Tuesday 9 July 2013

Diary of a Wedding Cake

After a year of indecision, deliberation and at least four cake styles that didn't quite make the cut, I have finally chosen the decorative style for my wedding cake. It has been a difficult decision mainly because I have such disparate and schizophrenic tastes in cake styles that I have found it hard to settle on a particular idea.

At one point I was considering a Winter related cake as I'm getting married close to Christmas. I also quite liked the idea of a Parisian style cake that would fit in well with our honeymoon destination. I have torn out countless picures of cakes from wedding magazines, spent hours trawling Pinterest in search of inspiration and even spent a cosy Sunday afternoon snuggled up on a window seat in a branch of Waterstones with a stack of baking books in the hope that my ideal cake would be only a page-turn away. I have been seduced by rainbow hued confetti cakes, stacked Victoria Sponge 'naked' wedding cakes and floral vintage styles. I keep returning to a particular cake style but I am also a bit scared that I do not have the experience yet to do it justice. I'm a girl who loves a challenge though, so despite some fear that I won't reach this sky-scraper standard, I'm going to have a bloody good go!

Over the next few months, I will be testing out each tier to ensure that I'm happy with the cake recipes and to experiment with freezing/defrosting the un-iced cakes to see if this could help in terms of preparation. I will also need to learn how to dowel up the cakes to ensure that the cakes are strong enough structurally to stack on top of each other. SCARY!

Watch out for more wedding cake updates soon,

Becky BakesWell x


Sunday 7 July 2013

Update...




The BakesWell blog has been a bit quiet of late - I've been settling into my new job and I've been researching baking techniques for the last few months. I want to make cakes and sweet treats that are as near to perfect as I can make them, so I have been reading into the science behind baking. I have been learning about raising agents and how different types of flour affect the finish of baked goods. I am also trying to find the best way of baking cupcakes that are moist, light and evenly baked with flat tops. 

In my baking research, I stumbled across cake flour - a specific type of flour. I'd like to experiment with this type of flour in the next round of taste tests, so once my flour is delivered, Taste Test #2 will be announced...