How to Make a Wedding Cake
Materials Needed:
- 3 round cake pans (sizes: 10", 8", 6")
- 3 thin cardboard cake rounds (sizes: 10", 8", 6")
- 3-tier pound cake recipe
- 4 cups cream cheese vanilla frosting
- 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.
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.
Make Fondant Petals
Make more petals in the same fashion 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.
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.
Complete the Cake
Add leaves to frosted cake in between the flowers with dabs of frosting. Admire your handiwork!
