wedding cake - buttermilk type a good choice?

[bacon]

I'm making a tiered wedding cake in May. I dont want to do all rich dark chocolate and it will be covered in white chocolate - I was wondering about a buttermilk type like this sweetapolita.com/2011/05/vanilla-buttermilk-cake-with-instant-fudge-frosting/

I could make this into an orange cake but will this type of cake take a syrup as I could do a cointreau flavoured syrup.

What I dont want is a dry, heavy maderia. People do like a light sponge but would this sponge work? Will it cut easily? or is the shelf life too short?

I am looking for a dessert style cake over a dry cakey cake.

ANy successful plain recipes would be a bonus.

Sorry can't help but thanks for link, think I may have to try that recipe! Hopefully a bump will bring someone more knowledgeable.

All the wedding cakes I have made have been pound cake mixes unless they've particularly asked for a flavour such as carrot or ginger. Pound cake is quite dense but if you're doing a tiered cake it will need to be realitively solid. The top tier can afford to be lighter as it has no pressure on it!

You could put two layers of fillings through it if you wanted to have more of a dessert. It also depends on how you're covering the cake. Just buttercream will make it more dessert like whereas sugarpaste will be heavier.

Sarah

I seriously dont want a maderia style cake - want more light sponge/desert style There are no worries on weight pressure as I am going to put dowels in hence no weight taken.

Have decided now on vanilla, chocolate and coconut.

Even with dowels, be careful :-)

I don't know the exact recipe you linked to, but I have used Nigella's buttermilk cake for cakes where I wanted a reasonably dense cake but didn't want madiera. Be careful how deep the tiers are, though - I have had cakes sag under their own weight/weight of icing before now.

The best dense chocolate cake I have come across is Green&Black's Inmate's Cake.

Both keep well - I tend to reckon 1 can bake 1 week before the event, to give time to decorate, and it will have a week after the event to be eaten up.

White chocolate might make it too sickly sweet IMO.