The Do's and Don'ts of Wedding Cakes

My baby sister, owner and manager of The Doctor's House in Sarajevo, just got married. All 7 of us flew from here to there (via Istanbul! Easily one of my top 5 favorite cities in the WORLD by the way!). This was a major act of love, let me tell you. But I wouldn't have missed her day for anything. And visiting Bosnia, meeting her man and new family, seeing her life and work and friends, being her witness at the wedding…all so special. And have I mentioned that she asked me to make her wedding cake?! Okay, so I stressed about this a lot. Despite her saying she would have been happy with a sheet cake with frosting on the top. Cat is easily the most laid-back person in our family, so she really didn't have any major input for me. So I got to researching, and baking, and making my first and probably my only wedding cake. I learned a thing or two along the way that I thought I'd share…

The Do's and Don'ts of Wedding Cakes
      by a one-time wedding cake baker

1. DO talk to the bride and groom about what they want! (I was tasked with a chocolate cake topped with cream cheese buttercream frosting.)
2. DON'T make a recipe you haven't tried before! (My chocolate cake is tried and true but I hadn't made cream cheese frosting for piping on cakes before…oops! It was a little runny and I had to scramble to find a way to fix it.)
3. DO your research ahead of time! (I learned some valuable things about stacking layer cakes that saved me for sure! Chopsticks to the rescue.)
4. DON'T trust your little sister when she says she has all the pans and ingredients taken care of and that you don't need to bring anything with you! (FYI Bosnia has VERY grainy powdered sugar--she tells me after the fact that she's never had a buttercream frosting made by anyone locally or even made one herself there! Grainy frosting = unhappy baker. As for pans, we managed but I would have brought a couple better suited to each other size wise and for the number of guests--we had TONS of cake, which ended up working out in the long run as they were hosting an after party for friends a few days later and had a whole layer for that!)
5. DO keep it as simple as you can! Less is more! (Search rustic wedding cakes on Pinterest for some great ideas. Using buttercream means its not going to look perfect, so embrace that in what you choose to do with the frosting.)
6. DON'T stress too much about the flaws! (If you have a chocolate cake topped with cream cheese buttercream, the chocolate layers WILL show through. That's just the way it is. Photoshop it in the pictures.)
7. DO use flowers or other decorative items to draw attention away from your icing mistakes! (We had some beautiful orange nasturtiums that we picked out of Cat's planters on the morning of the wedding!)
   
   
   
   
   
8. DON'T try to transport cakes in the back of a van with a crazy driver up a big massive hill on a curvy road. (Just take my word for it.)
9. DO start about 48 hours in advance to allow time for baking, cooling, crumb coats and freezing, frosting, fixing mistakes and assembling on day of. (Did I mention having to redo some of the cake because I forgot salt in a batch of batter?!)
10. DON'T assemble layers until you get to the reception site. (See #8, but its probably just a good idea no matter what--I'm glad that's what I chose to do.)
    
    
    
    
    
11. DO have extra frosting, piping bags, and a 2nd opinion to finish the cakes when you assemble them at the reception site. (So thankful for Cat's two friends and Chupo (the driver) who helped add flowers and thoughts and encouragement about how it looked rather than me second guessing myself.)
12. DON'T loose your sanity and remember the cake is not the highlight of the day. Its a special day, but its still just a cake. As long as the bride is happy, you should be too! 

I loved getting to be at your wedding and make your cake, Cat. I love you, too.

Blogger has decided to blur perfectly unblurry photos. Grr.