Daniel and Hannah's Wedding Cake

Around the middle of April my friend, Hannah, asked if I could make a cake for her upcoming June wedding. I was excited to be able to have the opportunity to help her out with this task. We got together discussed what type of cake and theme she wanted, leafed through cake decorating magazines, and drew pictures and took notes so I could refer back to them during the whole process. I've decorated a few cakes over the years but never a wedding cake so I was up to the challenge. :) I pulled out cake pans, decorating gadgets, tips, icing colours, etc. and hoped my creative juices would flow freely.

For the cake I used butter pecan mixes. Years back I took the first Wilton Decorating Course and the instructor recommended a handy tip for when using cake mixes for decorating: omit the oil and 1 egg. The taste is still great but gives a firmer cake base to decorate. I like the 3" Wilton cake pans and use the Bake-Even Cake Strips which makes a huge difference in how level the cake bakes. I used a buttercream icing recipe. The first cake I did half shortening and half butter but it gave the cake a bit of a yellow tinge so for the real cake I used straight shortening and substituted half of the clear vanilla with butter flavoured vanilla so there would still be a butter taste. Icing with just shortening also tends to hold up a little better in the heat and humidity compared to the butter/shortening recipe.

 The practice cake. The orange was supposed to be lemon yellow but I didn't have the right shade on hand when decorating this one.

My sister picked up this tilt-and-turn cake decorating turntable which made the cake decorating about 10 times easier. You can tilt it several different angles and also spin it around while decorating or lock it in place.

Top tier of the practice cake. 

Decorating the real cake. Yes, I was a bit nervous! Had a few issues along the way but I was pretty happy with the end result. 

Top cake

Naomi (Hannah's sister) making the groom's cake: chocolate cake with a raspberry jam filling and fast fudge frosting. :)

Done just in time to deliver Friday evening. 

The finished result! :)