Wedding Cake: tier 1 and 2

Project Wedding Cake: It starts!

If you have read my blog before you'll know I somewhat foolishly? decided to bake my own wedding cake. I'm doing a full trial run before committing to do this for the wedding and decided that the only place I could possibly offload that much cake would be my next orchestra dress rehearsal (how's that for a Friday night surprise!). This deadline sort of snuck up on me and last Friday I realized I needed to get busy baking.

I've decided on 3 tiers and the largest 12" will be chocolate ,then 10" vanilla then 8" pumpkin chocolate chip.

I started with the chocolate. I've never made a 12" cake. I learned alot the hard way such as:

• dividing the recipe into at least 2 batches for my mixer


• making and using my own homemade cake/magic strips really makes a difference


• the idea of a transformer, bake multiple sizes from one pan is a good, one but batter does tend to leak through (see vanilla cake pic) -- and no magic strips around that configuration unless I chop them to fit especially

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• make sure you have something larger than 12" (preferably two somethings) to help turn out the cakes!




• substituting cake flour for AP less 2 TBs plus 2 TBS cornflower seems to work fine




• a carrier bag makes a great disposable mixer bowl cover for those tricky moments when you first add liquid and they want to slosh all out of the bowl and onto the window, the egg rack etc etc
  

Here are the remnants of the first layer of the first tier of chocolate cake.. i tried to invert it from its pan and hold together two (too small) cooling racks... they of course split and chopped the cake as I inverted.. leaving crumbs.. BOO!

An action shot of me mixing up the vanilla cake batter

Below you see my pan with my 'homemade' magic strips..

A final parting shot.. one of these cakes was not baked with magic strips.. wonder which it could be?!

I've now got to wait to make the last tier as there isin't anymore room in my freezer! I've already make the most complicated frosting on Sunday so that just leaves the top tier, cream cheese frosting, white ganache and all the chocolate plank coverings!

Oh yeah and figuring out how to transport it and set it up..(at the moment I thinking I can fill and ice each tier and put into separate cake boxes.. have the planks ready and maybe make a little bit of chocolate ganache adhesive to stick on!

I also thought perhaps I could mark out (using outlines of pans) where each tier should go on the one below it and pre-drill/place my straws to support
All suggestions and tips welcome!