How to Make a Wedding Cake

Making your own wedding cake sounds like a daunting task, but even the simplest home-baked confection can look professional with these beautiful, edible blooms.
Beauty Shot of Wedding Cake with Pink Roses

DIY Pink Wedding Cake

Add leaves to frosted cake in between the flowers with dabs of frosting. Admire your handiwork!

By: Cristina Bird

Materials Needed:

  • dowel rods or cake support rods (from most baking or craft stores)
  • pink, red and green sugar paste fondant
  • leaf fondant cutters (from most baking supply stores)

Assemble the Cake

Make your cake batter and divide into the three cake pans. Bake your cakes and let them cool overnight in their tins. Remove cakes from tins the following day and place them onto their corresponding cake rounds. Using a serrated knife, level off the top of the cakes if necessary to create as flat a surface as possible.

Make a batch of frosting and apply a thin "crumb coat" to each cake tier. Refrigerate until set, then repeat the process, this time with a thicker layer of frosting to cover the whole cake. Try to be as smooth as you can, but no need to be perfect — it all adds to the charm!

Measure height of largest and medium-sized cake layers, and insert 3 dowel rods of the same height into each, then carefully stack your three cake layers. Clean off edges of the cake stand. Keep refrigerated until ready to decorate.

Begin Prepping Fondant

Knead a piece of red fondant into the pink fondant to achieve the desired hue of pink. Take a half-inch piece of this new fondant and roll to form a ball.

Step 1: Fondant Flower

Begin Prepping Fondant

Knead a piece of red fondant into the pink fondant to achieve the desired hue of pink. Take a half-inch piece of this new fondant and roll to form a ball.

Flatten Fondant

With heel of your hands, press flat the ball in between two sheets of clear kitchen plastic wrap. Using your fingertips, smooth down one end of the flattened disk to achieve a petal-like look.

Step 2: Fondant Flower

Flatten Fondant

With heel of your hands, press flat the ball in between two sheets of clear kitchen plastic wrap. Using your fingertips, smooth down one end of the flattened disk to achieve a petal-like look.

Form Fondant Bud

Carefully lift this "petal" off the plastic wrap, and roll it on itself to form a rose bud.

Step 3: Form Fondant Rose Bud

Form Fondant Rose Bud

Carefully lift fondant petal off the plastic wrap, and roll it on itself to form a rose bud.

Make Fondant Petals

Make more petals in the same fashion and roll each one around the bud until a full bloom
is achieved.

Step 4: Make Fondant Flower Petals

Make Fondant Petals

Make more petals, and roll each one around the bud until a full bloom is achieved.

Adhere Petals to Bud

Pinch with fingertips around the base of the petals to stick them together, rolling and pinching.

Step 5: Make Pink Fondant Flower

Adhere Fondant Petals to Bud

Pinch with fingertips around the base of the petals to stick them together, rolling and pinching.

Make Flowers of Varying Colors and Sizes

Use a clean kitchen knife or scissors to trim off excess fondant. Repeat the process and vary the size of the petals, fullness of blooms and shades of pink to create a variety of fondant roses to decorate your cake. (Pinch the edge of each petal with your fingertips to make it look more realistic.) Let flowers dry overnight in the fridge. Once dry and easier to handle, secure flowers onto the frosted cake with a dab of frosting.

Step 6: Fondant Flower

Make Flowers of Varying Colors and Sizes

Use a clean kitchen knife or scissors to trim off excess fondant. Repeat the process and vary the size of the petals, fullness of blooms and shades of pink to create a variety of fondant roses to decorate your cake. (Pinch the edge of each petal with your fingertips to make it look more realistic.) Let flowers dry overnight in the fridge. Once dry and easier to handle, secure flowers onto the frosted cake with a dab of frosting.

Make Fondant Leaves

Use fondant leaf cutters to cut leaves out of green fondant.

Make Fondant Leaves With Leaf Cutter

Make Fondant Leaves Using a Leaf Cutter

Use fondant leaf cutters to cut leaves out of green fondant.

Complete the Cake

Add leaves to frosted cake in between the flowers with dabs of frosting. Admire your handiwork!

Beauty Shot of Wedding Cake with Pink Roses

DIY Pink Wedding Cake

Add leaves to frosted cake in between the flowers with dabs of frosting. Admire your handiwork!

Next Up

12 Things to Include in Your Wedding Welcome Bags

Welcome out-of-town guests to your wedding festivities with a thoughtful bag brimming with everything they need for the weekend ahead.

20 Thoughtful Wedding Gift Ideas for Same-Sex Couples

These thoughtful, handmade and custom-designed gifts are guaranteed to make the newlyweds smile.

Rose Swirl Vanilla Bean Cookies Recipe

These vanilla bean sugar cookies would be a delicious addition to any wedding dessert table. Adorned with swirls of pink cream cheese frosting, they look like beautiful roses.

Bejeweled Truffle Recipe

These sweet morsels are as pretty as they are tasty. The bejeweled effect is achieved by rolling the truffles in pink sugar pearls.

Pink Champagne Truffles Recipe

Make your wedding toast even sweeter with pink champagne truffles. Display them in foil candy papers for extra eye appeal.

Strawberry Milk Whoopie Pies Recipe

These pretty pink pies are full of strawberry flavor. Use gold or silver sanding sugar in place of the multicolor nonpareils for a fancy presentation.

Poured Fondant Honey Cupcakes with Chocolate "Wax" Seals Recipe

Personalize your wedding treats with chocolate “wax” seals. Wax stamps can be found at craft stores and online.

Champagne Chantilly Shooters Recipe

These creamy custards can be made with your favorite brand of bubbly. Gold sanding sugar can be found at most craft stores in the baking supply aisle.

Tiffany-Blue Macarons With Orange Blossom Buttercream Recipe

These are perfect for dressing up a dessert table, or for packaging in little boxes for wedding favors. Sugar pearls are available at most grocery stores, or find them in the baking aisle at craft stores.

Cheesecake Cones Recipe

These cheesecake cones bring plenty of fun to the dessert table. Use nonpareils in your wedding colors for a pretty presentation.

More from:

The Big I Do

Go Shopping

Get product recommendations from HGTV editors, plus can’t-miss sales and deals.

On TV

Follow Us Everywhere

Join the party! Don't miss HGTV in your favorite social media feeds.