Baking a wedding cake...?

Question

My mother is trying to make my wedding cake for me. She is taking a standard cake recipe and trying to make an 8", 10" and 12" cake for the wedding. Last night she made the 12" and, while the cake tasted no different, the consistency was different. It was denser and darker. Also, she said she experienced the following: she tried to cook it under the same temperature as her standard 8" or 9" and when checking on it saw that it had risen greatly and pulled away from the sides....later it flattened but with a hole in the center....after that it cracked severely. Can anyone give me any help on how to cook a red velvet wedding cake?

Answer 1

Red velvet cake is very hard to make for an amateur baker. RVC is very rich and can crak easily. I suggest for you to avoid headaches and buy something at the store, Walmart have pretty affordable wedding cakes.

If the consistency was different, it could have been for these reasons:

1- The batter was mixed differently, Because RVC is so rich, it's very important for all the ingredients to be mixed thoughly and evenly. Follow the recipe intructions carefully as see what ingredients to fold first; believe it or nor, the order in which the ingredients are incorporated are very important. Also, follow the instructions carefully on how long the batter should be mixed, otherwise, gluten can be formed and the consistency would be different.

2. The pan. If you have a 8' pan, the cooking time would be different from a 12" pan. Call the cake mix manufacturer or check the box for the appropiate cooking times.

3. Did she use more mix for the 12" pan? Proportions need to be perfect, otherwise, the batter would be uneven, and you are in danger to overcook it or crack it. Call the cake mix manufacturer for instructions on how many ingredients would you need for a 12" pan. Mixing half of a box is a very BAD idea, it never turns out right.

I know that your mom means well, but this cake is very important, if it turns out bad, it could be frustating for every one and you don't need that on your wedding day.

Good luck

Answer 2

First, congrats on your wedding! I used to bake wedding cakes and can tell you how hard it can be! I can't imagine what it would be like to try one at home!

Here is some troubleshooting advice for your cakes:

1. The size and heaviness pans matter. If the pans are large or thin, then dampen a dish towel and fold them over and over until they look like a rope and "pin" them around the outside of your pan. It sounds like what happened was that the outer edges were done cooking before the center. This allows that edges to cook more gently so the center can keep up with them.

2. Make sure that your oven is at the correct temperature (meaning that if you are baking something at 350*, then make sure your oven isn't at 325* or 375*)- this can cause a lot of trouble for any cake, but can lead to huge problems with larger cakes because of their structure.

3. If the entire cake was dry, you could have too much leavening in the cake. Without seeing the recipe I couldn't tell you if this is true or not.

4. I suspect that there might have not been enough batter in the pan. The batter should fill the pan from one-half to two-thirds full (cakes that get most of their leavening from the aeration in the batter should get more batter in the pan, I suspect that your red velvet recipe would be closer to 1/2 full) . To estimate the amount of batter that you need, fill the pan to the level that it requires with water and measure the amount of water it took and then make your volume of cake batter to match.

Try Shirley O. Corriher's "Cookwise" for recipe trouble shooting. However, your best bet would be to look at Rose Levy Beranbaum's "The Cake Bible." Her recipes are great and she has an entire section devoted to making large and special occasion cakes (at home). If you get a in a real pinch, you could use one of her other recipes to make your 12'' bottom layer and use your mother's recipe for the top layers.

Using multiple cake flavors for every layer is very common these days and no one would know the difference.

P.S. If your mother is using a mix, they are not intended to be made into large layers (there just isn't enough structure in the resulting cake for a large layer). She should try to find a commercial mix instead (try finding a GFS store). They are usually "just add water" mixes, but make very reliable, well structured cakes.

Good luck!

Answer 3

First, red velvet is the trickiest cake to make, for exactly those reasons. There are professional bakers who refuse to do it because the outcome is pretty hit-and-miss.

Second, does your mom know how to decorate a wedding cake? Baking it is the easiest part; decorating it is hard. A friend of mine, who is a chef, baked another friend's cake. It tasted great, but it looked horrible because all she'd ever decorated before was regular birthday cakes.

Answer 4

i truly advise that you're taking a Wilton classification first and then do an ordeal run - serve the cake for one among your showers. Then, you'll discover how puzzling it will be. i change into going to make my personal cake yet determined adversarial to the perception because i change into already making between the entrees and the cake grew to change into out to be a project. experienced bakers have years of journey and would whip out an fairly good cake very instantly. anybody else is going to make blunders and run into annoying circumstances. you do not choose added annoying circumstances. Then, you may want to discover someone who can delivery it and set it up and each and every thing for you. do not lock your self in to creating the cake your self - have your bridesmaids help you or ask round acquaintances and relations and discover someone who can a minimum of help with the exceedingly special such issues because the frosting. Cake might want to no longer fee better than about $a million.50/slice. $15/slice is an outrage. the in straight forward words reason they get away with that is that it sounds like they do no longer have alot of competition accessible!

Answer 5

I would pay a professional to make your cake - guaranteeing it will turn nice, and exactly the way you want.

When I got married a year ago, I was very fortunate that my husband is a professional pastry chef and made our wedding cake. It was 5 tiers and amazingly beautiful.

Answer 6

if i could i will but i have a head ache sorry next time congrats for yr marriage n enjoy yrself