Deborah Chan
A wedding dress cake is a creative way to capture the memory of a special day. It can be a fun project for engagement cakes, bridal showers, or even a quinceañera. The process involves baking two cakes, filling and stacking them, and using fondant to create the dress shape. The more dramatic the effect, the more off-centre the stacking should be. To add detail, you can use tools to create pleats and folds, and attach decorations like bows and pearls. The final step is to place a doll topper in the cake, representing the bride.
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What You'll Learn
Baking the cake
To bake a wedding dress cake, you will need to bake two cakes. The number of people you are serving will determine the size of your cake pans. For example, for a small cake for about 6 people, you can use a half bowl and a small cake pan, both 12cms.
Fill your cakes with your choice of filling, such as cream and jam, lemon dessert mousse, or buttercream. Stack the cakes on top of each other and use a dowel to prevent them from tumbling when you smooth them with buttercream. You can also use a bigger half bowl cake, such as a 20cm cake, to create a bigger dress.
Once the cakes are stacked and filled, smooth the cake all around and put it in the fridge to chill. If you are making a dress with pleats, you can create them by carefully lifting up a piece of the dress and folding it, then trimming the skirt with a wheel tool to the desired size and width.
If you are attaching a torso and breasts to the dress, roll out a large piece of fondant and place it over the cake, pushing a dowel through the fondant to secure it. Attach the breasts by pressing them to the sides of the torso and smoothing the fondant to make it look natural. Finally, press the torso onto the dowel until it touches the skirt of the dress.
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Stacking the cakes
Stacking a wedding dress cake is a challenging but rewarding endeavour. Here is a detailed guide to help you stack your cakes successfully:
Prepare the Tiers
Before stacking, ensure your cakes are baked, levelled, and chilled. Baking and levelling are crucial steps to achieve even layers. Use a serrated knife to trim any domes or uneven surfaces. Next, chill your cakes to firm up the frosting and make them easier to manoeuvre. This step will take around 30 minutes.
Choose Your Support Structure
The stability of your wedding dress cake relies on the support structure. You can use wooden or plastic dowels, bubble tea straws, or a combination of these. Dowels are recommended for heavier cakes, providing a sturdy and secure method to stack tiers. Bubble tea straws are suitable for lighter cakes, but regular straws are not strong enough.
Dowelling Technique
Now, you are ready to begin stacking. Place your bottom tier on a sturdy cake drum or board. Mark the centre of the tier and plunge a dowel into it. Add more dowels in a circle, approximately 1-2 inches from the edge. These dowels will support the weight of the next tier. Mark the top of each dowel with a cake decorating pen, then remove and cut them to the appropriate length. Reinsert the dowels, ensuring a clear surface on the tier.
Stacking the Tiers
Carefully position the next tier onto the dowelled surface. Align it perfectly, ensuring no wobbling or sliding. Repeat the dowelling process for each subsequent tier, marking, cutting, and reinserting the dowels. Finally, place the top tier, taking extra care with its positioning.
Final Touches
Once all tiers are stacked, pipe buttercream or frosting around the edges to seamlessly blend each layer. If your cake needs extra support, insert a central dowel through the length of all tiers. This technique is especially useful for heavy cakes.
By following these steps and taking your time, you can successfully stack a wedding dress cake, creating a stable and stunning masterpiece.
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Using dowels for support
Dowels are essential for supporting the structure of a wedding dress cake, especially if it has multiple tiers. They prevent the top tier from crashing into the bottom tier and provide stability. Here are some tips for using dowels for support:
Firstly, determine the number of dowels needed. A common rule is to use an odd number of dowels for each tier. Take the diameter of the tier that will be stacked on top, halve it, and use that number as a guide for the number of dowels. For example, if you have a 9-inch cake with a 7-inch cake on top, you would use four dowels on the 9-inch cake. Remember to consider the number of tiers that will be stacked on top.
You can use wooden or plastic dowels, but wooden dowels are generally preferred as they are simple, inexpensive, and effective when used correctly. However, some bakers use alternatives like bubble tea straws, wooden chopsticks, or untreated dowels from hardware stores. If using untreated dowels, insert them into drinking straws to ensure food safety and prevent splinters.
When inserting dowels, cut them to the appropriate length so they fit snugly inside the cake. For a centre dowel, ensure it is anchored securely into the board below to effectively prevent sliding or shifting. If using a cake board, you may need to make a hole in the centre in advance, especially if using thicker boards like MDF.
While dowels provide support, they do not make the cake damage-proof. Incorrect placement or excessive use of dowels can actually decrease stability and make it challenging to cut the cake. Therefore, it is crucial to use the appropriate number of dowels and place them correctly.
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Shaping the dress
Firstly, decide on the dress you want to replicate or design. Print out a scaled copy of the chosen dress and lay it over a visual drawing of your cake. This will help you determine the tier sizes and their heights. The number of tiers and their placement will depend on the style of the dress. For example, Jennifer Reese, an award-winning cake artist, suggests keeping the most drastic tier size differences around the waist and lower portions of the skirt to capture the flare of the gown.
Next, using the printout as a guide, sketch the borders of the gown directly onto the cake with a soft-tipped graphite pencil. Start by sketching the entire silhouette, and then focus on the individual portions of the dress where the fullness changes drastically. These cutouts will be your guidelines for shaping the dress. Straight pins can be handy to hold your template in place while you sketch.
Now, it's time to shape the bodice of the dress. Roll out a piece of fondant, either in white or the colour of your choice, and place it over the cake, pushing your dowel through the centre to secure it. Use your fingers to mould and form the fondant, creating the desired shape for the bodice. If you want to add more detail, you can attach elements like the breasts by using a knife tool to secure them to the torso and then smoothing it out.
For the skirt, you can create pleats or folds by carefully lifting and folding the fondant. Trim the skirt with a wheel tool to achieve the desired size and width. If you're creating a dramatic, flared skirt, consider off-centre stacking for the tiers, aligning them vertically at the front of the cake and then moving towards the centre as you go down to mimic the shape of the gown. Finally, press the torso onto the dowel until it touches the skirt for the final assembly.
Remember, you can add as much detail as you like to your wedding dress cake. Feel free to experiment with different techniques and tools to bring your vision to life!
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Decorating the cake
You can use a printout of your chosen dress as a guide. Start by sketching the borders of the gown with a soft-tipped graphite pencil, then cut out the individual portions of the dress where the fullness of the gown changes drastically. Use these cutouts to create guidelines on the cake. Straight pins are useful for holding your template in place while you sketch.
Roll out a big piece of fondant and place it over your cake, pushing your dowel through the fondant to support the cake. You can then trim the skirt with a wheel tool to give it the size and width you want. If you want to add pleats to the dress, carefully lift up a piece of the dress and fold it, repeating this process all the way around.
To finish the dress, you can add details such as a bow, which you can make ahead of time and dust with pearl dust. You can also sprinkle white sugar pearls over the cake for an extra touch of elegance.
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Frequently asked questions
Bake two cakes of different sizes, with the bigger cake representing the skirt and the smaller cake representing the torso. Stack the cakes and put a dowel through them to prevent them from tumbling. Smooth the cake with buttercream and put it in the fridge to chill. Roll out a big piece of fondant and cover the cake, then push your dowel through the fondant to secure it. Decorate the fondant with details to make it look like a wedding dress.
You can attach the breasts by pressing a knife tool to the sides of the torso and smoothing it out to make it look natural.
Filled sponge cakes are best baked as close to the wedding day as possible, while traditional fruit cakes can be made in advance and fed with brandy or sherry to make them moist and alcoholic. If you want to make a simple, not-too-sweet cake, you can dollop it with whipped cream and berries.
The amount of cake batter you need to make will depend on the number of guests you are expecting and the size of your cake tiers. Consider using a cake batter calculator to determine the right amount.
You will need cake pans in different sizes, dowels, fondant, buttercream, a knife tool, a wheel tool, and optional decorations such as flowers, toppers, or royal icing shapes.
