How to Make a Wedding Cake With Tiers
Wedding cakes are a special part of a special day and are an integral piece of the wedding reception. A tiered cake is a popular and classic design that is admired by many. It is possible to make a wedding cake with tiers with some patience and careful attention.
Supplies you will need:
- Cakes – at least three
- Frosting
- Filling (if making a filled cake)
- Parchment paper cut into four-inch squares
- Cake boards in shapes that match the cake shapes – at least two
- Plywood, for the base board (or use stacked cardboard)
- Aluminum foil or other covering for cake boards
- Wooden dowel rods – ¼-inch rods cut to cake thickness, five for each layer
- Cake decorating tools – tips, bags, spatulas, flower nails
- Other cake decorations of your choice
Wedding cakes often look best with at least three tiers, so you will need at least three cakes and two cake boards plus the base board. Of course, it is always a good idea to have extras in case of a mishap.
- Bake cakes according to directions on the box mix or from a recipe. You will need to use pans that are different sizes, usually about a two-inch difference for each layer, to make the different tiers or you can bake cakes that are all the same size and carefully cut them down later. While the most traditional shapes are circles and squares, you can find pans for many different shapes at bakery supply stores.
- Cover all cake boards, including the base, with foil; there are other coverings available at bakery supply stores as well. You can use pre-made cake boards, which are both cost-effective and convenient, or make your own by cutting them out from corrugated cardboard.
- Place overlapping parchment paper squares close to and a little over the edges of each cake board. These are to ensure a clean appearance after frosting and filling the cakes.
- Carefully place each cake on its corresponding cake board. Frost and fill each cake, then carefully pull out the parchment paper squares and discard them. Save any decorations until after the tiers have been assembled.
- The bottom tier needs to be the sturdiest, so consider using a piece of plywood cut down to size and covered. Alternatively, you could also glue two or three cake boards together. This board should be about three to four inches larger than your bottom layer cake.
- Take a wooden dowel rod, insert it into the center of a cake layer and measure the thickness of the cake. Cut five pieces of identical rods for each cake layer.
- Insert the cut rods evenly around the cake, or place one in the center and the rest evenly spaced around the cake. Make sure that when you place the rods, they will be hidden by the next layer up.
- Once all rods have been inserted, you are ready to stack the tiers of the wedding cake. Carefully center and place each tier, with the largest cake on the bottom and the smallest cake on top.
- For extra insurance, you can sharpen one end of a dowel rod that is the height of the finished tiered cake and push it through the center of all the layers to the bottom. However, be careful if you do this, as the cake boards need to be thin enough that this pressure will not disfigure the tiers.
- Decorate the cake.