A Special Little Wedding Cake

[BakerAunt]

My younger stepson will be getting married this spring. He and his fiancee have asked me to bake a special little wedding cake just for the two of them. Others at the wedding will choose from the desserts the venue supplies with dinner. I sat down with them over Skype to work out details. One of my friends told me that even her professional baker relatives had a hard and fast rule about never doing the cake for a family wedding, since the stakes are high and there is always the chance for disaster or disappointment. I wanted to make sure that we were on the same page, and that I could bake what they would enjoy. We settled on a two-layer 6-inch cake, with topper to be supplied by them. They both like chocolate, so it will be my variation on the Favorite Fudge Birthday Cake on the King Arthur site. I will make a White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting.

The wedding is in another state, and we will be driving for a day and a half. I know from experience that, while we will be staying in a condo with a kitchen, the ovens in rental places can be an issue. At the last three places we stayed for my husband's cousins' reunions, the ovens presented major problems, which is not good for a group that prides itself on its cooking and baking. I plan to bake the cake layers the day before we leave, wrap them in saran, and transport them in a container. I would also make the frosting here, take it with me, along with my hand mixer and a larger bowl, and whip it before frosting the cake the day before and refrigerating it overnight. We will arrive early at the site (wedding and reception is at the same place), where I will put it on a cake stand, and we will put the topper on it.

I experimented by making a half recipe of the Favorite Fudge Birthday Cake, using two 6-inch cake pans (Fat Daddio's) with cake strips around the outsides. I did the volume calculations, and while it is slightly less batter per pan, it worked fine. I checked at 25 minutes, and they were not yet done, so I gave them another 5 minutes and the tester came out clean. After a 10-minute rest in the pans, I turned them onto a rack to cool. I had used The Grease, as well as parchment paper cut to fit the pans, so they released easily. Each layer is about 1 1/2 inches tall.

After they cool, I plan to wrap one in saran and keep it for four days, so that I can test how well it holds up. Oil cakes are always better on the second day, at which time we will start eating the other layer, so that we have a point of comparison. We are selfless in our scientific quest!

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[Joan Simpson]

Good luck on that wedding cake BakerAunt sure hope all goes well.

[aaronatthedoublef]

So... do they want to keep a layer to freeze for their 1-year anniversary? Will they want to keep some cake for that. It was great to pull it out of the freezer and celebrate. It was first anniversary, we just found out we were going to have our first kid, and it was my 40th, so lots to be happy about.

My two main cakes, one chocolate and one white, freeze very well. I double wrap them in plastic and then in a freezer bag (the freezer bag probably isn't needed). My boss at the Seattle bakery used to do this so she always had a cake on hand for a special customer.

You could freeze the layers and thaw them at your destination. If you're worried about them being dry you can make a simple syrup or something else to add some moisture and brush the layers with it before you frost them.

[skeptic7]

BakerAunt;
That sounds like a very tasty experiment. I like the idea of freezing the cake layers before transporting them. It would make them less likely to tear while in motion especially if they were between layers of cardboard or in a small cake container. You could make another test cake and see if the texture changes after freezing and thawing.

[Italiancook]

Congratulations, BakerAunt, on your great honor!

[Mike Nolan]

We have a chunk of our cake from nearly 50 years ago in a Tupperware container, we've been hauling it around all these years. Most of the time it has been in a freezer, but with freezer issues and being moved several times, it probably hasn't been solidly frozen all that time. Still looks like a piece of cake with frosting that is blue and white through the plastic.

We'll open it in September when we hit #50, but I'm not sure how big a party we'll have then. I think there's only one of the members of the wedding party who lives in Nebraska, and we haven't heard from her in years.

[aaronatthedoublef]

BA - forgot to say congrats and your stepson and new daughter-in-law to be.

And Mike, congrats on 50! Isn't eating 50 year old cake a Seinfeld episode? Elaine eats old cake

[Mike Nolan]

We seldom watched Seinfeld, agreeing with the star that it was 'a show about nothing'.

[BakerAunt]

Thank you to everyone for the good wishes.

Answers to the comments:
I offered to bake them a mini-tier cake, as I have the mini-tier set that Wilton used to sell. I used it for my own wedding cake, as well as for my stepdaughter's college graduation. I sent them a picture of the latter. However, they wanted just a small two-layer cake the size of the top tier. I'm not sure if they plan to eat the entire cake that night--or perhaps save some for breakfast before they leave the next day--but I have given them instructions, so if they want to freeze part of it, they know to first refrigerate until the frosting hardens, then double-wrap in saran and pop into a Ziplock bag. I am assuming that a white chocolate-cream cheese-butter frosting will freeze well.

That is a sweet story, Aaron, about saving the top tier for your first anniversary. I like the idea of freezing the top layer and pulling it out for the first anniversary, but I did not have that option for our wedding cake, as we did not get married in the state in which we were living. Two of my friends ate their top tier on their one-month anniversary, as they were not sure if it would last for a year. I think it depends on the quality of the freezer.

If I were making a butter-based cake, freezing would be the way to go. I did that with the various layers I baked for my own wedding cake. One reason I chose the oil cake is that it would be hard to keep it frozen on a two-day drive, even if the weather is not overly warm. Oil cakes can be frozen if necessary.

We ate half of one layer this evening, and it is delicious with tender texture. We will compare over the next four days.

Yesterday, I ordered a package of 8-inch cake circles from Michael's. I looked at my stash--or what I can find of it (our remodel project continues) --and found 6-inch, 10-inch, and 12-inch but no 8-inch. As cake circles are rather thin, I will tape two together for a sturdier base, then cover them with the foil Michael sells for that purpose, as I still have plenty in my stash. It and the other cake circles are left over from when I would bake the office birthday cakes. I ordered a cake box as well, so that I can transport it to the reception, and send it home with them afterwards.

I'm not sure about a cake stand. I have several that are 10-inches wide, which would dwarf a 6-inch cake, and two of those are family heirlooms that I would not want to subject to a cross country jaunt. I have a Wilton set of three stands of different heights that reflect a rage in the past for three different sizes of cakes on three levels. I used one of them for the mini-tier cake for my wedding, so I might use the 8-inch one. If I lived near stores, I would probably be browsing T.J. Maxx and Tuesday Morning frequently over the next few weeks. I may check out the thrift store in town. I have done some looking online but found nothing. I know they exist, but where they exist is the problem.

[skeptic7]

When you change a cake recipe from butter to oil, how does the texture change? I've done both oil and butter based cakes, but I have never adapted a recipe from one to another. Also is there a difference if you beat the sugar and oil together instead of just counting the oil as one of the liquids? You said that the original recipe for this cake had been butter based.
Thanks. Idle curiousity is rearing its head.

[BakerAunt]

Well, this particular cake is an oil cake, so I did not have to make any changes. for it. My change was to replace canola oil with olive oil.

We have a thread here at Nebraska Kitchen from the Baking Circle in which Cass helped CWCdesign alter a butter cake to an oil cake.

I do not know if every recipe could be adapted. The butter cake that I made for our wedding is not one that I would try to adapt because it calls for two sticks of butter, and the cake depends on the creaming of the butter with the sugar for its structure.

I can usually substitute 1/3 cup of oil for a single 8 Tbs. of butter. Sometimes, I will use 1/4 cup oil and then add buttermilk to make 1/3 cup. Substituting oil for butter means using all fat, whereas butter is part water, so adding a bit of buttermilk can help.

I always mix oil cakes by hand, although a hand mixer could be used for combining the oil and sugar and beating in the eggs. However, the dry ingredients should be added with a cake whisk or spatula without overmixing or else the cake may be tough.

[Mike Nolan]

Here's the thread BA was referring to about converting a butter recipe to an oil recipe.
butter cake to oil cake

[aaronatthedoublef]

BA, have you ever tried nonfat sour cream? My chocolate cake recipe has oil and sour cream. I've used nonfat a few times when it was all I had. Some people notice but most don't.

[BakerAunt]

Aaron--I've used low-fat sour cream. I have also used nonfat Greek yogurt with good results.

[BakerAunt]

We ate the chocolate cake, beginning the day after I baked it, having a piece for the next four days. It keeps well, and indeed, I thought it was even better on the third and fourth day. We will never know beyond that, as it has been consumed. 🙂

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