lets make our own wedding cake girls!

FoundHome · by **FoundHome** » Thu Mar 31, 2022 8:53 pm

I usually have the fondant about 1/4 inch thick on a cake so the chocolate spread doesn't come through :wv

teapotty · by **teapotty** » Mon Apr 11, 2022 8:45 am

Here's my first attempt! Ignore the ugly ribbons, they were all I could find in the house.

It's a 6 inch chocolate biscuit cake. I will put up the recipe later if anyone wants it. I covered the cake in Nutella (thanks FoundHome). I bought ready to roll sugar paste icing from Decobake in Clane (www.decobake.com)- it was €5 for enough to cover the 6 inch cake so I reckon €25 would buy me enough to cover 3 tiers. I used icing suger to cover the counter and the rolling pin and then it was very easy to roll out. It didn't tear or misbehave at all, very easy to work with. I watched a few Youtube clips on icing just to see how it's done. I was afraid it would be hard to avoid creases or bumps but honestly it was so easy and it only took a few minutes to do the icing.

I really recommend having a go at your own cake! Thanks for all the advice so far! If I do any other trials I'll post some pics.

FoundHome · by **FoundHome** » Mon Apr 11, 2022 9:32 am

Well done Teapotty! Maybe you could consider for the next ones using something like these tools to ensure a straight edge on future cakes. These tools create the illusion of edges/smoothness with the marzipan/fondant - they"re my personal favourite tools for making professional looking cakes

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/EDGERS-PRESTIGE-S ... 588bc634b2

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Sugarcraft-Edgers ... 2eb2720ebb

teapotty · by **teapotty** » Mon Apr 11, 2022 9:42 am

Yes definitely could do with those tools. Actually I only had 8 and 10 inch tins so I used a 6 inch saucepan just for the trial :-8

That's why it looks very very round- when I do it in the tins (I need to buy a 6 inch tin) it will have a better edge and I'll definitely get one of those tools. Thanks a mil!

by **hourglass** » Mon Apr 11, 2022 9:49 pm

teapotty wrote:Here's my first attempt! Ignore the ugly ribbons, they were all I could find in the house.

It's a 6 inch chocolate biscuit cake. I will put up the recipe later if anyone wants it. I covered the cake in Nutella (thanks FoundHome). I bought ready to roll sugar paste icing from Decobake in Clane (http://www.decobake.com)- it was €5 for enough to cover the 6 inch cake so I reckon €25 would buy me enough to cover 3 tiers. I used icing suger to cover the counter and the rolling pin and then it was very easy to roll out. It didn't tear or misbehave at all, very easy to work with. I watched a few Youtube clips on icing just to see how it's done. I was afraid it would be hard to avoid creases or bumps but honestly it was so easy and it only took a few minutes to do the icing.

I really recommend having a go at your own cake! Thanks for all the advice so far! If I do any other trials I'll post some pics.

fair play to you tea potty. looks great! i'll be starting my practice cake next week! can't believe you found the icing ok that was the part i was dreading :heartbeat:

teapotty · by **teapotty** » Wed Apr 13, 2022 1:38 pm

Oh yeah I was so unsure about the icing- I just presumed it would be difficult and that there would be a knack to it or that you'd need experience for it not to turn into a lumpy bumpy mess. Now I do think I bought very good quality icing so I'd say that really helped. I'm definitely making another trial cake (in a tin this time!!) and I'm going to get one of those edging tools on ebay. I'll decorate it with the ribbon I would actually use on the day and maybe get some flowers too. I'll post another pic when I do that, it'll probably be a few weeks from now.

by **monica aka pats** » Wed May 04, 2022 10:00 pm

Hi Girls,

I too am planning on making my wedding cake with the help of my mother in law! I hope she says yes!

Couch Kitten: did you locate where to get the chocolate cigars? I assume they would have a good best before date on them. That exact cake is on the M&S website also but can only be ordered from UK or NI. I think it cost approx £200. I got quoted €500 for the exact same in Tralee. The reason being is that it is very time consuming.

Teapotty: well done to you on making and icing your cake. Good job on improvising with the saucepan!! Can you pass on the Ballymaloe choc biscuit cake?

Foundhome: can you send us on a pic of your cake as you seem to be an expert on how to ice? I did a cake decoration night course and bought a load of stuff off ebay but have yet to put it to good use.

I have been looking at the Dr. Oetker website as they might have somehting that you could decorate the cake with or does anybody know of any other sites? They also have ready to roll icing - has anybody used Dr. Oetker stuff?

I'm getting married at Christmas so i have plenty of time but it's good to have ideas!

Thanks for your help.

Monica aka Pats

yumyumcake · by **yumyumcake** » Thu May 05, 2022 11:35 am

If you are planning on making the m&s style cake with the chocolate curls then you don't need to cover the cake with fondant just a buttercream or ganache.

Had a look at the m&s cake, it is quite small, 100 portions, even though in the picture I thought it looked big until I had a look at the sizes, the biggest tier is approx 10".

Are you going for 3 or 4 tier and what type of cakes? All choc biscuit or different flavours.

Would have thought 500 was bit ott for cake like that, I have made cakes like that and would actually consider them less time consuming as there is no real decoration skill involved, just stick on the curls. Should be quite doable for amateur, will need dowelling for support probably.

Did you source the choc curls?

by **monica aka pats** » Sat May 07, 2022 12:49 pm

Hi iluvcake,

Thanks for the tip regarding icing the M&S cake with buttercream/ganache. I didn't take any notice either of how small it was. I'm hoping to do a three tier cake - choc biscuit/fruit and ?

I haven't sourced the choc curls yet - but there is another thread on WOL that have details of where they can be sourced - viewtopic.php?f=13&t=278151

Thanks,
Monica aka pats

yumyumcake · by **yumyumcake** » Sat May 07, 2022 2:22 pm

Lemon or carrot, most popular after chocolate. Carrot keeps well cos its moist from the carrots so could be decorated few days ahead.

I came across a supplier of those curls lately at a food show, they are close to Kerry, in fact there are two close to Kerry but think they only sell to trade, they had other products that I wanted, I hope to call to them in next few weeks.

Bridester · by **Bridester** » Wed May 11, 2022 11:50 am

Hey Girls,

I wanna do this too. Very excited now. :o)ll

So far I have made a cake from a bbc good food cake recipe and buttercreamed it as a trial.
Made buns last weekend and decorated them with fondant decorations as a fondant trial.

Hope to put the 2 together for a cake for a confirmation coming up in 2 weeks.

I have a question though. You know those cakes with dots and lines (writting etc) piped on them? How do you do that - the piping? I tried piping with royal icing at the weekend and it was a complete failure. I was doing dots alongside each other and they just melted to become a lumpy line.... any thoughts?

yumyumcake · by **yumyumcake** » Wed May 11, 2022 2:42 pm

Your royal icing was too thin, needed to be firmer so that dots would hold their shape individually. Practice is the only cure.

Bridester · by **Bridester** » Wed May 11, 2022 3:16 pm

Thanks for that. Would I need a larger hole nozzle on my piping bag too? If the icing was thicker I dont know if it would go through the small one I had as I was already putting a fair bit of pressure on.

Do you do piping 'iluvcake'? Do you use royal icing for it? I've seen some sites recommend buttercream but surely that has to be kept cold and the fondant (covering the cake) has to be kept at room tempeture? I could be wrong here btw - hopefully not. Will practice again with the royal icing at the weekend.

Thanks again. :-)

April13 · by **April13** » Mon May 23, 2022 3:48 pm

Hi fellow brides,

any1 with good chocolate, biscuit, marshmallow, malteaser cake receipes?
What sort of life does these cakes have also, im making a fruit cake and chocolate sponge cake but want a chocolate biscuit marshmallow cake also with a good life!!! :xox

ne recipes/tips for me?

yumyumcake · by **yumyumcake** » Mon May 23, 2022 4:01 pm

Hi,

When you say 'piping' what type exactly do you mean? Most fairly fine piping as in lines or scroll type designs, strings etc would always be done in royal icing. Buttercream would usually be piped into rosette type designs as you would see on the likes of fresh cream cakes. American cakes normally use buttercream but there are two main differences in my opinion, American buttercream is different to what we make as they use shortening instead of butter, this results in a much more stable and firm buttercream than when made with normal Irish butter, also in general all their hotels and homes are have air conditioning.

For a family type birthday cake I would use buttercream, it does not have to be refrigerated and in fact should be served at room temperature as the butter gets too hard when cold. Obviously it has to be used within a reasonable amount of time but should be fine for the life of the cake. For wedding or celebration type cakes I would use fondant and any piped detail would be in royal icing.

Re the size of the nozzle for piping dots, usually if you want bigger dots a bigger tip would be handy as it would take time to squeeze out the required amount from a very narrow tip. If you can make the parchment piping bags you can just cut the top off to required size and don't need a nozzle.

Not sure how long a biscuit cake will last, I have never had it for longer than a week and at that stage the biscuits had started to soften so I doubt it would be at its best for much longer.

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