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Planning when you bake a wedding cake at home, part 2

In this series I will explain how you can prepare a wedding cake at home. In the first part I already explained how I knew how big the wedding cake was going to be and how I decided on diameter, height, etc. The below blog post is going to explain how I planned the baking part and which utensils are essential when you bake a wedding cake at home. Let’s do a small recap before I dig into the details of planning and scheduling everything:

Top tier: 18cm/ 7 inches diameter, 15-18 pieces, height about 12cm/ 5 inches (not including decoration), recipe: American carrot cake

Bottom tier: 26cm/ 10 inches diameter, 40-45 pieces, height about 13.5cm/ 5 inches (not including decoration), recipe: chocolate caramel cake (Whisky was replaced with coffee)

Outside: Swiss Meringue Buttercream with 1 kilo (!) of butter and 12 egg whites. There was some left, but I think this was a good calculation. Obviously you will need less if you are going for the semi-naked look. But since I wanted this to look like a ruffled bridal dress, I needed a thicker coat. You can’t see the orange/brown color from the carrot cake or the brown color from the bottom tier.

Total: About 55-63 pieces

Tip # 1: Make a trial run (or several)

As I was going to bake this wedding cake in another country, I needed to be extra sure that everything was going according to plan. Since I needed to get used to the oven, I made a trial run and also tested the ingredients (which often have a slightly different texture in another country). I did a mini carrot cake a few days beforehand and was pleased with the oven. It did take longer than mine in Germany, but it was doing its job and that was the main thing. Obviously, I had tested a lot of recipes beforehand and made a lot of trial runs back at home in Germany. For that reason you do find quite a lot of layer cakes on the blog recently. You need to feel comfortable when you make a wedding cake so practicing is key. Practice every part of it, not only trying different flavors, but also how to stack it, how to decorate, etc. It doesn’t matter if the wedding isn’t going to take place for months, feel free to start early so you are really prepared well. You should feel comfortable with all parts and have tried them at some point or another.

20/07/2021

How to bake a wedding cake at home, part 1

Probably most readers are going to say that I am crazy. Because when I made my first wedding cake, I did this in another country (Spain) with different ingredients, and another oven. I guess I simply have to accept that because it is the truth. I guess I am crazy. But I decided to start a new series, which is all about how to make a wedding cake at home with a regular oven. I will start this series with some fundamental questions, which you should have an answer to before you even start thinking about baking that cake. Let’s get going.

#1 How many guests are attending?

#2 When is the wedding cake going to be served?

These two questions are fundamental to how large your cake is going to be. So please be sure to have a proper answer before you calculate anything. Let me try to walk you through this. So let’s assume that you are going to serve the cake right after the ceremony. People will most likely be pretty hungry. In this instance, it is easy to calculate. You should have at least the amount of pieces as you have people attending. So if 50 people attend, you should have 50 pieces of cake. Believe me, many people don’t manage to eat properly before the ceremony and will be happy to have some cake if served early on. Of course it does make a difference if you offer further cakes, desserts, etc. alongside the wedding cake. But as stated, if served right after the ceremony, people will eat more than if served at another time.

Cake of 20cm in diameter, height about 12.5cm, recipe Strawberry Stracciatella Cake

16/07/2021

No-Knead Bread and How to Make a Perfect Cheese Sandwich

No-Knead-Bread und wie man einen perfekten Cheese-Sandwich macht

I am baking bread! You wonder why that is so special? Well, that’s because my husband is the designated bread baker of this family and he does it well, so I don’t dare to. The below recipe, however, sounded simple enough and for that reason I decided to give it a try. I like that it is so easy to make. Mix ingredients, add a little flour, pour into loaf pan and bake, that’s about it. I do enjoy that it is so soft in the center, I didn’t expect that to be honest.

29/01/2020

Cute Santas from Sugar Cookies

Süßer Nikolaus aus Mürbeteig mit Eiweißglasur

Yay, tomorrow is the official beginning of the season! That’s why I brought along some super cute santas made from sugar cookie dough. I stumbled across the idea last year when I visited one of my favorite blogs, Tieghan made these cute little santas for her cookie box and I was hooked immediately. So finally, one year later, I can scratch off this item from my baking list. Oh, and in case you didn’t know, we have a special day here in Germany on December 6th, Nikolaus is yet another day when children put their freshly polished boots outside the door and then secretly they are filled with sweets and the like. So typically, I wanted these to be ready for December 6. I just hate it when bloggers post the idea on the day itself, I decided to give you the chance to actually make these little cuties on time, so that’s why I am starting the season with them!

Don’t they look amazing? I find them perfect for a cookie box, as a little gift, to show your love, there are so many ideas when to take them with you. I even managed to freeze them, sugar cookies are super easy to freeze when plain, but I even froze these santas sucessfully with royal icing aka their beards. Seriously, why not invite a friend, turn on some music and make these santas? Preparing the dough doesn’t take long, and forming the santas is so much more fun when you have company.

30/11/2018

My 10 favorite Christmas Cookies

I’ve decided to open the season, it is time for Christmas cookies! Have you started yet? Every year I promise to start early and then I end up with a long, long, long list of cookies I want to bake, but nothing happens other than the list getting longer. Well, maybe this blog entry with my ten favorite Christmas cookies will also make your list longer, but maybe you will actually bake some, that would be actually awesome. Please let me know in the comments if you do!

#1 Tiny gingerbread houses

Seriously, I feel Christmas is not complete without gingerbread. Gingerbread houses, gingerbread men, ugly sweater cookies made with gingerbread, you name it. My recipe also includes some printables for these cute little gingerbread houses.

I urge you to try these cute little gingerbread houses

#2 Alfajores with chocolate and a slight hint of orange

Hands down, my favorite cookie from my country of birth Uruguay. It is filled with dulce de leche, do I need to say more?

Alfajores, a cookie made with cornstarch, filled with dulce de leche and covered in chocolate

#3 Cute little Santas

These cute little santas are a simple sugar cookie with ermine frosting, I just love them, check the recipe for further details!

If you really want to get into Christmas, make these cute little Santas!

#4 Peanut butter chocolate chunk cookies with caramel and sea salt

This may not be the traditional Christmas cookie, but all these flavors, I promise, you won’t regret making these!

All my favorite flavors combined, peanut butter, chocolate, caramel and sea salt, yes!

#5 Meringue cookies that actually look like mushrooms

You have some egg white left over? How about these little cuties? They only contain two ingredients, egg whites and sugar and are glued together by some chocolate.

You are making a yule log for Christmas? How about decorating it with these little mushrooms

#6 Linzer cookies

Another Christmas cookie I can’t do without. Who can say no to these cookies with a slight hint of almond and yummy jam filling?

This is one of the traditional Christmas cookies in Germany, go ahead and try it!

#7 Stained-glass cookies

They are easier to prepare than you may think. Obviously I give a lot of tips in my blog post to guide you along.

They look so cool and actually are not that hard to make, try these beautiful stained-glass cookies, they are a perfect gift and wonderful decoration.

#8 Snickerdoodles

These snickerdoodles are made with a lot of brown butter for extra awesomeness.

Oh, this joy of cinnamon and brown butter called snickerdoodles!

#9 Heidesand cookies

You may not know this traditional cookie from Germany, but it has brown butter and real vanilla. So buttery, so good!

These shortbread cookies are prepared with lots of brown butter and real vanilla. Traditionally from the north of Germany and so good for Christmas.

#10 Vanilla stars with chocolate ganache

If you are a chocolate lover, these cookies are for you. Instead of jam or buttercream, these cookies are filled with wonderful chocolate ganache.

If you can’t decide if you want to do chocolate or vanilla, why not combine these two flavors? Make these vanilla stars with chocolate filling.

So which one is your favorite Christmas cookie you can’t do without?

20/11/2018

I will bake for your comments and likes!

Hi guys, as you can see, I decided to change quite a lot on my blog. One major change is the layout (or theme how the proper blogging term is called). I decided to go with the Sprout & Spoon Theme by SoloPine. I don’t know what you think, but I am very happy with it. Since my weakest area is design (I also always have a hard time with food props and how to make my food look nice!), I can definitely recommend purchasing a theme. It is well worth the investment. But apart from the theme, there are much more substantial changes such as Continue Reading…

29/05/2017