How to Make Your Own Wedding Cake

Test different cake mixes and recipes before you bake your wedding cake.

Professionally made wedding cakes are very beautiful, but they are also very expensive. If you want to save some money on your wedding cake, you can make your own and your guests will probably never know you skimped.

Things You'll Need

• Several different sized cake tins
• Cake mix
• Wax paper
• Cake icing
• Cake towers
• Cardboard cake bases
• Piping bag
• Piping bag tips
• Cake toppings

Instructions

1. Make enough cake mix to fill all of your cake pans for the different layers and bake it. You may want to make a couple of extra layers just in case you make a mistake.

2. Allow your cake to cool for many hours. You may want to make it the day before you ice it and put it in the refrigerator overnight.

3. Transfer your cake layers onto your cake bases, tucking waxed paper along the edges to keep the bases clean.

4. Apply icing with a pastry knife, taking your time so as to get the icing as perfectly smooth as possible. It may help to do a thin layer, let it set, and then go back later and do another layer, building it up until your cake layers are perfectly smooth. Concentrate on making the sides smooth.

5. Use a piping bag and tip of your choice to make a simple pattern around the edge of your wedding cake. Unless you are experienced, you should keep the design as simple as possible.

6. Stack your cake. While a cake baker may make your cake one layer on top of the other with towers in between, when you are making your own cake, you will do yourself a favor by keeping it simple. Use different height towers and arrange each layer of your cake on the table at a different height instead. Alternately, you can buy or rent a cake holder that will suspend one layer above the other with no chance of tipping.

7. Top your cake with something that will disguise imperfections. You can use chocolate flowers or other edible cake flowers. Alternately, you can top the cake with fresh strawberries, chocolate-covered strawberries, or fresh blueberries and raspberries. This will make your cake look beautiful and will also be very cost effective. You will want to top the cake no sooner than the day before the wedding to make sure it is fresh. Don't forget to add a bride and groom replica on the top layer of your cake.

Tips & Warnings

• Give yourself several weeks before the wedding to make and test out different cake mixes and recipes.

• Consider making your cake a few weeks before the wedding and freezing them. You can thaw them out a couple of days before the wedding to decorate them.

• Keep a couple of extra cake layers on hand in case of an accident.

• Do not try to make your own wedding cake at the last minute; you will need at least a week from start to finish.