Wedding Cake for Liz & Neil

It's funny how much we prepare for a single event and before we know it, it's over!

Well, I spent months preparing for my first wedding cake. Hours scouring blogs and youtube for tips and ideas. I sorta did a dry run and tried each cake several times. Even then, it didn't work out as well as I had expected.

This wedding cake was a 3 tiered cake. Each tier had 4 layers and each tier was a different flavour.

Bottom tier: Rich Chocolate Cake with a mixture of jams (raspberry, red current & cranberries). This cake was a let down. I had done it before and it seemed okay. This time however, it wasn't great.

Middle tier: Vanilla Bean Cake with Raspberry jam. When I first tried this cake it was fantastic! This time however, it was a let down. I'm not quite sure what went wrong because I followed everything to the letter! Oh, well, maybe it'll be better next time.

Top tier: Lemon Cake with Lemon Curd. This was by far the best tier! A pity it was the smallest cake. Honestly, after a full meal, I think lemon beats vanilla and chocolate cake anytime!

I used Vanilla Pillsbury frosting for the crumb coat and Satin Ice Rolled Fondant for the icing. The cake wasn't entirely smooth so next time I'll be more generous with the crumb coat and cut off all uneven cake-sides. The rolled fondant was tricky in this humidity even with the air-conditioning. It didn't taste nice and seemed like a waste of money. So unless absolutely necessary, I'll use buttercream for all cakes. Stacking will be tricky though. :/ Oh, well, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it!

So here are the pictures and the recipe for the Lemon Cake:

Chocolate

Vanilla

Lemon

Lemon Cake Recipe by Sweetapolita

Ingredients

2 cups plus 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup whole milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3/4 teaspoon pure lemon extract

1 teaspoon lemon zest

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened about 20 minutes out of refrigerator

1 1/2 cups white sugar

4 large eggs

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C. Prepare four 7″ round cake pans with parchment paper, butter and flour. Sift dry ingredients into medium bowl. Set flour mixture aside.

Stir whole milk, sour cream, vanilla extract, lemon extract and lemon zest in small bowl. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar, until pale yellow and very fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time, until well combined. Mix in flour mixture alternately with milk mixture, starting and ending with flour mixture. Stir until just combined. Divide batter equally among 7″ round pans.

Bake cakes until toothpick inserted into centre comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Cool cakes in pans on racks for about 10 minutes, then invert onto racks until completely cool.

God bless,

Amy.