of fake hydrangeas. Nothing fancy, just a $3 pick at Walmart.




I cut one complete clump and stuck it in the top, but it needed filling in. I cut up another clump...


And filled in around the exposed areas...

Much better!
Then I added some single flowers around the second layer and called it good.



I'm SO glad I picked up those flowers on a whim. I figured some sort of topper would be nice, but I didn't count on it distracting from the multitude of imperfections on the cake. If you stepped back and squinted, the cake looked pretty good. About half way through this whole process, I tweeted that this was going to be an "it's the thought that counts" kind of cake. Fortunately, it turned out nicely despite icing issues and my inexperience. Guess I just need to practice my decorating skills some more. I think I can find volunteers to eat the results.

Congratulations, David and Amy!