Weddingbee Blog

That’s right! I’m hopping on the bandwagon to DIY our cake, and I couldn’t be more pleased with myself. I wanted to DIY our cake from the start, but everyone called me nuts. For two years. It got old.

So, I asked my aunt who is in pastry school if it’s something she would want to do, but she didn’t feel ready I suppose and passed. There, I tried. It’s taken me these two years, but finally my parents are on board! I KNOW we can handle this together. My folks are miiighty talented in the kitchen whether it is savory or sweet. For me, it’s more about the taste of the cake than the look. My mom’s cakes are way better than a bakery’s, and our design is pretty darn simple:

Real Simple, Wilton candy letters, homemade buttercream

3 tiers, two names, substitute candy letters and buttercream, and you’ve got our dream wedding cake.

And the flavor? The most important part?

It will be red velvet!

Fair warning: I am very particular about red velvet. My red velvet first time was at a bakery where I used to work in Los Angeles, and I have yet to taste a red velvet that is as good (this is also the only bakery that can stand up to my mom’s from-scratch cakes from what I’ve tasted so far). Call me crazy. Or maybe my taste buds are just sensitive. While I’m sure there are many variations on red velvet that are considered legit, most other red velvets cakes I’ve tried taste like chocolate cake with red food coloring in it.

This is not red velvet. I will fight you if you tell me it’s just chocolate cake with red food coloring in it. I’ve battled loved ones over it—it’s intense.

Another one I tried near home that had good reviews tasted just like their lemon chiffon cake but red. C’mon now, I know Pennsylvania isn’t The South, but if Southern Red Velvet can make it all the way to LA, it can take a teeny road trip to Bucks County, PA, no?

source

Anyway! Hopping off my soap box now- I hope I didn’t lose you yet…

Since I never did sneak a peek in the recipe book while I was working the front counter at SusieCakes, I have a couple recipes that I think might fit the bill. I know their cake was oil-based rather than butter, and I know it had a tiny bit of cocoa… but I forget if I ever learned how much (I’m not giving away any trade secrets here, these were the lines we told customers when they asked what red velvet “is”: moist, oil-based, hint of cocoa). This leaves me with these potentials as a substitute:

The famous Cake Man Raven’s recipe, this recipe from Martha Stewart, and this one from Paula Deen. Paula’s and Cake Man Raven’s might be the same… I’m a little holiday-weekend-sleepy to fine-tooth comb them right now. But the key is they have oil, they’re light on the cocoa, and they have to have buttermilk and vinegar. Nix the food coloring, and you’ve got a “white velvet” cake on your hands, not chocolate. You can watch Cake Man Raven on Sara’s Secrets making his famous cake and explaining the history a little bit along the way. (It’s a little awkward… but informative.)

The other awesome thing about this cake… besides cutting off the dome after the cakes are baked and making red velvet tacos filled with the cream cheese frosting to snack on… dang I miss that job sometimes… is that it is extremely moist thanks to the oil and the little bit of cocoa. (Cocoa has a tiny bit of fat in it, which is why scratch chocolate cake is usually moister than scratch vanilla or pound cake. And I specify scratch because cakes from a mix have some odd moist-making properties). This means it can stand up to a day or two in the fridge (completely frosted—the fridge will dry out cupcakes or unfrosted cake). Which means I don’t have to bake the morning of the wedding! See? I’m not completely crazy!

I very much look forward to working on this wedding week project. Mr. Thimble will still be working in New York while I take a PA-bound head start, my parents will be buzzing about entertaining our Irish cousins, and I plan to zen out and focus on just this one thing for a day in the heart of my parents’ (and my childhood) home—the kitchen. My dad will step in to help with the construction.

Anyone else going the homemade cake route? Are you making it yourself or is a loved one helping you out?