Wedding cake advice needed

[HolidaysQueen]

I'm making a wedding cake for friends in September but they're coming to visit in June when we have a tasting. I love baking but the only wedding cake I've made before was Norwegian so was a tower of almondy biscuit things so much easier than a proper British wedding cake.

It's going to be some variation on sponge/madeira with normal white icing on top. Anybody got any good recipes I can try? It needs to be fairly solid so it will support all the icing and a second tier.

Then how far in advance can I make it? My DS will be 5 month old at the time and we need to travel from London to Newcastle on the Friday with it, so any advance work I can do would be really helpful. My 3 thoughts were:

1. bake a week in advance and freeze, then ice on Thursday
2. bake a few days before, wrap in foil, then ice on Thursday
3. bake and ice a few days before then wrap in foil.
4. bake and ice on Thursday (best but allows no time for repairing any baking disasters, dealing with grumpy 5 month old etc!)

I want to do the same thing in June as I will in Sept so we know what it tastes like after the storage.

Thanks!

HQ

HolidaysQueen

I take my hat off to you for your kindness and good intention .... but it seems to me like you're making a rod for your own back what with a 5 month old and all that travel and limited experience.

I tell you I wouldn't do what you are planning to undertake and I'm a Pro.

Could you perhaps make another kind gesture that isn't so much hassle? Could you offer to pay part of the cost for a local baker to make the cake instead?

Best of luck

hi suzy - been feeling fine about it until this morning for some reason, hence my post! however, it's for a small wedding and the idea is that most people are doing something for the couple for their day - my DH is doing photos for example. so they're not expecting an incredibly polished wedding cake - just something that tastes nice and looks good but can look homemade and simple IYSWIM. i do bake a lot, and was planning to do a madeira, so that doesn't phase me so much as just working out the best time to make it so that it tastes good but isn't too last minute. any ideas on best time to do it? i will probably get MIL to babysit while i make the cake...

Tesco Finest and M&S do really good reasonably priced plain cakes that you can then 'mod' into something stunning, for half the cost - I've done that for a few people now, especially when they I don't want to spend much or have run out of time

I made a Madeira on Tuesday for my friend's DDs birthday party yesterday - I wrapped it in foil, she didn't freeze it, iced it on Thursday. I had a piece last night and it was still fresh, moist and tasty.

If you don't want to d a fruit cake do a sachertorte or a rich chocolate. I work as as chef on lots of weddings and always get the duff job of cutting the cake up into portions and yellow sponge cakes are HELL!

Plus rich chocolate cakes keep moist for longer.

Good luck

ah - choc cake sounds like a great idea! i'm looking forward to all the trial runs to be honest. i'm breastfeeding; i can eat cake without guilt

A teaspoon or so of glycerin in the batter makes all cakes cut better. A fully iced sponge/madeira cake will keep (apparently) for up to 4 weeks, so you can do it easily a week before, so long as you make sure all the cake is covered by icing. I make cakes semi-professionally and work on the following timescale:
day 1 - make cake, wrap and let rest
day 2 - fill and then cover with rolled fondant
day 3 or 4 - finish the cake with appropriate icing
day 4/5 - deliver

Tbh the longer you leave it after covering it in fondant the better it is as the fondant dries and doesn't get damaged as easily

listen to molecule