Wedding Cake 1 – recipe

Wedding cake with an almond base

A recipe for a beautiful and delicious wedding cake that you can bake yourself! You can save a lot of money by making the wedding cake yourself.

RECIPE for 25 people

Almond cake base500g almond paste, grated6 medium eggs1 dl caster sugar200g butter3½ dl plain flour3 tsp baking powder1/2 tsp vanilla sugar 10–20 drops of bitter almond essence
Filling and assembly Orange or apricot
jam Vanilla buttercream 4 sachets of cooked marzipan 6 dl milk 150g butter, at room temperature 6 tbsp icing sugar 2 tsp vanilla sugar
Topping 400g marzipan
, caramel colouring Glaze 400g icing sugar 2 egg whites 1–2 tsp lemon juice PREPARATION:
This cake can be prepared either in its entirety a day in advance, or by baking the sponge itself and freezing it, or keeping it in the fridge for 1–3 days before serving.

METHOD:

Grease and flour three chosen tins (e.g. 22 cm, 15 cm and 7 cm in diameter). Whisk the eggs with the sugar. Mix in the melted, cooled butter, the bitter almond essence and the grated marzipan. Combine everything with the dry ingredients. Stir thoroughly until everything is well mixed.
Pour into the tins and bake at 175 degrees until the bases have browned and a skewer comes out clean (approx. 25–45 mins depending on the size of the tins and type of oven). Leave them to cool, preferably overnight, before trimming the tops to make them flat and cutting each base into two layers.
Mix the marshmallow powder with the milk and simmer until thickened. Set the cream aside to cool. Beat the sugar with the icing sugar and vanilla sugar until light and fluffy. When the cream has reached room temperature, fold it into the fluffy butter a little at a time. Feel free to use a balloon whisk, or an electric whisk if you prefer.
Spread the filling between the cake layers. Brush the cake layers with orange or apricot jam (this helps the topping stick better). Cover each layer separately with rolled marzipan or ready-made sugar paste. (Ready-made sugar paste is available from cake shops and craft shops, amongst other places.)
Decorate with sugar icing and, if desired, shop-bought decorations. A simpler, though less professional, method is to decorate the cake with melted white chocolate. In this case, add a few drops of rapeseed or sunflower oil to the chocolate and pour it over the cake. You may want to let the first layer set in the fridge before applying another layer. The chocolate will then be smoother and whiter.

THINGS TO
CONSIDER WHEN BAKING YOUR OWN WEDDING CAKE

Do you have enough time to bake it yourself? A bride-to-be is very busy in the run-up to the wedding. Are you, or the person who has promised to bake it for you, experienced enough for this task? It’s far from just a standard sponge cake that needs baking. Do a trial bake and trial decoration – does it taste as it should? Can it be decorated as intended? How will the cake be transported? A ruined wedding cake is a disaster that cannot be quickly rectified. Also consider how the cake should be stored until it’s time to eat it. Cream cakes, for example, are more delicate than chocolate cakes.

TIPS if you don’t want to bake it yourself: Find patisseries here.