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My aunt made my cousin's and my mom is making ours! I would definitaly to some test runs! And see if there is a bakery or college close by that offers cake decorating classes. One problem we ran into with my cousins cake was it was in Vegas and becuase it was so hot, even in the house, the frosting stuff (wasn't frosting but wasn't fondant either) started to melt. So check different ways to decorate it and what will withstand heat and such!
I made my own!!
You might want to take a couple of wilton decorating classes and start getting an idea of what you want so that you can ask your instructor what you should buy and to help you master the details you'll want on your cake.
PM me if you want more details!! Here's my cake and my husband's groom cake that I made!
wedbee7.jpg (19.2 KB, 44 downloads) 2 years old wedbee6.jpg (18 KB, 40 downloads) 2 years old 
@pieceacake that is impressive! If you did not live in Kanas, I would be calling you to make mine! Great job!
pieceacake you are amazing!!!!!!!!!!
Wow that is awesome.
I like this :
This is a picture of another bee's cake (champagnewishes) that I've stolen to use as inspiration. lol. Sorry if that's creepy, I can take it down if it is.
There's another one that I really like, but I can't find a picture of...it may have been on Martha Stewart, and I think it may have had pink icing. but in any case, the icing looked like layered ribbons...I wonder how hard this would be?
I am in Atlanta, but I'll probably get married in TN in the fall, so I don't think the heat will be too big of an issue...
That's probably a buttercream cake that has been shaped into a pattern by a butterknife. It should be doable, especially on a smaller sized cake.
amazing @pieceacake!!!
i'm not, but i think @lilyfaith is. Maybe PM her too as she could be another great resource for you :)
@ Miss Biner--that cake would be EASY! I just did one like that for a baby shower....all you need is a GREAT buttercream recipe (PM me if you want mine), some practice baking, leveling, and storing cakes (crucial if you want it to taste good), and a small metal spatula (I think maybe the 7 or 9 inch ones that Wilton makes....NOT the 15" ones). The flowers you can buy if you don't want to make your own fondant flowers...or maybe even commission a local cake decorator to make those for you?! I charge about $5 or more per flower, depending on the complexity.
And that cake is borderless--you'd probably want to pipe at least a thin border on there because you'll want cardboard between the layers. Also, straws are a REALLY good way to dowel cakes instead of using wooden dowels (which are super hard to cut without breaking out the power tools)...I use bubble tea straws from www.tentea.com.
Hope that helps a little bit!! PM me if you want more advice cause I've got lots of it!
Oh, and thank you for all the compliments :)
Making my own wedding cake was the best decision for me and I wouldn't have had it any other way. My mother in law helped me, too, so it was awesome to have more bonding time with her--even if her only job was to taste this and that and to clean up behind my tornadic mess!
I think that if you can keep yourself from stressing over the little things (ahem, torn fondant is NOT a little thing...I cried over that), you can definitely make your own cake. Just make sure you at least know how to bake a cake and have a few tools ready to help you through it!
Hey! I have not yet, but I am planning on making my own wedding cake. And I also love the reaction I get from people when I tell them this. In preparation, my sister bought me a cake decorating class from a local baker here in the Albany, NY area. It was incredible (the guy's going to be on the Food Network cake challenge soon! How cool is that?) And, lucky for me, my brother just got married this past weekend and my sister and I were able to make the cake for them (my advice is that practice makes perfect!) I have been making cakes for everyone's birthdays in order to get more experience working with teh cake recipe and rolling/draping fondant.
Here is a pictue of the cake we made for my brother's wedding. My words of advice
Good luck! It can be a lot of fun if you know what you're getting into.
My mom and I were going to make the cake but yeah, no, it didn't work out for us. :( The cakes never came out the way we wanted them too, sometimes they were undercooked and other times they were overcooked and we were using the easiest cake recipe. The practice cost (time and money) was adding up so I decided to make a fake cake a la Mrs. Deviled Egg and buy a few sheet cakes to serve at the wedding. The buttercream we made though was delicious and I will definitely continue making it to use on not so special cakes.
I'm making our cake! I've only done 2 trials thus far but it has been, hands down, my favorite DIY.
A few things...
Do lots and lots of trials. The image I had of what I wanted to do totally changed after my first trial.
Use really good recipes - regular layer cake recipes are often too dense for wedding cakes. Check out Deb's posts on baking her friend's wedding cake on Smitten Kitchen if you haven't already. She lists a few really good "sky high" cake recipes. I also made Suzanne Goin's hazelnut brown butter cake, which held up really well.
Practice leveling and doweling. I had only really used my leveler to torte before, and didn't quite have the hang of it. Absolutely level layers are a must.
Use good cake pans. I know not everyone agrees with me, but non-stick = evil. I love Chicago Metallic's Aluminum cake pans. Williams Sonoma sells them and Sur La Table has some good ones as well.
If you're not the best icer, like me... do a crumb layer. Some people have immense talent in icing; I suck. So I definitely throw the cakes in the freezer, do a thin layer, throw them back into the freezer, and then finish. On my second trial, R insisted on a red velvet cake and buttercream cream cheese frosting. I did SO MANY crumb layers it was ridiculous - all in the name of getting the cake completely perfect.
Don't try your first attempt (or any attempt) in one day - I almost drove myself crazy. Make the cakes on one day, and then fillings/frosting on another.
This is obvious, but everyone prefers different instruments for icing... some people use the Viva paper towels, I mostly use different sized offset metal spatulas.
I wish I still had a picture of the cake I made! It was on my blog, but I took the whole blog down because I did it on iWeb and it was too expensive past the free trial. Blah.
haha, "gasp in horror!" LOL. Seriously though, I'm a very experience baker and even do professional cakes as a side-career and I can tell ou that making my very first wedding cake was the most horrendous and stressful experience of my life!
So as a semi-pro baker, my best advice to for you is this: make sure you know what you are getting yourself into and try to have fun doing it. Once it stops being fun, its soooo not worth the trouble!
Great advice ladies! I live right across the street from the Viking cooking school. So I'm thinking of investing some money in classes there. I've made a couple layer cakes recently. And while not pretty, they've gotten rave reviews.
I agree so far that I'll need lots of practice. I recently made an awesome buttercream icing thanks to "Our Best Bites" But the tool I used to ice the cupcakes didn't give me the 'fluffy' look I wanted. I think the right tools are key.
My biggest thing I've got to learn is about stacking the cakes...from what I've read in PP there's something about dowels and cardboard. uhhhhh. lol I'll figure it out.
nope didn't make my own cake but made my own cupcakes! one of the easiest part of wedding planning that I had done...
I was too afraid before, but you guys are sort of making me want to make my own cake! I love baking but have never tackled such a big project before. Maybe some test runs will help. Just need to make sure I don't end up on cakewrecks.
Definitely practice. The most important part is the construction of the cake... too many people overlook that and end up with wrecks. You'll need to properly construct the cake using dowels and cake boards so the cake doesn't collapse into itself. Making a wedding cake is a HUGE undertaking & if I were you I'd consider taking a class or doing tons of online research. There are oodles of tutorials out there to read.
It's not as easy as it looks & it can become quite a headache if you don't know what you're doing. Most tiered cakes take 10+ hours of work (with experience & depending on the design). Baking, cooling, torting, filling, construction, icing, fondant, decorating, etc...
To be completely honest, if you don't have all these tools & you have to pay for a class as well: is it worth it? This may be a DIY project that will cost you A LOT more than just paying a baker to do it for you.
@pieceacake: Wow! That is phenomenal! I am amazed!
I'm not making my own cake (although I'm tempted to do a Cakewrecks groom's cake), but I am making cookies for the dessert table, and bon-bons if I feel bold.
I decorate cakes for a living and am planning on making my own cake. All my gumpaste flowers are already made 5 months early and I'm planning on doing a couple trial runs ahead of time. I think it'll be nice to have something to keep me calm the week before the wedding. Decorating cakes is so relaxing for me!
PS. Miss Biner: they sell cake dowels and card board cake circles at Michaels and Hobby Lobby. If you keep the design simple you should be fine but practice practice practice! And Good Luck!
Baking is something I absolutely love to do, so it's not just another way to save money or DIY. I think that'll help in the process a lot. I'm not yet engaged so making a huge layer cake as 'practice' would have to be done on my own time when I know my SO isn't going to be around. Either that or one of my friends needs to have some type of shower soon! I don't want to be the pushy waiting girl. :D
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I want to make my own wedding cake....*gasp in horror* I know I know. Has anyone else done this? What was your experience? I have quite some time before I'm headed down the altar to practice. What're your suggestions in order to better prepare myself?