Recipes for Three-Tiered Wedding Cake with Fruity and Fresh Fillings

Since I have been asked by several people now whether I could publish the recipes for this very fruity and fresh wedding cake (each tier had a different flavor combo), I decided to give in and finally let you have the recipes. You can also see a summary in my highlights in Instagram. Yes, just making the cake base requires 43 eggs already (because I used sponge cake as the base) and yes, we need 18 more egg whites for the Swiss meringue buttercream and almost two kilos of butter, but hey, this is for a large crowd. Since I am frequently asked about some further details, let me first give you the most important facts. The wedding cake consisted of:

1. 18cm Apricot Rosemary Filling with Fluffy Vanilla Sponge Cakes, based on this apricot rosemary cake
2. 24cm Raspberry Filling with Fresh Raspberries and Chocolate Sponge Cake, based on this raspberry chocolate cake (I did change the cake base though)
3. 30cm Blueberry Lemon Filling with Lemon Sponge Cake, based on this blueberry lemon cake

You can also check some details on my Instagram highlights on how I made this wedding cake. In this reel you can see how big the wedding cake actually is.

You need to know that the recipes below are based on the entire dough/filling for the respective size I chose. This means you may need to divide the dough into two cake pans or have to bake in smaller batches, I give the details below. Each cake was layered in a cake ring (see picture below) for an even and straight outcome. All cakes had a Swiss meringue buttercream piped around the outer edges of the cake to get the same outside look despite different fillings. I did not color the buttercream white, if you beat the butter long enough, it will get an almost white color. Each cake was about 14.5cm tall, the bottom tier with 30cm was even a centimeter taller. This was due to the fact as it looks bulkier and I wanted to create the illusion that they were all equally tall. The wedding cake was served right after the ceremony for coffee and cake (Kaffee und Kuchen) and was designed for 100 guests. There were almost no leftovers. Making the wedding cake took me around 20 hours.

Sponge Cake Base

18cm for a normal sponge (four cake layers)

65 grams of butter

6 eggs

160 grams of white sugar, 60 grams for egg whites, 100 grams for egg yolks

160 grams of all-purpose flour

30 grams of cornstarch

24cm chocolate sponge (four cake layers)

120 grams of butter

12 eggs

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

300 grams of white sugar, 100 grams for egg whites, 200 grams for egg yolks

300 grams of all-purpose flour

60 grams of unsweetened cocoa powder

30cm lemon sponge (attention, I made this in three steps, first and second time with ten eggs, and then 1/4 of the given amount so that I had five cake layers in total)

The numbers you see after the slashes are as follows: full amount for five layers/with10 eggs/one quarter

Zest of 5/2/1 organic lemons

Juice of 5/2/1 organic lemons

250/100/50 grams of butter

25/10/5 eggs

625/250/125 grams of white sugar, 200g/100/55 grams for egg whites, 425/150/75 grams for egg yolks

625/250/125 grams of all-purpose flour

125/50/25 grams of cornstarch

Preparation of the sponge cakes

You will find a lot of tips on how to make a perfect sponge cake in this blog post. In summary it is as follows:

Melt the butter. Divide egg whites and egg yolks in two large bowls. Add the sugar amounts directly to the egg parts and add a pinch of salt (for the larger cakes increase the amount) to the egg whites. Line the bottom of your cake pans with parchment paper and preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Measure out your flour, (cocoa powder), and cornstarch in another bowl. Beat the egg whites only until soft peaks form. It should still look matt. Then beat the egg yolks until thick in consistency and pale in color. Sift the flour (cocoa powder), cornstarch onto the egg yolks and add 1/3 of the beaten egg whites. Fold slowly, trying not to deflate any air. Fold in another 1/3 of the egg whites and the last 1/3. The melted butter (and lemon zest and juice) come last. If you are dealing with large batches, I do recommend using your hand instead of a spatula to fold under the ingredients. Divide evenly between the cake pans and bake for around 30min. I never baked the whole amount in one cake pan, this one would need to be high, often creates a dome and takes a longer baking time (I assume at least 50min). I didn’t have to cut off a single cake, they came out nice and even. Let cool off before cutting in half.

My procedure was: bake 18cm cake in two cake forms, bake 24cm cake in two cake forms (yes, my KitchenAid managed 12 eggs at the same time), bake 30cm once with 10 eggs, bake again with 10 eggs, and a third time with only 5 eggs for one layer. So in total I needed five rounds of baking and the 18cm tier and 24cm tier had four cake layers and the 30cm had five. I believe the total time for this was around five hours, including wrapping, freezing, cutting, etc. I baked the cake layers two weeks prior the wedding at home in Munich. Then I packed them into a gigantic cooling box with ice and drove 600km to the wedding, it took me 7 1/2 hours on the road. I prepared the fillings, buttercream etc. in an Airbnb close to the wedding and finished the cake on site. FYI, sponge cake can be frozen, but only once. I had tried the difference between freshly baked and frozen for a short amount of time (e.g. one to two weeks) and I am happy to report that you will NOT taste any difference. In fact, unfreezing the cakes helped moistening them, there is a reason I made lemon syrup and brushed all cakes with it a lot. Wedding cakes, and this one was no exception, are prepared on several days and I do think that freezing the cake layers made no difference in taste as I basically soaked them in lemon syrup. I find this amazing and very pratical.

Fillings

Lemon syrup

100 grams of white sugar

150 grams of water

150 grams of lemon juice

Preparation: Combine sugar and water in a pot and bring to boil until sugar is dissolved. Add lemon juice and transfer to a bottle until further use.

Filling 18cm

350 grams of fresh apricots after cutting

175 grams of jelling sugar

1 sprig of rosemary

200 grams of mascarpone

200 grams of cream cheese

200 grams of heavy cream

Preparation: Take the stone from the apricots and cut into pieces. Bring to a boil with the jelling sugar and boil for about three minutes while stirring. Pluck rosemary leaves from sprig and add to the mix, then puree and let cool. Beat the heavy cream until stiff, add all other ingredients and cooled off apricot mix.

350 grams of fresh apricots

30 grams of white sugar

2-3 sprigs of rosemary

Preparation: Take out stone from the apricots and cut into slices. Caramelize the sugar in a frying pan, then add the apricots and rosemary leaves. Let simmer for a few minutes. If you do have the time, let the cooled mixture sit overnight for the flavors to intensify. The 18cm tier had Swiss meringue around the edges, the apricot cream as the main filling and the caramelized apricots last (see picture). Don’t throw away the liquid/caramel, use this instead of lemon syrup to soak the cake layers first.

Filling 24cm

500 grams of frozen raspberries

150 grams of white sugar

40 grams of cornstarch

400 grams of butter at room temperature

150 grams of cream cheese

500 grams of fresh raspberries

Preparation: Bring the frozen raspberries with the sugar to a boil and simmer for a few minutes. Meanwhile dissolve the cornstarch in a mug with cold water. Add to the raspberries and let cook while stirring for at least a minute. Let cool and set aside. Then beat the butter for at least five minutes until pale in color. Add the raspberry mix, one tablespoon at a time. Mix in cream cheese last. This cake also had Swiss meringue piped around the edges, was soaked in lemon syrup, had a layer of raspberry cream and was then sprinkled with fresh raspberries (see picture).

Filling 30cm

1kg of frozen blueberries

300 grams of white sugar

75 grams of cornstarch

900 grams of mascarpone

1kg of cream cheese

750 grams of fresh blueberries

Preparation: Bring the frozen blueberries and sugar to a boil and simmer for a few minutes. Meanwhile dissolve the cornstarch in a mug with cold water. Add to the berries and let cook for a minute while stirring. Let cool and set aside. Combine the cooled off mix with the dairy products. Again brush the cake layers with lemon syrup, pipe an outer ring with buttercream, fill with the blueberry cream and sprinkle with fresh blueberries. As this tier had five layers, I needed more cream than the other tiers!

Swiss meringue für the semi-naked look

18 egg whites (540grams, I like to use the pasteurized ones from pumperlgesund)

600 grams of white sugar

1.5 kilos of butter

You will find detailed instructions how to make Swiss meringue buttercream in this blog post. The short version is: Gently heat egg whites and sugar in a water bath until the sugar has dissolved. This takes a few minutes. To check, the mixture should not have any sugar crystals if you rub between your fingers. Beat to a stiff meringue and until cool. Then add the butter, one tablespoon at a time until you have silky buttercream, this will take a while. I made my buttercream in two batches as I didn’t want my KitchenAid to tire out.

The first batch of buttercream was mainly for piping the outer cake layers, I find it amazing how much you actually need for that. The second to frost all cakes and to have enough to use as a glue (e.g. on the pieces of wood, between the tiers, etc.). I only need to frost the cakes once as I was going for the semi-naked look, the only one that was a bit more tricky was the top tier, I had to put it back into the cake ring to straighten it out before putting another layer of frosting. I had a bit of buttercream left, but I would definitely make the entire amount given again, you never know.

The cakes are frosted and are waiting to be dowled

Chocolate Drip and Decoration

400 grams of semi-sweet chocolate

400 grams of heavy cream

Berry assortment, I had strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, and currants

Preparation: Chop the chocolate roughly and heat the heavy cream until almost boiling. Then add the chocolate and stir. Wait until the ganache has the right consistency to create the drip effect on the chilled cake. I did this with a tablespoon and pressed the berries into the warm chocolate. This all was done on site in the cooling room. So this wedding cake was stacked and fully decorated 24 hours beforehand. It only got carried upstairs after the ceremony to sit at room temperature for about 45min.

Featured picture and last picture by Benjamin & Dorothea Morise

I just published a recipe for a three-tiered chocolate wedding cake with blackberry filling (pictured below):

If you are thinking of making a wedding cake at home with a regular oven and need further tips, check out this series:

Part I How to bake a wedding cake at home

Part II How to schedule a plan when making a wedding cake at home

Part III How to convert sizes and recipes

Part VI How to transport and stack a wedding cake