Wedding Cake ideas

Getting Started! First step is to buy a Wilton annual recipe book and set of decorating tips (or borrow them from a friend.) You'll get cake ideas from the book. The basic tip sets are actually pretty cheap and you'll use them forever. Step two is buy a cake mix, make it up, and decorate it. Some cake shops will rent you the pans, the seperator plates, the columns, etc. so you don't have to buy them. If you do buy them, you'll find yourself in the "will you PLEASE make my cake for me" business from all your friends. Once you've practiced on a cake, you're ready for the real thing.

I make the cakes the first day and freeze them. I take them out a layer at a time to decorate. I find it's much easier to frost them when they're frozen. Just follow the directions in the Wilton book for the decorating, assembling, and I usually use their Buttercream recipe, except I use Rum or Coconut flavoring. Be sure you mix it a long time so it will be "fluffy" and be sure you use the white shortening, not the yellow.

If you want more complete tips, just e-mail me with your questions. You can do this! If I can, anyone can.

Decorated with flowers that match the wedding bouquet. The stems of the toasting glasses match, also. This cake was actually extremely easy to make. Just decorate it in white icing and trim, Put frosting hearts on the edges and put a plastic beaded heart in the center of each frosting heart and around the cake. Buy the plastic hearts in any color at a crafts store--they're the kind you put on clothing you're decorating.

Another easy cake to make--two colors is all it takes. Hang stringed beads around the cake. Put the same flowers on the bottom layer that match the bouquet. The flowers will cover a multitude of mistakes on the cake, if you make any. This one was for a small second wedding.

Once you become a cake decorating expert and have to do wedding cakes for all your friends--here's something extra I do on all my cakes. I put on the bottom layer a figurine of some sort--varies by what the bride collects. After the wedding, you take the cake top and package it up for them. Before you put it in the container, take the little figurines and put them on the top of the cake--but don't tell them. If they ask, where they were, say it was just a decoration. Not a complete lie!. (The bride & groom will have the "real" cake top already.) Then, when they open the cake on their first anniversary, it's decorated with a little anniversary present from you. Put the cake in an appropriately sized plastic container, wrap that all in aluminum foil, and put in a brown grocery sack. Mark on the outside their names and a "Do not open until" date. If you do it this way, it won't get freezer burned. Preserve yours the same way. If you can't find a good figurine in a bride & groom theme, you'll have to make one. I actually put a bridal veil and boutonniere on frogs!

Since this was my own wedding cake, I'm rather partial to it. Again, simple to make, I put little ribbons and pearls around the edge of all the tiers. I also prefer the push in pillars for ease, although I've made them with the stacked kind, too.

No, I didn't make these cakes. However, I did do the cake tops. For Vera & Mike's wedding. You can rent the cake stands and make a simple flower arrangement for the top of each one. The result is a really spectacular looking cake!