The Making of a Five Tier Wedding Cake
In this post, I will be showing you how I made the 5 tier wedding cake above. This happens to be the largest cake I have made to date and I must confess it wasn’t the easiest cake to make. There is something intimidating about making wedding cakes. They have to be perfect as you do not want to make any bride unhappy. Extra care is always taken to ensure that the edges are sharp and all the design elements are executed properly. Below, I will be showing you the various stages in the making of this cake.
THE PROCESS:
(1) The first thing you need to do is make the roses which go around the base of the bottom tier. The bottom tier is a 14 inch Nigerian Cake frosted with Vanilla Buttercream. I used a total of 24 roses for this tier. Always make a few extra roses just in case some break during production or handling. I have a tutorial here on how I made the roses. They were made with white Marshmallow Fondant and the centers were brushed with a mixture of pearl and brown luster dust.
TIP: Don’t have flower cups? Use empty egg trays to dry your roses.
If you look closely at the cake, you will notice small flowers between each rose. These are simple flowers I made with a small rose petal cutter. These should also be made ahead of time.
(2) The second thing you need to make ahead of time are the brooches which go in the middle of the loop bows on the top 4 tiers. I used a button mold to make these and embedded them with white sugar pearls. They were finished with silver luster dust.
(3) Now to the cake itself. Each tier was frosted and draped with white Marshmallow fondant. It is important that all the tiers be the same height, in this case, about 4.5 inches high. You can go higher if you want to. I won’t however advice that you go lower.
(4) The next step is to work on each tier. You need not follow the order in which I worked. I started with the bottom and the top tiers since they both have the same design. The top tier is a 6 inch Nigerian Cake frosted with Vanilla Buttercream. Both tiers were brushed with a mixture of pearl and silver luster dust mixed with vodka. This gave them a bit of shine. They were left to dry and later stenciled with white Vanilla Buttercream Frosting. They were then embedded with silver sugar pearls to complete the look. A tutorial on how I stencil my cakes can be found here.
(5) Next, I worked on the third tier which is a 10 inch Chocolate Butter Cake frosted with Chocolate Buttercream. This tier was covered with a diamond pattern encrusted with silver sugar pearls. A tutorial on how I make this design on my cakes can be found here.
(6) Next, I started doweling and staking the tiers on each other. Remember that it is always best to stack cold and firm cakes as this will ensure that you do not mistakenly press into the tiers thus leaving dents and rough spots. Always use a cake server to support the tiers when stacking. The cake was divided into 2 stacks: the top 3 tiers in one stack and the bottom 2 tiers in another. They were transported this way and assembled at the venue. While you can stack all the tiers together before transporting to the venue, why risk it?
The third 10 inch diamond patterned tier was placed on a 12 inch cake drum. The second tier was stacked on top of it. The second tier is an 8 inch Red Velvet Cake frosted with Cream Cheese Frosting. This tier remains plain.
(7) Next, the top 6 inch tier was stacked on top of the doweled 8 inch tier.
(8) With the top 3 tiers stacked, I moved on to the bottom 2 tiers. The 4th tier was staked on top of the bottom tier. The 4th tier is a 12 inch Red Velvet Cake frosted with Cream Cheese Frosting. This tier was brushed with vodka mixed with a bit of pearl luster dust. This provided a bit of contrast to the vertical white panels that were later placed on this tier. Remember to dowel this tier as the top half of the cake will be stacked on it later on.
(9) Next, I placed 1 inch wide vertical white fondant panels around the 4th tier. The space between each panel is also 1 inch wide. (See picture in Paragraph 11 below).
(10) With all the tiers stacked, I worked on the ribbon around the base of the top 4 tiers and the loop bows in front of those tiers. The height of each ribbon is 2 cm and they were made out of ivory fondant. I put off placing the brooches in the middle of each loop bow until the cake was assembled (so they don’t break during transportation).
(11) Assembling the cake. The cake was assembled on an 18 inch round cake drum. Start by placing the bottom half of the cake on the cake drum.
(12) Next, carefully place the top half of the cake on top of the bottom half making sure all the tiers are aligned appropriately. Finish the cake by sticking the flowers around the base of the bottom tier and the brooches in the middle of each loop bow.
Happy caking!
Terry Adido is passionate about showing people how easy it is to recreate restaurant quality meals in the comfort of their kitchens. With a style of cooking he refers to as Afro-European Fusion, his meals are influenced greatly by French and Italian Cuisine with a West African twist. If you love good food, you are in for the ride of your life.
Nice one terry.you make baking n decorating look simple
You are welcome Uju.
Always d best boss. Pls after u put d dowel rod did u put d next cake direct or u put it on a cake board before putting it?
Hi. Each tier already has a cake card (board) underneath it. Read more about this here.
Thumbs up Terry.what do u do to ur fondant so that it doesnt sweat when weather is humid?does marshmallow have anything to do with it.my fondant melts when it comes out of refrigerator
Hi. This is called condensation and happens when you take a cold cake out of the fridge into a very hot environment. I’d suggest leaving it to dry on it’s own. A fan could help. Do not attempt cleaning or dabbing the cake as this would ruin it. Do not even touch the cake surface.
welldone terry u mean chocolate cake too can be stacked,i mean wont it press when u put anoder cake on it since its moist n soft?
If you dowel your cakes properly, any cake can be stacked. The weight of the tiers rest entirely on the dowels and cake boards and not on the other tiers.
U are an Angel, more grease to ur elbow.
Thanks Abby.
u are grate teacher terry more grace to ur elbow and knowledge
Thanks Atinuke.
Welldone Terry, pls do u have any tutorial on how to assemble a cake with a cake pillars. Thanks in advance
No I don’t.
Thanks Terry u r inspiring
You are welcome Dorcas.
Hi Terry how do u achieve the sharp edges on your cakes I thought I can get sharp edges when I use ganache only.nyc work by the way
Thanks. The trick is: (1) use as little buttercream to frost the cake as possible so it does not clump up underneath the fondant. (2) The butter ratio in the buttercream should be high so the cold frosting is hard before draping with fondant. (3) Use 2 fondant smoothers to work the edges. (4) Place the cakes back in the fridge for the fondant to harden a bit and work the edges some more.
Hi Terry, please how did u get the sharp edges? Thanks.
Not to worry terry i just saw your reply to minky thanks.
Awesome!
This is lovely! Did you transport the cake already assembled? Did u put a long dowel down all cake tiers? Thanks for sharing!
Hi. As paras 11 and 12 shows, the cake was transported in two separate parts: top 3 tiers and bottom 2 tiers. No a long dowel was not used as the cake was set up at the venue. No travel risk.
Please asides the regular Nigerian fruit cake for weddings can one make other types of cake like red velvet for a wedding cos fruit cakes last longer compared to other types….
Any cake can be used for weddings. There are no rules.
Thank you so much terry learnt a lot here.Wanted to ask when you were making these sponge cakes did u do them on day before or what is the best way to preserve the sponge cakes?Like if i bake the cakes on thursday and the wedding is on saturday will they still be fresh
Hi. For a cake on Saturday, I will bake on Wednesday, frost on Thursday, cover with fondant on Friday and finish the design either on Friday or Saturday morning. The cakes stay in the fridge throughout this period.
Great Work!!!!!
Thanks Joy.
Thanks a lot Terry for your wonderful tutorials.Pls to achieve 4.5 height for each tier,can I bake in just one pan (6inches deep)for each tier ,because I don’t have a large oven ,so baking in two cake pans and frosting two cakes for each tier would be very stressful.Thanks a lot.
Yes you can. You might however need to make adjustments to the recipe (multiplication) and baking time.
Thanks a lot for the prompt response,I’m so grateful.May God bless you exceedingly.
Thanks Ivy.
Thank Terry for the tutorials. I need to know if i can cover the cakes with fondant on Thursday,keep them in room temperature and decorate them on Friday then deliver on saturday.
thank you
Yes, depending on the weather and the type of filling used.