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| The book of magic spells. |
I'd be amiss if I didn't mention I didn't religiously read through Joy the Baker's (www.JoytheBaker.com) multi-part blog entry on building a wedding cake (http://joythebaker.com/2010/06/wedding-cake-the-beginning/). But, surprisingly, I read Joy's notes and reverted to Rose's scientific wisdom. Yes, super scientific. It made me trust her. And I'm glad I did.
So first, there are some major tools you MUST have in order to make a fancy tiered cake successfully.
#1- get yourself an offset spatula. It will work miracles on your frosting and save you the headache of dragging a butterknife around your cake and pulling up all those unsightly crumbs into the finished product and getting sticky frosting on your palms (ok, it will reduce the frosting on your hands. In my case, I am way too messy to ever eliminate that).
#2- invest in a food scale. This is probably the best advice I ever took. Turns out that 1 cup of flour is probably way heavier and way too much flour for the recipe that calls for 1 cup flour. Confused? I was, until Rose broke it down for me. The perfect cake is all about ratios. The ratio of flour to sugar to butter and more. Once I started weighing things rather than measuring, it all started to make more sense and the batter became the right consistency. I bought myself a $20 scale from Costco that weighs in both ounces and grams. I've found it useful for weighing a multitude of things- including weighing my chicken eggs. Now I can properly size eggs L, XL & Jumbo based on their weight. And I could sell my eggs for more $$ if they were officially larger. I say 'could' because my chickens are no more. A sad story for another day. But I digress.
#3- Don't try to use all purpose flour. Splurge for the fancy stuff (aka, 'Cake Flour') in the box. Its designed to build a cake that has proper cake texture.
#4- Use a kitchen timer. If Rose says beat for 90 second, you should beat for 90 seconds. There is a fine line between under blended, perfectly blended to 'build structure' (Rose's words) and overblended to the point that you 'break' the batter (meaning it separates and you're kinda screwed). If Rose says 90 seconds, believe her.
#5- Boba Drink Straws are awesome as cake support. Rose recommends straws. I recommend Boba Straws (the big fat straws that you get in 'bubble drinks' with tapioca balls. Is that just a Hawaii thing? I think it might be a Vietnamese thing. The drinks are available everywhere on the island.) They cut easily and are wide and solid, so are not easily bent by the weight of cake layers.
#6- Cardboard cake rounds are great. They give each tier of your cake a solid foundation so the cake is less likely to collapse under its own weight. They are fairly cheap from Walmart (made by Wilton). You can easily make your own from cardboard you have lying around the house. I thought about doing that... but I can't guarantee how clean and bacteria-free the cardboard laying around the house is (most of it came from Costco where who knows how many people handled it). For the extra few bucks I think its worth it to buy clean cardboard.
#7- Parchment Paper is a baker's secret weapon. Great for muffin liners, great for cake pan liners, great for cookies. And its cheap.
So let's walk through the process shall we? Something worth noting though first- as I completed each step of this process, I was plagued by fear, dread and the threat of waterworks (tears). Its only after completing the cake that came together in a satisfactory way less than 5 minutes before the wedding ceremony finished that I breathed a sigh of relief (ok, downed a huge glass of wine) and am content writing this blog. It was a nail biting process and I was fairly certain that it would be an epic failure most of the way through the process. I write this only to offer encouragement. If you attempt to make a wedding cake it might look lumpy, lopsided, crummy, and off-kilter for the entire process. BUT, even if it does, all is not lost. Hang with it. Fancy flowers can save most disasters.
Let's make a fancy cake!
First- set your kitchen properly (your 'mis en pace', or 'everything in its place' as they say in the cooking world). This way you don't have to run to the store cause you've forgotten you're out of salt while your batter sits idle on the counter attracting fruit flies. Lay out your ingredients so that the eggs and butter can come to room temperature. Lay out your cake pans, cooling racks, your parchment paper, your spatulas, bowls and whisks. A note on this recipe: if you have a HUGE mixer- like a 10 or 20 qt Hobart- you can make this in 1 go. I made it in 2 batches in my 5 quart Kitchenaid, mostly because I calculated 4 batches of the original recipe would make the 3 tiers. Hardly. 4 batches make the bottom tier and another round of 4 batches made the top two. If you have a hand mixer you may want to make 4 double batches to keep the mixing manageable. Just divide the recipe accordingly.
Second- get some good music going. It's gonna be a long haul and you'll need motivation and stress relief. (unless, that is, you have a HUGE mixer and a HUGE oven. If you do, then hire a live band to entertain you or something, as you can probably afford it and you'll be done much faster than the rest of us. ;)
Third- eat a meal before you start. If you're like me, its less temping to lick beaters if you're totally stuffed.
Fourth- Before preheating the oven, test to see how your cake pans will fit. There needs to be room for air circulation around them. Don't let the pans touch each other or the oven walls. You may be able to bake all 6 pans at once, or you might need to do it in phases. I baked by both 12" pans on a shelf by themselves and then the 9" and 6" together in 2 phases. Once you've got your racks planned, preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Finally- prep your pans. Grease them. Then line the bottom with a circle of parchment paper. Then grease the parchment paper and lastly, flour the greased parchment. Tap off the excess flour and set your pans aside. I used spring form pans for the 12" and 9" but was forced to use a regular cake pan for the 6" due to what I could find in the store (Hawaii is pretty darned limited). There are probably pros and cons to using spring form vs. traditional. As I used a mix of pan forms I can attest both kinds work fine. Now that you've done your prep work, you're ready to bake.
- 24 large egg yolks
- 4 cups heavy cream (a quart of whipping cream), divided
- 6 teaspoons vanilla
- 12 cups cake flour (but weigh it instead of measuring it. It should be 42 ounces of cake flour (remember, 16 ounces is a pound)
- 6 cups sugar (but weigh it instead of measuring it. It should be 42 ounces of sugar (remember, 16 ounces is a pound)
- 84 Tablespoons softened (room temp) unsalted butter (but weigh it instead of measuring it. It should be 42 ounces of butter (remember, 16 ounces is a pound)
- 10 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons salt (I love using coarse sea salt and no longer bake with Morton's from the cardboard box. I think the coarser salt brings out the flavor better without being overpowering)
In a large bowl, lightly combine the egg yolks, 16 tablespoons (1 cup) cream and vanilla and set aside. An idea for those egg whites: When cracking the eggs, I usually set each egg white into an ice cube tray and freeze (a 12-cube tray works great for each dozen eggs). I recently learned that egg whites freeze fantastically and you can thaw and beat months in the future to create meringues!
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| Weighing flour. |
Then scrape the batter into the prepared pans and smooth the surface with your spatula. You should fill the pans about half way full.
Bake the 12" layers for 40-50 minutes. Be sure not to underbake this base layer of the cake. If you pierce the cake with a steak knife, it should come out clean and the sides of the cake will begin pulling away from the sides of the pan.
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| Carefully spaced pans in the oven. |
Bake the 6" layers for 25-35 minutes. The knife should come out clean and the sides should barely be pulling away from the pan (they will continue to pull away and the cake will shrink as it cools).
I rotated the pans about 2/3 of the way through the baking (half way through the time they were still super soupy and I was afraid it I moved them the cake would fall). I baked the 6" and 9" together, so I took out the 6" pans a few minutes before the 9" ones were ready.
When removed from oven, set the cake in the pan on a cooling rack for at least 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, remove from the pan and let it cool completely on the rack. This is where I LOVE spring form pans, as I didn't have to maneuver the 12" cake onto the cooling rack, as I am fairly certain the floppy cake would have broken in half. I removed the sides of the pans and let them cool completely on the rack while still sitting on the spring form pan bottom. The 6" pan for me was a regular pan, so I flipped it onto my palm (the parchment sticks to the cake bottom but removed from the pan) and the gently flipped it back onto the rack so it sat with the flat side on the cooling rack.
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| Stages of cooling. |
I wrapped mine up and went to bed. The wedding was the next day and, with my habit of late-night baking, I was exhausted.
Day 2- making frosting and traveling with and assembling the cake
Day two is where the stress really started setting in. I made 8 batches of frosting with my Kitchenaid, in 2 phases of quadruple batches (divide the recipe accordingly to accommodate your mixer). The first batch turned out great. While the second batch whirred away I ran to my bedroom to pack clothes, toothbrush, and makeup for the wedding. Bad idea. Make sure you watch your frosting as it blends. Somewhere between the 2 and 3 minute mark, I 'broke' the frosting. When I returned to the kitchen it looked curdled. This also may have been because again (silly me), I thought 4 batches of frosting would be enough. When it was evident that 4 wasn't gonna cut it, I had to pull unsalted butter from the freezer. To thaw it to room temperature, I popped it in the microwave for 25 seconds. This resulted in some room temp butter, but also some soupy, melty butter. This may also have been the reason for the curdling. Its funny how melted and room temperature can make a huge difference in baking. The heat plays with the molecules or something like that. Bottom line- don't microwave butter before adding to frosting or important baking projects if you don't have to.
Lilikoi Cream Cheese Frosting for a really big 3-tiered cake
- 32 ounces cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 8 sticks salted butter, softened
- 8 teaspoons vanilla
- 16 Tablespoons Lilikoi Juice (add more to taste if necessary)
- 24 cups powdered sugar
A few tips on traveling with cake or sweets in your car in Hawaii. Make sure the cake is wrapped tightly to discourage any bugs living in your car from investigating the sweets. I will proudly note that no ants or cockroaches dared come near the goods.
Also- good to know information on traveling with ice cream in the car. If you layer an ice chest with ice and salt, it will keep ice cream frozen for over a day in HOT Hawaii Summer weather. I also made 25 quarts of homemade vanilla ice cream for this wedding, but I'll talk about that in another post.
My dear friend Kelsey's house served as the initial staging area for the cake. I had two staging areas- pre-wedding and at-wedding. You never want to try to drive with a fully assembled tiered cake. You will inevitably swerve wrong on the road, your cake will slip and you will cry. No joke. Travel with an unassembled cake! But travel with a slightly prepared unassembled cake.
Once at Kelsey's, I set to work in 90 degree weather, in a non-air conditioned house, to assemble the layers of the cake. This heat was no joke. I was sweating from stress and from humidity. The cake was sweating just to make me nauseous with nerves. It was really upsetting. But, stress aside, here's what was done.
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| Putting down a dollop of 'glue' for the cake. |
First- prep your cardboard circles by trimming them if needed (depending on how much your cake shrunk in the pan) and then put a large dollop of sticky frosting in the center of the cardboard circle. You're gonna use that as glue to stick the cake to.
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| The curd before it slipped off the cake. |
Yay! You should now have 3 layers of cake sandwiching filling, with a cardboard round as the foundation.
Now we're going to create support pillars that will be made out of those Boba straws. The only person that will know they are there are you and whoever cuts the cake. Starting with the 12" cake, stick a Boba straw into the center, pushing down through the layers until the straw hits the cardboard bottom. Mark the point where the straw is exactly (or like 1/32" shorter than) the height of the cake layers and pull the straw back out. Then cut the straw to the marked size and use the cut straw as a measuring tool to cut 4 more straws the same length. Using a spare 9" cardboard circle or the bottom of the 9" spring form pan as a diameter size-guide, insert the cut straws into the cake. You want to put one in the center, and four making a square around the center straw that is about 8" in diameter or so (so that the 9" cake will center over the pillars of support). |
| Assembled layers with straw supports. |
DO NOT ASSEMBLE THE FULL CAKE! (see the earlier note about cakes sliding and people crying if you don't remember that part).
You're getting ready to travel, but you're not quite ready yet.
Using a rubber scraper or large spoon, ladle a large dollop of frosting onto the top of the 12" cake. Using your offset spatula, spread a thin coat of frosting over the entire cake and sides. Do this to all the tiers. Try not to get too many crumbs onto the frosting, but try not to cry when it happens anyway. With only a thin layer of frosting and the runny, oozy curd, your unassembled cake tiers will look like hell. Do not cry. Even when the caterer's assistant makes the snide comment "Who made that cake? snicker." It is not finished yet. I repeat, Do not cry.
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| They may look awful, but its just for transport. |
Once you've reached the wedding destination, carefully unload the boxes with the cake tiers and all the decoration goodies. Ignore Caterer's Assistant's remarks (or, confront. "I did, that's who. Don't make fun.") Curse the wedding planner who set the cake table in the sun. Wait impatiently for 20 minutes until the sun starts to set. You're missing the ceremony now. Lame. But your heart is beating so fast and you're staring at your hellish tiers trying desperately not to cry thinking "PLEASE let a cake miracle happen!!", that you use adrenaline to push you through a 10-minute cake assembly and decoration marathon.
Assembly time. Ready? Go!
First- make sure the cake table is flat and not tilted at all, so that the cake doesn't slide off the flimsy table into the grass.
Second- Place the cake plate in the center of the table and put down some sort of rags around the cake plate to catch any drips of frosting so that you don't soil the pretty cake table.
Third- Ladle a large dollop of frosting onto the center of the cake plate to glue down the 12" tier. Carefully slide the 12" tier out of the foil-lined box and set it centered on the cake plate. Put a large dollop of frosting on the top of the 12" tier and set the 9" tier into place, making sure it is securely and levelly resting on the straw pillars. Then do the same for the 6" tier. Now the cake looks like a hellisly decorated 3 tiered cake. No tears yet. Pull out that offset spatula and start globbing on the frosting. Really thick. Don't let any crumbs show- bury those suckers under at least an inch of frosting. You're going to use a LOT of frosting and don't be afraid to keep ladling it on. Lucky, as the sun set and the temperature dropped, the frosting is thickening back up and is not dripping. Hooray!
Once the cake is frosted, pull out scissors and flowers and quickly start adorning the cake. I used a 4" pot of mums that I bought for $3.99 at the grocery store. Way cheaper than loose blooms or a bouquet, AND I get to plant the pot in my yard when all is said and done. I snipped off all the blooms and shoved the heads into the indentation between the layers- one circle of blooms between where the 9" met the 12" and one where the 6" met the 9." I topped the cake with 2 simple hibiscus flowers I picked roadside near Kelsey's house. I had brought many more flowers- white mums, orange hibiscus, orange bougainvillaeas and nasturtiums, but decided that the simplicity of the mums and hibiscus topper were all that were needed. Within 2 minutes of me stepping away from the cake, the ceremony finished and guests began approaching the reception area. Wow. Tight timing. I cannot believe I pulled that off.
Stepping back, I finally can take it all in- the hellish looking cake that almost made you cry a ridiculous amount of times not more than 15 minutes ago actually looks pretty. I'd almost say beautiful, in a homespun sort of way.
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| WOW! Flowers saved the day! |
So? Success. The cake lasted the night without any frosting dripping onto the cake table, and only a few finger swipes at it by the bride and groom's 2-year-old son. By the way, would you look at his face? Pure joy and excitement over the cake cutting. Pat yourself on the back for that alone. Then drink wine. Flirt with boys. And dance under the stars. Well done.
One more note... according to Rose, people stuff themselves at weddings and many refuse cake so you don't need to make as big of a cake as you'd think. That wasn't the case here. 140 people polished off that 150-person cake. I know more than a few people that had 2 slices. And more than a few people that didn't get any at all. Wow. Final compliment of the night? A random woman grabbing me drunkenly on the dance floor shrieking "You're the cake lady!! You ROCK!!!" After all that stress? I'll take it.
