How to Make an Easy Wedding Cake

This wedding cake tutorial is for the person who does not have a lot of time, has never made a wedding cake before, doesn't have a lot of money to spend, but still wants to create a beautiful wedding cake.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• 3 Tier Decorative Plate Holder
• 3 Glass Plates
• White Cake Mix
• 2 Cake Pans
• One-Step Cake Release
• Buttercream Frosting (See Resources for recipe)
• Icing bag and decorative tips
• Colored ribbon
• Artificial flowers

1. 

   Bake twelve cakes. You will need 6 boxes of white cake mix, since each box will make two 9-inch circle cakes. Each tier of the 3-tier cake will have four layers. Coat each pan with one-step cake release before pouring the batter to make sure you will be able to easily remove the cake from the pan after it is cooled.

2. Once the cakes have cooled to room temperature, remove them from the cake pans and move them to a cooling rack. Place the cakes on the cooling rack in the refrigerator to make them firm for frosting.

3. While the cakes are getting nice and cold, make the buttercream frosting. See Resources below for a great buttercream frosting recipe. Homemade frosting will make the cakes taste fantastic and will give you more control over the thickness and consistency.

4. 

   Remove the cakes from the refrigerator. Stack the cakes into three larger cakes of 4 layers each onto each cake plate. Spread a thin layer of buttercream frosting between each layer to "paste" them together. If the cakes are very round on top, use a large knife or cake leveler to trim the top off and make it flat. You should now have three tall cakes. If you would like, you can also spread cake/pie filling between each layer for extra flavor!

5. 

   Place the cakes in the refrigerator to allow them to harden again. This will help keep them from slipping around when you spread the next layer of frosting.

6. 

   After the cakes have had a chance to firm up again, remove them from the refrigerator and apply the crumb layer. Use a heavy hand with the frosting: this layer will trap all the crumbs so you can apply a second smooth, even layer of frosting without disturbing the actual cake. Don't worry about making it perfect. Return the cakes to the refrigerator. If you are in a hurry, move them to the freezer instead.

7. Next you will add the final layer of frosting before decorating it. This time apply a thin layer of frosting, but be careful to make this layer very smooth. Use a large spatula and work slowly in a circle around the cake. While you are working on one cake, leave the other two in the fridge.

8. 

   Cut a piece of colored ribbon to the circumference of the cake and wrap around the base of the cake, carefully pressing into the frosting to keep it in place.

9. 

   Using an icing bag and decorative tip, pipe swirls around the whole cake above the ribbon. You can use the buttercream frosting for a monotone look or use a special white decorative icing you can buy from the store for a little more contrast.

10. 

    Place the cakes on the 3 tier plate holder. Add artificial flowers as an embellishment.

Tips & Warnings

• You can build the cakes on top of cardboard cake circles if you plan on moving them around. That way you can easily move the cake from a cake dome to a plate.

Resources

• How to Make the Perfect Buttercream Frosting

[edieness]

on 6/2/2009 You did a great job on this one. 5*