Wedding Cake or Cupcake Experts Please Advise

[ReineDeSaba]

I know there is currently a thread berating cupcakes but I inajetlaggedhaze have offered to 'do' cake for my brother's upcoming nuptials.

I cannot decide which would be the better option and am also looking for tips.

Even if the cake is a tiered job no fruitcake will be involved due to personal preferences.

Think their preference would be cupcakes but not sure how do-able that is because wedding 3hrs from where I live and we will go there friday whilst wedding not till sun.(registry Sat. so time to decorate cakes but not bake)..will cupcakes go dry by then..can I freeze undecorated then keep cool for journey refreeze when we arrive(in fiance's family's freezer)

Also summer wedding so will cupcakes go 'melty'

TBH think cupcakes easier to decorate but want them to taste ok too!

Also if go for tiered job with fondant how long before that would go dry

Is this the longest question ever ..sorry!

thanks for any advice/tips

The hiring idea is excellent geraldine ..might see if DBs fiance and MIL to be want to pick out stuff at the other end(long drive with hired glassware otherwise..eek!)Do you mean decorate the week before..If I freeze the cakes and defrost the weekend before to decorate do you think that would work?I'm just not sure I can bake and decorate in one day.I am going to try bloss's
chocolate cake recipe
this weekend too.

I got reminded
of this
on another thread but not good if any people with nut allergies!

bella thank you so much for that..will try out this weekend..is this for one deep tin..could I bake it in shallow ones..would it do 2 or 3 tins please?and how much to cut baking time for roughly?sorry for the endless questions..

of course I didn't mean my cake is so delicious it is finished immediately ...for excess cake I getridofit-- pass it on by DH taking it to work and other mums at nursery(who i'm sure don't want the temptation to break diets any more than me!)

Did you do twice this recipe for DH?..how many would it feed would you say?..thanks

thanks bella ..

just ordered this

I suppose my tin is deep - but I only put one lot of cake mixture into the tin - suppose when cooked it is about 2" deep? I made two cakes a day apart from each other and just bunged both in the freezer when they had become cold.

To give you an idea about the height... I sandwiched the cakes together with buttercream and jam. Covered the whole lot with buttercream - which enables the marzipan to stick, put the marzipan on then I rolled out the fondant and I had to have it about 13 or 14" square to get it to cover the cake. Cannot remember exact measurements now but I had to do a lot of rolling.

I cut the cake right across starting at the end and then just worked through the cake until I got to the other end. So one huge slice would cut into 3 or 4 smaller pieces depending on how bigger piece you wanted. I think maybe I got ten whole slices out of the cake - maybe more, sorry I cannot remember as the boys also helped themselves. I think the slices I cut were not on the skimpy side either.

I would think that if someone professional ie a caterer or a chef was cutting the cake then they would get more out of it.

I would definitely buy a smoother - I use mine to smooth the fondant before putting it on the cake after rolling out, then smooth again once on the cake. Also a small rolling pin for rolling small bits of fondant out for decorating.

After putting the buttercream on the cake, it helps if your refrigerate for an hour before putting anything else on top.

That book looks lovely btw

lots of helpful stuff again bella ..I have small rolling pins already(well will borrow DDs !) and will google for cake smoother now[I love new kitchen gadgets emoticon]

yes I think you will be fine to cook two weeks in advance and then defrost the weekend before to decorate. make sure you wrap them very well in freezer proof clingfilm when you freeze. If you at least get them defrosted and covered in ready roll icing at the weekend, you can then take your time decorating in the evenings if you have to...
cake smoothers are an excellent tool!
do you know what decoration you will do?
good luck with your trial runs

heres another tip I just thought of ( am babysitting for a friend and should be doing college coursework, am blatently procrastinating now...)
to level the cakes so that they are flat when decorating:
If using shallow sandwich tins, use the edge of the tin as a guide and use a large serrated knife (I use a bread knife) to cut accros the top of the tin to get a nice flat top. when you assemble the cake, flip it so the bottom is the top, as it will be nice and flat with nice sharp edges.
If using a deep tin, place a cake board into the empty tin, then place the cake back in so that it is just above the edge, then use the edge of the cake tin as before when you are cutting off the dome to level the cake.

Cover your cake boards in icing a few days before too, for a nice professional finish just roll a piece of sugarpaste large enough, dampen board with water using a pastry brush, place icing on, use your smoother to get rid of any bubbles or imprefections, then use a sharp non serrated knife to cut away the excess around the edges.

Am returning to read posts to refresh memory and realised had overlooked hubbas post..that site looks hugely helpful and I often bake in American measures as DH American so many thanks.

geraldine I have spent the week baking test samples and making various icings so not even beginning to formulate decoration yet but will see what styles appeal to DB and DSil.great advice re levelling too.

If you want to get inspired and you want to impress your friends, you certainly have to visit Cupcake Recipes and tips.
It is also a very good site with a lot of basic information and many decoration tips for Baby showers, tips for kids, cupcake baking tools, bridal showers, ?
I hope you will like it too!

I had both! But I'm greedy!