Mrs. Milkshake, Seattle/Vancouver, BC
Age and Occupation: 23, Pharmacist
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Pharmacist
Engagement Date: May 2007
Wedding Date: August 2008
Blogging Since: December 6, 2007
Venue: Victorian Mansion
About Me: Despite the fact that I’ve invested many long years of my life studying the sciences in college, I’m glad to be out of there and I would never do it again! I’m super artsy at heart - I run an indie craft site, I grew up shooting and developing my own film, doing jazz and ballet, and the whole gamut of art classes. I’ve been called a Jane of all Trades… but I was also told many years ago not to make my passion my career because it’d suck the fun out of it. Hence my choice of day job. We live in Seattle but are having our wedding in Canada to be fair to all our family and friends.
Thoughts From A Non-Cake- Baker
April 10th, 2008 @ 3:00 pm by Mrs. Milkshake
I googled and googled to come up with a photo and the name of the plastic little bit that keeps the pizza box from sagging onto the cheese, but all I came up with was this awesome diagram and the knowledge that it is officially filed under US patent #4,498,586. This website dubs it a “pizza saver,” or package saver for pizzas and cakes, but that name isn’t ringing any bells for me.
So I had this crazy idea months and months ago that I could make my own tiered cake, with 99 cent boxes of time-proven Betty Crocker cake mix. All I would need is large versions of these pizza accessories to poke into each layer, and form a base atop the layer to support to the bottom of the next layer. I don’t know what cake makers actually use, but I think my concept is pretty solid if I can find a giant pizza saver. My idea is to a) bake and cover a cake in fondant and buy some great professional sheet cake to serve b) cover a cake-like structure of styrofoam in fondant and buy some great professional sheet cake to serve
Nesting doll-like cake pans can be found on ebay, amazon, and local shops, and for the longest time I couldn’t figure out why almost every pan I came across was only two inches deep. But now I’m thinking perhaps each “layer” is actually made of two layers, separated by mousse or some other filling, and then frosted to look like a single 4 inch layer.
I want a simple cake, but with impeccable fondant because I don’t want it ornately decorated or covered in edible crap. Even some of the cakes in Kate’s fab book don’t have perfectly smooth fondant, and many of the local bakers’ portfolios seem to cover up imperfect fondant with marzipan decorations. I had the crazy idea to make my own fondant (believing I could actually make the fondant smoother than people who do wedding cakes for a living, simply because I’m a perfectionist and I am able to work with clay slabs) but I know my maid of honor would wisely suggest that I buy the fondant premade. Amazoning it up for premade fondant introduced the idea of fondant specific tools that I might need…
And while fondant is gorgeous, it tastes awful, and from what I read, the Wilton brand certainly tastes awful. Enter homemade marshmallow fondant which seems promising, somewhat doable, and much tastier…..
So does anyone have any thoughts, tips, experiences to share on diy cakes?
36 Responses to “Thoughts From A Non-Cake- Baker”
Kevin James, of King of Queens fame, calls it a pizza coffee table or pizza furniture. Appropriate!
First of all the marshmallow fondant is a lot tastier. It tastes kind of like rolled out marshmallows instead of the “am I eatting spackle” taste you get from other fondants. My only real suggestion is that practice makes perfect. My local craft store gives a course in working with fondant. Something like that would be well worth your time.
The basic concept of the pizza thing is correct but bakers use dowels to accomplish the same thing. Check out this Wilton link to how-to instructions & tips on how to build your tiered wedding cake.
http://www.wilton.com/wedding/makecake/index.cfm
Make sure to practice at least few times beforehand. Good Luck!!
These are the thoughts that popped into my head in the order they came:
1.) Is she serious? This is too crazy DIY.
2.) Start practicing now. Produce a cake per month. You don’t want to be puffy on your wedding day because you were sobbing while working with fondant for the first time.
3.) Does this really save money? The equipment, the time (your time isn’t free), all the trials you will go through (see #2), a class…
4.) There are bakeries that will decorate a Styrofoam cake for you. Swap DIY projects. Instead of paying for a professional sheet cake, you should make the sheet cake. Much, much, easier to make a great, inexpensive sheet cake as your DIY project, and leave the fondant to professionals.
Wilton makes plastic…er…doodads to strengthen layers, but wooden dowels work just as well. Dowels, though, not skewers.
And yeah, each of the layers of that blue cake is at least two layers of cake, stuck together with anything from berry puree to fondant to peanut butter. The thicker the goo layer (for lack of a better term), the less vertically stable the cake is going to be. So if your cake needs to be driven all over creation (and over a railroad track or two), you want to move it unassembled.
Probably googling “wilton” will give you darn near all you need to know. It might even point you toward a cake baking class in your area, a skill which will last a lifetime.
I bake cakes on the side (if I was in your area, I’d offer to do your cake!). I also start out with boxes of Betty Crocker and “enhance” the mix (it both makes more cake better, but is super moist as well).
While I could write a HUGE novel on instructions, check out http://www.cakecentral.com. This has all the info (pictures, ideas) you’ll need. Feel free to email at craftycakes@gmail.com if you need help or info. 
oops! Was supposed to say more cake BATTER (not better, although enhancing the cake does make it taste better!).
Back in 2004, the Washington Post magazine had a feature story about two friends who wanted to make a cake as their wedding gift for a couple who was getting married. Not to discourage you, but making a multi-layer cake to feed more than 100 people is quite difficult.
They started off trying to make it at home using standard recipes, but the cakes kept collapsing. In the end, they took a class from Wilton. They concluded that the expenses from buying the equipment, taking classes and the ingredients for trial and error were more than the cost of buying a professional cake.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62612-2004Jun22.html
I would also say practice…my best friend is having a family member make her cake and wanted marshmallow fondant. Her practice was a cake for the shower, and the icing was so thick that the cake was moving all over the plate and hard to cut.
But oh, it was delicious.
I second the marshmallow fondant. It’s relatively easy to make (I made it before for a friend’s baby shower) and very tasty.
However, I have to question if this is not too big of a task. You’ll have your hand full already by the time the wedding comes. Maybe if you can ask a close friend to do it for you and you can practice together?
I’ve made marshmallow fondant before and I think it tastes great. It’s also very easy to roll out and smooth over a cake. You do need to put a generous layer of frosting down before you put the fondant on the cake.
Good luck if you decide to go the homemade route. You can do it!
It’s easy. I’ve made two practice cakes already, the first with wilton fondant, and the second with homemade marshmallow fondant. The ready made stuff has a bit of an almond taste to it. If you like that, go with it, but I didn’t and I much prefer the marshmallow stuff. They’re equally easy to work with. My fondant has always cut beautifully.
Are you doing it to save money, or because you want to do it yourself? I agree with others, it won’t save too much money and it will cost time, but for me, it’s worth it to be able to say I made it myself. I’m not trying a tiered cake, instead I’ll make 3 separate cakes. I can send you pictures via email of what I’ve been able to do so far to give you a sense of what another new baker can do. email me at lrv1 at alfred dot edu
I find it easier to roll out fondant using a pasta machine-it gets the lumps out better than a rolling pin in my opinion. Practice is the real key though-you need to practice on cake. Finally, that marshmallow fondant is good-but if it’s going to be humid watch out-it might end up “weeping”.
i liked these instructions a lot: easy to read and lots of pictures.
http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/how-to-make-a-wedding-cake.htm
oh and good luck!
I am with you on the no fondant! I kid you not, at a friend’s military wedding the icing broke the SWORD they were using to cut the cake!!
That being said, I do think you might find yourself a bit in over your head. (I realize I dont know you and that is in NO WAY meant to be a demeaning or insulting thing).
My perfectionist (now) sister in law was planning on doing the same thing. 4 trials later, she realized she had already spent more on all her prep than the cake was going to cost - and it was a LONG way from smooth. Let alone the non-collapsing part. My fiance (who loves to read these over my shoulder) was at a small wedding where the mother of the bride made the cake - one slice and whoosh! It was a pile of icing and cake that looked like TNT had been set off inside. For this wedding, it was hilarious! They loved it and felt it really added a fun at ease feeling to everything…..they were not perfectionists!
Pretty please consider a cake stand that supports the layers separately!
http://www.lawsonscakes.co.uk/prodimages/
thumbs/wp144.jpg
I swear, on the day of, you wont give a darn if there is a little smudge or imperfection in the icing. You will however, notice a BIG difference if you are incredibly stressed out from attempting to do it all yourself.
hmm - lets try that link again…
hi! i know they use dowels (plastic or wood) plus cake boards for the pizza-box effect. this website is a great resource to buy all things baking, and this is the dowel page: http://www.confectioneryhouse.com/home.php?cat=280
i just got some super cute cupcake liners from them. i think they may be better quality than wilton since it’s more aimed at the professional than consumer baker. watch the shipping though, they default to overnight shipping which is really expensive, but you can change it to normal.
I also decorate cakes as a hobby and have this advice to offer:
You’re the bride. Save yourself some craziness and do the sheetcake thing plus a “fake” cake with a piece to cut into. You can decorate styrofoam easily - just bevel the cake dummy edges to get that rounded edge. It lasts forever as long as you keep it in a cool, dry location. I’m actually baking a coworker’s wedding cake in July, but to save her $$, she’s going to get free cake from her hall and I will be baking her top and bottom tiers to cut into and save for her anniversary. The center 2 tiers will be styrofoam.
Note about fondant - if you’re going to fill your cake with something perishable, you HAVE to cover your cake the morning of the wedding, or the night before. Fondant cannot be refrigerated because of condensation.
Or you can do what I did (before I realized there were cake dummies and could have decorated my fantasy cake) - make all of the decorations, draw a picture, and have the caterer/baker place it on for you.
Get a book. Practice a lot if you’re not a proficient or regular baker.
DO NOT use those pizza thingies. Each layer needs to go onto a cardboard round and you need to put dowels into the layer below for support.
Also, really, do not use box mix. It tastes artificial. You can make cakes from scratch for just a few pennies more than 99-cent cake mix and it will taste infinitely better. If your cake doesn’t look 100% professional, then it better taste good, and box mix doesn’t taste that good. If you don’t think you can make a cake from scratch that tastes good or will come out right, then, IMHO, you really shouldn’t be baking your wedding cake!
Holy moly lady, I thought I was obsessive. Can’t wait to see the pictures!
I’ve made a diy 2 layer cake with the Wilton fondant (tastewise: yuck!) before and it’s not too difficult although my attempt was a bit sloppy. I didn’t go crazy with colors, patterns or decors. Don’t think the pizza things will work because it will sink into the cake and you have to make your cake the exact same height as the plastic pizza thingies. That’s if you can even find big versions of it to begin with. Dowels are your best bet. Use a covered cake board to support each tier and wrap the fondant over the board as well for a seamless look. Each tier of cake you see is usually made of 2, 3, 4 or even more layers of cake with fillings between the layers to get that thick/height you see on tall cakes. Make sure you get the Wilton cake leveler too. It saves alot of time and trouble. If you are looking to go this route just to save money, you probably won’t save much. All the ingredients, supplies, trials and time you put into it will cost more than a cake done by a professional baker. Check out my cake here:
http://www.xanga.com/GinGinShots/577831075/fondant-cake.html It also links you to awesome fondant cake made by a non-professional baker which inspired me to play with fondant.
I made a cakes before for my parents’ holidays. You’d use dowels, little tiny wooden cylinders. You can get them from craft stores, baking stores, or even home depot. Cut them to the appropriate height. The cakes should sit on something, either a cake stand or double cardboard cut to size. Stick the dowels in your cake (the more the merrier), and place the cake with base on the dowels. The dowels support the weight of the tier, not the cake.
For the layers, easiest is to bake the different layers in separate pans. They’ll come out flatter. If you don’t have the pans then just bake it in one pan and cut it in half/3’s whatever. The cakes need to be flat. They have “Magic cake rings” which you soak and that evens the temp of the cake while baking. You avoid having big domes on your cake. Very good for LARGE bottom tiers.
You’ll need a good layer of frosting to make the fondant stick. Fondant is pretty easy to work with. The first fondant cake I made came out smooth. Don’t stress too much.
The hardest part would be transporting and/or assembling the cake. See if you can transport it and have someone, caterer, DOC, put your decorations on it. You’ll be busy getting ready, taking pictures, etc. You won’t have time to assemble/decorate the cake.
call the baker, have them make you a cake. It’s really not worth the time and effort and stress you’ll be under by making it *perfection*. I was going to DIY flowers but a friend kindly told me, no, you won’t have any fun then!
If you’re trying to save money, this is not the route! You’ll end up spending hundreds of dollars on supplies and trials before getting it right. But if you do go this route, use the dowels and the cardboard in between. This will support the cake. Also, be generous with the buttercreme on the outside before you put the fondant down, if there are imperfections in the buttercreme it will show through the fondant!
good luck if you decide to do this! I even gave up on my diy grooms cake for fear of too much stress!
A. The layers of cake are each on a piece of heavy cardboar or plastic shaped like the base of the cake. This is suported by placing about 5 dowels dut slightly taller than the cake and placed under the cake round.
B. Fondant can be flavored and the cake should be iced with buttercream under the fondant which greatly improves the taste and it also smoothe the cake and reduces the crumbs on the fondant.
C. You can make the layers, wrap them in wax paper, then plastic and then tinfoil. This will keep it fresh. Pull out the layers a day or so before and frost and layer them with filling on thier individual rounds. Refrigerate overnight The day before the wedding roll out your fondant. Place the dowels inside the cake so that they will support the next round (or square) in the center and each of the sides, let the icing warm a bit. Layer your cakes on top of each other and then drape the fondant big enough to cover all layers. Use a roller to smoth the fondant down and a paper folder works well to get the fondont into the creases. Use a pastry cutter or matt knife to cut off excess. then decorat with flowers or more fondont in another color or shape. If you dampen the contact side of the fondont with a paintbrush it sticks better.
WARNING - Fondont is hard to work with and is easier to use if it is precolored as getting the color you want evenly dispursed is difficult. however if you want a watery look to the blue fondont try doing your own because it makes a nice effect. I sugggest tryning a small two layer cake a few times first. Have people over and you can test the types of filling and flavors of icing on everyone to get a reaction and sharpen your skills at the same time. - While Wilton fondant is not so tasty there are others that are and when you do your trials you can try several types of fondant to find out what tastes best.
I learned ALOT about cake making and building on this website: http://www.cakecentral.com
Enough to have made my first wedding cake for my best friend in September…I totally recommend taking a looksee at it!!
We used to call the pizza thingie a barbie table when I worked at a pizza place back in college. Ahh, the memories…
I think the main problem with DIY cake is that you definately know what you will be doing the day before/morning of. And I don’t actually want to be baking/ decorating/ assembling a cake. All my DIY is designed to be do-able weeks ahead of time! (DIY flowers the same.) I am going to sleep in, go to brunch with my honey, get my hair done, and relax!!
Marshmallow fondant is super easy to use, and stretches alot before cracking. It’s not as hard as the bakers make it sound, and you don’t need the smoothing tool…the heel of your hand works just as well.
I recommend making your cake mostly out of styrofoam and serving sheet cakes simply because that way you don’t need to buy special cake pans, dowels, etc. You just cut a piece out of the styrofoam cake and put in a piece of real cake for cutting, and decorate the whole thing. The foam will support it’s own weight.
Good luck!
I just DIYed my cake for my wedding last weekend— here’s my advice… make sure you have HELP! And don’t put it off until the last minute. I planned to do it on Wednesday, then Thursday, and then only had half of it made Friday night… Needless to say, having someone else finish it up because I was otherwise drunk from the bachelorette party was not a good idea… the cake didn’t taste as good as when I make it.
Have all your plans written down in case something happens, otherwise, your helpers will have no idea what it is you want them to do.
Good luck!!!
Advice: You will cry the first time you try this. I promise. No matter, try again.
The pizza table won’t work. The support comes from the dowels which reach the cardboard support under each layer.
Marshmallow fondant is kind of tasty (in an “I suppose it’s more edible than regular fondant” way). It also gets very hot when you heat it up to soften it up.
Practice, using the Betty Crocker mixes. Try a Cake Mix Doctor version of one.
Make one for your shower, sure … but I want to be having fun and relaxing as much as possible the week of my wedding, not stressing out over fondant that won’t drape.
ask mrs tomato!! she has recently taken classes on fondant cake making and is a total foodie.
OMG - stop the madness. DIY fondant cakes are rainy day projects - not wedding day projects.
You will have to produce several cakes as practice before you get anywhere near the actual - and in the end, lots of money and time gets spent.
I mean - even Super Target is now selling wedding cakes, if you are looking for an affordable one.
If you must . . . the pizza furniture sounds like a disaster waiting happen. . . but you are getting lots of help and good ideas here . . .
- Good luck!!!!!
Please don’t do this. By the time you buy all the supplies for the practice trials and the final one you won’t have saved any money and will be more stressed out. Either just place an order or go the fake cake route with some styrofoam.
I heard it was called a pizza table.
[…] run me $7+ per slice… and we all know that fondant tastes terrible. After I got over the diy idea, I entertained the idea of having a fake tiered cake, and then serving much tastier sheet cake, at […]
