To make my own wedding cake

[Coffeaddict]

We are getting married next year and I said I was planning on making my own wedding cake and icing it the day before the wedding. My mum has said no way its a crazy plan so mumsnet help me decide

I have made a couple of wedding cakes before for friends so I am awarenof the amount of work involved.

YABU - buy it

YANBU - make the cake you want

I'd say go for it if you are confident enough.

I'd ice it earlier than the day before though (assuming it is a traditional wedding cake with royal icing).

Good luck! I've only ever done super basic icing, but I have the impression doing the elaborate decoration takes ages. Won't you have a lot to do the day before? Do you have a friend who might be able to help, to cut the time down? I'm sure baking the cakes will be absolutely fine, given you can presumably do that in advance a bit.

Have made various wedding cakes for others. Would not make my own the day before. Waaaay too much pressure.

My sister made mine. It pain icing decorated with real flowers. If you make practical choices should be fine!

Nothing wrong with making own but day before sounds frantic. Lots of last minute bits to do.
Can you choose a design you can make in advance.
My mil made my cake and I have zero regrets. It looked and tasted nice and saved hundreds.
Those naked cakes seem popular and wouldn’t need decoration.

I made my own cake, it was only one layer - I paid for someone else to ice it though. It tasted great, I'm fussy about fruit cake and hate it when it's too dry.

Are you doing sponge or a fruit cake? My mum made mine which was stunning but was a fruit cake so she could make it in plenty of time and just decorate at the end.

+1 for
Sure, but not the day before!!

As per other replies, YANBU to make your own cake, but I would have thought not leaving it to the day before to ice it would be less stressful.

I think that's bonkers, you might have made wedding cakes before but presumably you haven't had a wedding before - there are a billion and ten tiny problems that spring up, people arriving, things to sort, nerves to chill - I wouldn't want to throw a wedding cake into the mix.

What's the motivation? Saving money? You can do it better than others? What's your plan B if it goes tits up?

If you don't want to buy a wedding cake, you could just buy in a load of Victoria sponge type cakes instead. I wouldn't make your own, it's needless hassle.

I wouldn't do it the day before,if anything goes wrong you might not have time to sort it out.

I made my own they say before, they turned out really great and actually got eaten. Then again I also replaced the waste in my en-suite sink and regrouted the shower the week of my wedding so I might not be the best person to ask.

*day before

Why ever not? You've done it before, you know what's involved. Go for it!

I think it's a great idea but it would be wise to have a plan B just in case it all goes wrong.

How about a plain white wedding cake ( I think you can order them at M and S) and some fresh flowers just in case. If not keep it for Christmas.

I made my own - I’m a professional wedding cake designer - and wouldn’t do it again!! It was stressful doing my own, as I had plenty of other things to be doing as well.

it would be ok if you were doing a fruitcake, as this could be made and decorated in advance, but doing it the day before? That’s a definite no. Don’t underestimate how long it can take to do - and what if you have any problems with it? You’ll have enough to do as it is, and you’ll also need time to chill out and relax.

I did, with my mum. Was easy - I did this BBC Good Food recipe did the small light fruit a week before and wrapped it well, then we took one each of the sponge layers and did them on Wed/Thur, then we decorated together on Friday.

It was the first wedding cake either of us had ever attempted (although we did do a dry run). It was very simple, just pale green icing with a flat bow in cream grosgrain ribbon with black dashes, and cream roses to decorate.

If you've done cakes already I totally think you could do this. Even if you did a single complicated 'spray' of sugar paste flowers, that could still be done weeks in advance and then all you'd need to do it pop it in.

Sorry I meant ice it the day before rather then make the entire thing the day before 🤣

I was going for a very simple design using plastic flowers rather then real so wouldn't be as comicated as some.

I am unsure of how frantic things are before a wedding so hence asking here.

I may follow others leads and make my own and ask my cousin to decorate it. She's a pastry chef so will do an excellent job and has already offered.

@AuntieJune the motivation was just I like to bake and I like the idea of making my own cake. I have family that are very good bakers so there was never really a discussion about getting it done externally. Writing it down it does seem a silly reason to put myself under extra pressure 🤣

Oh wow that looks amazing 👏

Actually we might have iced more than a day before; they're good for about three days I think?

I am a very laid back person and didn't have loads of last minute panics - the day was great. I just dotted all the i's etc well in advance 😂

Did you find it stressful
I was aiming for a simple design like that.

I probably wouldn't follow that particular recpie as I have many celiac in my family ( including me) so will use my tried and tested gluten free recpies but love the rose pettle idea

@Pollywoddles
your DH is a very lucky man

Go for it but aim to have it made, iced and finished at least 3 days before the wedding. Making practical choices about what kind of cake and decoration would be essential though.

I got married last weekend and I think it totally depends on the wedding how frantic it will be. I am quite a stressy type A bride but I had a lovely week before the wedding, because I took the week off work and didn't leave myself much to do other than hair coloured, nails and brows done, scale and polish etc. The day before the wedding was taken up with my final dress fitting, the wedding rehearsal and decorating the venue, then a final panic as the bridesmaids dresses weren't altered to the right length. Then we had a lovely family dinner and an early night. Would I have wanted to be working or decorating my own cake the day or two before the wedding? Absolutely not

Lovely idea- go for it. But I'd bear in mind that you can't be doing everything at the end- think about who will be doing what and whether you're someone who is going to want to be hands on with every aspect of preparations. If you can take the cake as your job and hand other bits to other people, it could be a lovely personal touch. If you're going to be fretting about everything then it may be just another stress you don't need.