Since I've apparently lost my mind, I decided to make a 4 tiered 50th anniversary cake for my in-laws. Seriously, I don't think anyone sane (who doesn't already make cakes for a living) would try this. Why 4 tiers, you ask? Well, because 1) I couldn't decided on what flavors to make so I'm making them all and 2) because the design I have in mind needed to be even. See perfectly good reasons, right?
I ordered some cake mixes from Global Sugar Art and they were really good. One cake mix only called for oil and water since the eggs were already in the mix but the second one called for eggs. Apparently, they are changing their formula so you may or may not need to add eggs. Just follow the instructions on their packaging. You can check out all their products here.
While, looking for websites, videos and whatnot as to how to do this, I came across something call Cake Lace. This stuff is really cool. You basically smear this paste like substance into a mold, let dry and peel it out. It remains pliable and you just wrap it around a cake. It seems its mostly used on fondant cakes but I simply cannot stand fondant. It just tastes too gummy to me. Maybe there's a way to make it taste good that I haven't discovered yet but its just not for me. If I'm going to eat cake, I'm not wasting calories on something I don't like. Guess I'm a buttercream girl.
Anyway, with the Cake Lace stuff, which you can also find on Global Sugar Art website, as well as the silicone mat with all kinds of lacy designs, anyone can decorate a cake. I picked the design called Serenity for this project. You can use any kind of silicone mat that you like but I liked this design. I figured that since I can't decorate with icing, I needed something fairly simple yet pretty. The Cake Lace comes pre-colored and I picked Gold since its for a 50th Anniversary. They make a "Soft Gold" color which I would've preferred but apparently its only sold from the UK. I went to Amazon the last week of July, thinking I could order it and it would get here in plenty of time for me to use, but no. Estimated date of arrival was September 2. So I went with the Gold color and it is a bit more brassy but that's life. I've got a separate post on how to handle the cake lace.
The bottom layer is a 12" yellow cake with orange curd and whipped cream. The pans I have are 2" high so I made two and cut them in 1/2 but I only used 3 layers of 1" cake. The 10" layer is chocolate with chocolate ganache and raspberry filling. The 8" layer is strawberry and cream cheese frosting and finally the 6" is chocolate cake with mocha ganache and caramel. I made the orange curd, chocolate ganache, mocha ganache, whipped cream and cream cheese frosting myself as well the buttercream. I used about 18 lbs. of powdered sugar, 2 lbs. of butter, 20 lbs. of cake mix and around 3 dozen eggs. I wished I had had some kind of idea as to how much stuff I would need. That would've cut out a trip to the store.
It took me over 8 hours to slice, fill and crumb coat all the cake tiers with buttercream. I didn't have enough butter cream made to coat all the cake so I had to stop and make more.
I also used Satin Ice fondant product. I'm not a fan of fondant. Its just gummy and weird to me but I did find a good use for it. If you need to fill a cake with a jam or curd you need to have a barrier between the cake layers. If you don't 1) the filling will just disappear into the cake and/or 2) squish out the sides of the cake and make a mess of your icing. So you need a thick ganache to go down first or a thin layer of buttercream. This picture shows a layer of ganache down with a rope of fondant around it. The thiner filling can now go on top but not as high as the fondant. Then you can place another cake layer on top.
After the layers, I let the cake chill in the refrigerator for a while and then I crumb coated them. This thin layer of buttercream will hold any cake crumbs down and really helps prepare for the final layer of buttercream. The thing I really wish I had down was place a larger cardboard round under this cake. It just makes transporting a lot easier.
After the crumb coat had set, I applied a thick layer of buttercream to the outside of the cake. Then I used my dough scraper and placed it near the bottom at a 90 degree angle and slowly spun the cake gently taking off the buttercream and smoothing it at the same time. This takes a lot of practice and I admit my buttercream wasn't all that smooth looking but since I was using cake lace I didn't stress about it. Next, take the pan of the next layer up. For example, my bottom tier was 12" so I took my 10" pan and gently placed it in the center and used a toothpick to score the outline of the pan into the icing. We took cake dowels and inserted them into the cake staying with the 10" circle and cut them off just under the buttercream frosting. We used at least 8 per layer.
I put the cake together on site of the event and yes its a wee bit tilted. I may not look the best but it tasted great. One of my mother in-law's sisters, made the cover for the cake board. Foil is just blah so why not use something pretty like fabric. This was a simple white square of fabric and a large black dresden plate sewn on the middle with little pearl like beads sewn at the points.
The cake mixes, fillings and cake lace for this cake probably ran me around $175. I was quoted a small 3 tiered 10, 8 and 6" 2 layer each, buttercream cake that would feed 60 people for $350 and I didn't go to a specialty bakery store either. Most of the guest tried 2 flavors and took home cake and there was still plenty of cake for the serving staff to take home as well. It was definitely a lot of work. There's no doubt about it and it was a pain to move and it was super heavy. But if you plan ahead, bake all the cakes more than a week before and keep them frozen until you need to fill them, its not that bad. At least, I know more now, then I did before.
I ordered some cake mixes from Global Sugar Art and they were really good. One cake mix only called for oil and water since the eggs were already in the mix but the second one called for eggs. Apparently, they are changing their formula so you may or may not need to add eggs. Just follow the instructions on their packaging. You can check out all their products here.
While, looking for websites, videos and whatnot as to how to do this, I came across something call Cake Lace. This stuff is really cool. You basically smear this paste like substance into a mold, let dry and peel it out. It remains pliable and you just wrap it around a cake. It seems its mostly used on fondant cakes but I simply cannot stand fondant. It just tastes too gummy to me. Maybe there's a way to make it taste good that I haven't discovered yet but its just not for me. If I'm going to eat cake, I'm not wasting calories on something I don't like. Guess I'm a buttercream girl.
Anyway, with the Cake Lace stuff, which you can also find on Global Sugar Art website, as well as the silicone mat with all kinds of lacy designs, anyone can decorate a cake. I picked the design called Serenity for this project. You can use any kind of silicone mat that you like but I liked this design. I figured that since I can't decorate with icing, I needed something fairly simple yet pretty. The Cake Lace comes pre-colored and I picked Gold since its for a 50th Anniversary. They make a "Soft Gold" color which I would've preferred but apparently its only sold from the UK. I went to Amazon the last week of July, thinking I could order it and it would get here in plenty of time for me to use, but no. Estimated date of arrival was September 2. So I went with the Gold color and it is a bit more brassy but that's life. I've got a separate post on how to handle the cake lace.
The bottom layer is a 12" yellow cake with orange curd and whipped cream. The pans I have are 2" high so I made two and cut them in 1/2 but I only used 3 layers of 1" cake. The 10" layer is chocolate with chocolate ganache and raspberry filling. The 8" layer is strawberry and cream cheese frosting and finally the 6" is chocolate cake with mocha ganache and caramel. I made the orange curd, chocolate ganache, mocha ganache, whipped cream and cream cheese frosting myself as well the buttercream. I used about 18 lbs. of powdered sugar, 2 lbs. of butter, 20 lbs. of cake mix and around 3 dozen eggs. I wished I had had some kind of idea as to how much stuff I would need. That would've cut out a trip to the store.
It took me over 8 hours to slice, fill and crumb coat all the cake tiers with buttercream. I didn't have enough butter cream made to coat all the cake so I had to stop and make more.
I also used Satin Ice fondant product. I'm not a fan of fondant. Its just gummy and weird to me but I did find a good use for it. If you need to fill a cake with a jam or curd you need to have a barrier between the cake layers. If you don't 1) the filling will just disappear into the cake and/or 2) squish out the sides of the cake and make a mess of your icing. So you need a thick ganache to go down first or a thin layer of buttercream. This picture shows a layer of ganache down with a rope of fondant around it. The thiner filling can now go on top but not as high as the fondant. Then you can place another cake layer on top.
After the layers, I let the cake chill in the refrigerator for a while and then I crumb coated them. This thin layer of buttercream will hold any cake crumbs down and really helps prepare for the final layer of buttercream. The thing I really wish I had down was place a larger cardboard round under this cake. It just makes transporting a lot easier.
After the crumb coat had set, I applied a thick layer of buttercream to the outside of the cake. Then I used my dough scraper and placed it near the bottom at a 90 degree angle and slowly spun the cake gently taking off the buttercream and smoothing it at the same time. This takes a lot of practice and I admit my buttercream wasn't all that smooth looking but since I was using cake lace I didn't stress about it. Next, take the pan of the next layer up. For example, my bottom tier was 12" so I took my 10" pan and gently placed it in the center and used a toothpick to score the outline of the pan into the icing. We took cake dowels and inserted them into the cake staying with the 10" circle and cut them off just under the buttercream frosting. We used at least 8 per layer.
I put the cake together on site of the event and yes its a wee bit tilted. I may not look the best but it tasted great. One of my mother in-law's sisters, made the cover for the cake board. Foil is just blah so why not use something pretty like fabric. This was a simple white square of fabric and a large black dresden plate sewn on the middle with little pearl like beads sewn at the points.
The cake mixes, fillings and cake lace for this cake probably ran me around $175. I was quoted a small 3 tiered 10, 8 and 6" 2 layer each, buttercream cake that would feed 60 people for $350 and I didn't go to a specialty bakery store either. Most of the guest tried 2 flavors and took home cake and there was still plenty of cake for the serving staff to take home as well. It was definitely a lot of work. There's no doubt about it and it was a pain to move and it was super heavy. But if you plan ahead, bake all the cakes more than a week before and keep them frozen until you need to fill them, its not that bad. At least, I know more now, then I did before.
Comments
Post a Comment