How to Build a Wedding Cake for the First Time

Use real flowers to decorate the first wedding cake you make.

Brides dream of multi-tiered wedding cakes with gorgeous frosting flowers tumbling down the sides accented with swirls, garlands and bows. Wedding cakes can drain the budget pretty quickly and can cost up to $15.00 per guest as of 2010. Save money and build your own wedding cake or have a good friend do it for you. If this is the first wedding cake you have built, use fresh flowers to decorate the cake.

Things You'll Need

• Tray
• Wax paper
• Cardboard
• Scissors
• Dowels wood
• Saw
• Sheet Cake
• Knife
• Round cake layer 12 inches
• Round cake layer 8 inches
• White frosting
• Canned white frosting with decorative tip.
• Spatula
• Flowers

Instructions

1. Place strips of waxed paper on the tray with at least 6 inches protruding over the edges of the tray. You'll remove these after the cake has been assembled.

2. Cut the six wood dowels to the same height as the sheet cake. Cut four dowels the height of the round cake layers. Cut out a cardboard circle that has a diameter of 11 inches and another that is 7 inches.

3. Put the sheet cake on the tray and frost.

4. Center the 11 inch cardboard circle on the sheet cake. Mark the edges very lightly with a knife. Remove the circle. Push the six dowels inside the mark of the circle equidistant from each other. Put the cardboard circle over the six dowels. The dowels should be supporting the cardboard circle and will support the 12 inch cake layer.

5. Frost the 12 inch layer and place over the cardboard circle.

6. Place the 7 inch circle in the center of the 12 inch layer. Mark the edges very lightly with a knife. Remove the circle. Push four dowels inside the mark of the circle equidistant from each other. Put the cardboard circle over the four dowels. The dowels should be supporting the cardboard circle and the 8 inch cake layer.

7. Frost the 8 inch layer and place over the cardboard circle.

8. Cover the juncture between the cake layers with ruffles of canned frosting using the decorative tip.

9. Decorate the cake with the fresh flowers and greenery by placing them around the base of the cake layers, including on the tray around the sheet cake. Use a mini-bouquet of fresh flowers at the top if you're not using a cake topper. Remove the waxed paper from the tray.

Tips & Warnings

• Assemble the frosted layers at the reception site. The layers are easier to keep cold in the fridge unassembled and you don't have to worry about them sliding.

• Bring extra flowers and frosting to the reception to fix any mistakes.

• Don't go higher than three layers without using professional quality stands and pillars made especially for tiered cakes. The cake is heavy and the weight of the upper layers will start crushing the lower levels.

References

• "The Wedding Book: The Big Book for Your Big Day;" Mindy Weiss and Lisbeth Levine; 2008