If you want to try to DIY your own wedding cake but you’re not sure if you should, take the time to read through this guide. This is a complete tutorial showing how to make a simple wedding cake, and I’ve added a lot of tips that will help you be successful.
If you read through this and feel overwhelmed, don’t do it! But if you think it looks do-able, especially if you do a rustic cake that doesn’t need smooth icing, then this guide will help you.
I used to sell this tutorial, but I’m making it available to people now for free in the hopes that it will prevent a wedding cake disaster for someone!
This article includes affiliate links that will pay a commission if they’re used to purchase something. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Should You DIY Your Own Cake?
As a professional baker it’s my duty to give you the full picture of what you’re getting into. Making a wedding cake isn’t for everyone, but if you have baking experience or an adventurous spirit you can pull it off.
Go through this list to see if it would be something that you’d like to try.
–Do you have any baking experience? It’s not 100% necessary but it helps.
–Will you have time the week of your wedding to work on the cake? If you’re totally scheduled for every minute in the days leading up to your wedding it might not be a good idea. You’ll need time to get the cake put together, and time the day before to finish the decorating. THIS IS THE MAIN ISSUE THAT ARISES BEFORE WEDDINGS! Don’t underestimate how long it will take, because it’s guaranteed to take twice as long as you think it will.
Be aware that most venues won’t let you deliver cakes the day before, since they don’t have storage space for it that’s secure. I wouldn’t ever deliver a cake the day before because I’ve seen how people move things around and mess with things in professional kitchens. Don’t take a chance!
–How will you get the cake delivered and set up? Do you have someone you trust who can help you with this? The cake is usually delivered to the reception venue in the hours before the reception starts. You’re going to be busy then, so if you can’t do it you’ll need to make arrangements for it to be delivered.
–If you’re taking the cake to a venue (as opposed to having the reception at a private home) will they allow you to bring in outside food, or do they require all of the food to be provided by licensed and inspected businesses?
–Why do you want to make your own cake? If it’s to save money you’ll need to make sure you don’t go overboard on practice, buying supplies, etc, or you’ll probably spend as much as if you had paid a professional to do it. (Read this article about the cost of a DIY cake.)
–Do you have a recipe that you know works well, and can be used for a stacked cake? Again, too much practicing can blow your budget. If you have a good recipe already that saves a lot of time and expense. I have some recipe suggestions further on in this article.
–Do you want a cake that’s perfectly smooth, precise and looks flawless? Or are you happy with something that’s more rustic and homemade-looking? If you don’t have decorating experience the less-formal cake designs are probably going to be your best bet.
–Are you planning on doing the cake by yourself or will you have someone helping you? If someone else will be making it, are they reliable enough to take it seriously and not back out shortly before the wedding? It happens more often than you know.
–Do you have someone you can ask for help or advice if you need to? There are sources online for cake decorating advice like facebook groups where you can post general questions, but for specifics it would be good to have someone local to you who you can call.
–Will you have enough refrigerator space to store the cake when it’s finished? Make sure to plan for this.
Still ready to try? One last warning before we start…
-On average, the cost for the wedding cake is 1.7% of the total wedding budget…This might not be the place to try to save money!
-There’s a trade-off in terms of time spent planning, practicing, shopping for equipment, shopping for ingredients, baking, assembling, and delivering the cake, and the cost of hiring someone else to make your cake. If you add everything up including practice time, shopping time, working on the final cake, it can easily take 20-25 hours depending on if you take a cake class. That includes every bit of time involved from planning to execution of the cake itself.
-On average it will cost $150-250 depending on whether you take a class, do practice runs, have to buy pans and other equipment to make the cake. Ingredients, boards, boxes, pans, practice runs, decorations, etc. The money you save may only save you $5-7 an hour once everything is added up (shopping, gas to shop, ingredients, materials, electricity etc.)
Those are the tradeoffs…Now I’ll take you through the steps to try to make it a little easier in the long run!
How much cake do you need?
You’ll need about 80% of the total number of guests for the number of cake servings, because not everyone has cake. If you have 100 guests, 80 servings of cake will be enough.
If you’re going to keep the top tier, you’ll need to remove that from the serving count.
One serving of cake is 1”x2”x4”(with each cake tier being 4”tall). If the cake is shorter than that the pieces will be smaller, so aim for 4” in height for each tier.
The most common tier combinations have at least 2 or 3” difference between the diameters of each tier. For example, 5”-7”-9” and 5”-8”-11”. That gives you a stable setup to stack and move around. If you stack tiers that are only 1” different, like a 4”-5”-6” combination, it can be more difficult to stack and is more top-heavy.
For tiers that are taller than 4”, you may need extra supports. A 5-6” tier doesn’t need anything extra, but a 7-8” tier will need a board halfway up and dowels under the top section of the tier.
To calculate the tier sizes that you’ll need, refer to the following charts. These charts include the top tiers in the serving counts shown, so if you want to save that you’ll need to subtract that out.
The reason that there’s a range of servings is because people cut cake differently. As mentioned before, each serving is supposed to be 1”x2”x4”. Depending on who’s cutting the cake that won’t be what happens, though, so you can get a different serving count.
This photo is from a wedding where I did the cake, and the people at the reception site cut the pieces a lot smaller than they should have… These pieces are clearly not the right size, so the serving count is going to be different from what I estimated.
Cake Pan Information and Sources.
Most pans that you can get at retail stores are going to be 8-10” diameters. To get larger sizes you can try craft supply stores that have cake decorating sections, or specialty kitchen stores.
It doesn’t really matter if you have light or dark pans, but I find that basic silver pans work fine, and they’re what most bakeries use.
Don’t get the flexible silicone pans since they don’t work very well.
If you need odd sizes you might have trouble finding them, and it would save time to just order them online. Try the following sources:
There are other cake shops online but I’ve had issues in the past with credit card numbers being stolen through insecure servers, so I can’t recommend any other than the ones I’ve listed. If you have the option to use paypal any time while checking out, that’s what I would do.
Deciding on a cake size.
When you’re deciding on what size tier combination to use, remember that the taller the cake, the more unstable it will be to move. Try to do the shortest cake that you can unless you have experience stacking cakes.
If your reception will be more than 100 people you might want to think about doing smaller cakes in a dessert buffet arrangement to avoid having to deal with a large cake.
All of the cake setups above were for wedding receptions, and they would all be easier to do than a large, stacked cake. These are even some arrangements that could be done by different people to contribute to the wedding reception if you have people who would like to do that.
Have friends bring a cake in lieu of a gift, and that can be your dessert buffet setup. When I got married I did a dessert buffet and had all of my broke student friends bring a dessert that they had made instead of a wedding gift. They were able to contribute to the wedding in a meaningful way, and it didn’t break their wallets!
You can also check out the wedding cake ideas section on this website to see photos of different styles of wedding cakes.
What Design Do You Want?
Simple designs are best if you’re not experienced with piping bags. A rustic icing look is very do-able and will save time and stress in not having to smooth the icing out completely.
This youtube video shows a few different rustic icing techniques:
If you don’t want to do a rustic icing look, you’ll need to learn to smooth out icing. That basically just takes practice. Read the guide on icing a cake the follows and plan on practicing.
Unless you have experience with piping bags, don’t plan on doing anything too complicated. That includes anything more than piping a simple border on the cake. Unless you can pipe icing evenly and in a straight line, don’t try to do this on a wedding cake.
You can use fondant to make a lot of decorations that can be made ahead of time and either dried or frozen so that they can be applied to the cake while they’re still soft. Read this article about freezing fondant details to use later.
If you want gumpaste flowers you can either make them or buy them from cake supply stores on your area or online. Click here to see gumpaste flowers on Amazon (#ad)
I have a lot of article with tutorials on making wedding cake flowers, you can see those here.
Consider other cake options.
Alternatives to a traditional wedding cake include cupcakes, single tiers of cake that are arranged individually on stands, or dessert buffets.
If you’re thinking of cupcakes, remember that they take a lot of storage space and will take time to set up. You also need one cupcake for each guest because people tend to take more than they would if the option is a piece of cut cake, so that’s more than the 80% of the guest count for a tiered cake.
Individual cakes on separate stands is a good option because you can decorate them so that they coordinate or so that they’re totally different.
They’re also easier to manage in terms of storing and transporting them, and they can make a nice arrangement on a buffet table.
Dessert buffets that include many different types of treats are a nice option. This kind of thing is something that you can do yourself or have friends contribute to, since it’s a variety and things don’t all need to coordinate. I did a dessert buffet at my own wedding reception, and out of all of the fancy desserts there the thing that was eaten first was rice krispie treats. People like snacky kind of things, and a choice of desserts is always popular.
The thing to keep in mind with a dessert buffet is that you’ll need a lot more desserts for each person than you would if you have a tiered cake.
When people have a chance at a buffet they tend to take a lot more than they would if someone serves them. You also need to make sure that you have someone to monitor the buffet to fill empty plates and to remove serving platters when needed to keep it looking nice.
Decorating with flowers.
As far as design goes, it’s best to stick with simple ones if you’re trying to make a wedding cake and get married at the same time!
Using fresh flowers is an option, but I’m not a fan of fresh flowers on a cake. Most fresh flowers are imported these days, and are handled by multiple people in multiple situations on the way. They’re covered with pesticides and fertilizers, which may or may not be EPA and FDA approved if they come from outside the US.
Fresh flowers may also be toxic, like calla lilies and hydrangeas. Even if they’re not toxic and totally organic, would you want to drink the water that the stems have been sitting in? If not, why would you want to put them on your cake?
Another problem that I’ve encountered with fresh flowers is that many of them need so much water to stay looking right, they’ll wilt in no time at all and will look saggy and sad when they’re on your cake.
If you do opt for fresh flowers, never insert the stems directly into the cake. Try to put a barrier of some sort between the cake and the flowers so that they won’t touch the cake.
You can also use artificial flowers, also making sure to not insert them directly into the cake. You can paint a layer of melted white chocolate on the back of the flowers to create a barrier on them.
Paper flowers will also work as long as they don’t touch the buttercream and absorb the oils from the icing. There are a lot of options.
Decorate with non-floral items.
If you don’t want to use flowers at all, you can go a different route and use things like origami cranes, fresh fruit, garlands, brooches, etc. There are an unlimited number of options that will work.
Just remember not to insert inedible elements directly into the cake, and tell the person who’s serving the cake exactly what needs to be removed before serving.
If you opt for using ANY kind of valuable items or things with sentimental value on the cake make sure that someone from your bridal party is standing there to retrieve them the minute you finish taking the cake cutting photos.
Don’t take a chance that the kitchen staff will remember to return these things to you because they have a thousand things going on during any given time.
99% of the time they’ll remember and you’ll get your things back safely, but you don’t want to be the 1% who loses your grandmother’s brooch from using it on the cake and having it be forgotten.
It’s better to avoid using anything valuable on the cake at all because it eliminates the chance of having those items get lost.
The goal is to have NOTHING for the staff to have to return to you after the reception. Try to use “disposable” decorations that you won’t miss.
Stick with simple designs.
Some simple and classic designs that are popular include:
- A cascade of sugar flowers down the side of the cake
- Draping the cake with strands of pearls
- One large flower on the side of the cake
- Fresh fruit or herbs, clusters of flowers scattered here and there on the tiers
- Plain tiers with an elegant topper as the focal point
- Clusters of sugar pearls pressed on the sides of the tiers
- Small gumpaste decorations like seashells or snowflakes
- Pieces of edible lace applied to the sides of the cake.
To design a cake, if you don’t want to use a design that you’ve already found online, start with a drawing of blank cake tiers and sketch on them to see if you like certain arrangements.
I’ve provided some basic sketches at the end of this guide so that you can print them and use them as a basis to start.
Round tiers are easiest to ice well, since you won’t have to deal with getting corners straight.
If you want to get a cake topper, make sure that the top tier is going to be wide enough for it. Most cake toppers are designed for a 6” top tier, so if your top tier is smaller it might look off-balance.
Very tall toppers often look disproportionate too, so keep it on the smaller side.
Once you’ve nailed down your design, plan on getting the decorations ready ahead of time. If you’re using sugar flowers they’ll stay good for years if you keep them out of dust and humidity. The same goes for gumpaste seashells and other gumpaste decorations.
Decorations made from isomalt or wafer paper are becoming more popular, but can be more temperamental to store, so check with the person who made the décor before buying it.
You can get plenty of sugar flowers on Etsy and other sites. If you’re not sure how many of the flowers you need, check with the person selling them. They should be able to estimate what you’ll need based on the tier sizes you’re using.
Materials you’ll need to make and assemble the cake:
(All links in this section are Amazon affiliate links.)
Spatulas (I use the offset spatulas that have a bend in them)
Turntable (a sturdy lazy susan will work)
Straightedge/bench scraper with a 90 degree angle, like an architect’s triangle (if you want to ice the cake smooth)
Toothpicks and ruler
Boards to put the cake tiers on (corrugated plastic works well since it doesn’t absorb moisture or oils)
Cake drum to put the stacked cake on (Thick base board made from ½” cardboard, usually covered with silver foil. DO NOT buy the Wilton brand boards, they’re VERY wiggly and unstable.)
Supports, either wooden dowels (don’t buy Wilton bamboo dowels, they’re very wiggly) or plastic dowels. I’ll go over the options later.) The Wilton brand plastic dowel and plate systems are fine, just don’t use their wooden dowels.
Box to transport the cake (a brown moving box will work fine.)
Non-skid carpet padding to put under the cake box in the car while moving it.
Any materials needed to decorate it.
What recipe to use?
You can use any recipe for any cake that is relatively firm and not super-crumbly to make a wedding cake. The cake tiers will be
It’d easier to handle a firmer type of cake if you’re moving the layers around a lot, though, so if you have a family favorite pound cake or other recipe for a firmer cake, plan on using that. You already know that the recipe works, and that’s 99% of the baking.
To multiply the recipe for different sized pans, you need to figure out what size pans the original recipe calls for, then start doing some math. Most recipes make two 8” rounds, but they’re often not a full 2” layer, they end up shorter than that. The best thing to do is to use 1 ¼ times the base recipe for two 8” layers and collar the pans with 3” strips of waxed paper or parchment in case they bake higher than the edge of the pan. You can level the layer with a bread knife so that the tops are completely flat if they do rise above the pan.
For a recipe that makes two 8” rounds, use 1 ¼ times the base recipe.
For two 9” rounds, use 1 ¾ x the base. For two 10” rounds, use 2X the base recipe. These are general amounts, and you should do a reality check for the recipe you decide to use. Make sure to collar the pans with a 3” tall strip of waxed paper placed all the way around the inside of the cake pan! Or you can use 3” tall pans to start with.
For a good recipe that’s versatile and that comes with a lot of explanation, you can buy Beyond Buttercream’s white cake recipe.
It’s like a mini-cookbook and has variations on the basic recipe and a thorough explanation of how to make it successfully every time.
You can also check out the baking sweets section of this site, because I’ve included recipes for some of the cakes that I used to make wedding cakes professionally.
Timeline.
There’s a lot of debate about when to bake cakes and whether to freeze them or not. I personally don’t freeze anything, but if you’re making your own wedding cake I can see that there would be a good reason to do that.
My advice on the timeline would be to bake two or three days before the wedding, decorate the day or two days before, and refrigerate the decorated cake until delivery.
If you need to freeze the layers, leave them in the pans and wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and don’t freeze them for more than a week.
Decorate them at room temp, so let them defrost overnight before the day you want to work on them.
If you’re baking two or three days before, cool the layers after baking, wrap tightly in plastic and leave them at room temperature until it’s time to decorate.
Don’t ice and decorate the cakes while they’re frozen. That can cause problems with condensation and air bubbles that can form under the icing as the cake thaws and comes to room temperature.
If an air bubble does form under the icing it will push the surface of the icing out and create what looks like a giant bump on the cake. The easiest way to deal with these is to take a wooden toothpick or skewer and poke a hole in the bubble to let the air have an exit route, then carefully press the icing back into place.
Leave the hole open to allow any air that’s still trying to get out to do it, and after a few hours you can check it to see if any other bubbles are forming. If they’re not, you can fill the hole or cover it with a decoration.
The most important thing is to not decorate the cakes the same day that you bake. Cakes need time to cool off COMPLETELY and to set up before decorating so that the structure will be set before you try to move them around.
Baking and cake prep tips.
When you bake the cakes, make sure to line the bottom of the cake pans with waxed paper or parchment. That will assure that they release cleanly from the pans.
Bake the cakes and let them cool COMPLETELY. Wrap them in plastic wrap and store overnight at room temperature. They should sit overnight at least in order to give the structure of the cake time to set up. When they’re wrapped tightly you can put them in the fridge to firm them up, or leave them at room temperature.
I do everything at room temp but some people like to work with cold cake so that it’s firmer.
Prepare boards to put the cakes on. If you’re using a sheet of corrugated plastic (available at craft stores) trace the pans on the sheet and cut them out using scissors or a craft knife.
Prep yourself for decorating.
Before we start, let me remind you that you need to wash your hands A LOT when you’re working with cakes. You can use rubber gloves, but if they get dirty you need to change them, so I think it’s easier to just keep washing your hands.
You also can’t have long fingernails for this, so if you do have a nice manicure you might need to use gloves instead of your bare hands. Fingernails are a hotbed for bacteria underneath them, so it’s not good to handle cakes with them.
Clean hands are your best tool, but be ready to wash them a lot.
You also don’t want to wear rings that have stones in them while you’re doing anything cake-related. If you lose a stone out of one, you won’t know where it went, and it might be in the cake.
Remove jewelry to be on the safe side!
And tie your hair back! Nobody wants hair in their cake.
Icing the cake.
When it’s time to ice the cakes, make sure that the top of the layer is level by cutting off any cake that’s raised above the edge of the cake pan using a long bread knife.
Remove them from the pan by running a knife around the edge of the pan, placing the board for that layer over the pan and inverting it onto the board.
If the layers are small enough you can usually turn them out onto the board using your hand, or turn them out onto your hand then put them on the board if they’re really small.
Make sure to remove the waxed paper that lined the bottom of the cake pan if it sticks to the layer!
Put the layer on the board flat side down. If you’re going to torte the layers to have thinner layers and more layers of filling you can do that now to get them ready for being filled.
With one layer on each board, put the filling on each layer, then place the second layers on top of the first. Don’t use fillings that are too stiff or they can rip the cake when you spread them on.
Add filling on the top of the first layer, then keep stacking the next layer.
Either turn the next layer out of the pan directly onto the cake, or slide it onto the first layer if you’re using a cookie sheet (one with no rim) or a cutting board.
Slice the cake to torte the top layer.
If you’re using some kind of fruit preserves don’t add too much filling or the layers can slide. Flavored buttercream is a good filling that won’t slide.
When the tier is assembled and filled, press firmly on the top to make sure there are no air pockets in the fillings. If the layers slide around when you press it you may have too much filling, especially if you’re using some kind of fruit preserves.
If there’s a LOT of sliding you might want to disassemble the layers CAREFULLY and remove some of the filling if possible.
Level the cake.
Level the top by measuring the height and marking it with toothpicks at the same height all the way around.
Using the bread knife and the toothpicks as a guide, cut the top of the cake level.
Try to keep it as close to 4” at the least as possible, and up to 5” tall.
Tips to torte the layers.
When you remove the layers to fill them if you torte the layers, use a flexible cutting board or a cookie sheet that has no rim on it.
Cut the cake to torte the layer then slide the cutting board in where it’s cut, remove the layer and try not to rotate the board too much since you’ll want to replace it so that it lines up correctly.
Put the filling on the torted layers and replace the cut layer.
When the layers are filled and levelled you’re ready to start icing them.
Icing
The basic American buttercream icing recipe is 2 pounds confectioner’s sugar, 1 cup butter and 1 cup Crisco, ¼ cup milk or half and half, and 1 tsp vanilla.
You can add more or less of each type of fat as long as the total is 2 cups of fat per 2 pounds of sugar. The more butter you use the better it will taste, obviously, but it will also be a little softer and off-white. It’s worth it as far as flavor goes.
You’ll need three batches of the base recipe to cover a small three-tiered cake, and four batches for a larger three-tiered or a four-tiered cake.
You can use other types of icings like meringue buttercream, but the American version is the easiest and most forgiving to work with, so that’s what I’m suggesting you use if you’re doing your own cake.
Make the icing.
Take 1 cup butter and 1 cup shortening and cream them together well in the bowl of a stand mixer. Heat ¼ cup milk or half and half in the microwave until it’s warm and add it to the butter bit by bit, blending until it’s incorporated.
Put a dishtowel over the mixer to prevent sugar from flying out and add the sugar to the mixer with the speed on low. Add it slowly to prevent a giant sugar dust cloud. Once it’s incorporated scrape the bowl with a spatula and give it one more mix on medium to make sure it’s all blended.
Don’t beat the icing too much or air will be added to it, which can make it have bubbles in it. One way that people get a smooth icing to work with is to turn the mixer on low for a while after it’s all mixed so that it will beat air out of it.
You want the icing to not be too stiff, because if it’s not smooth enough to spread easily it can rip the cake.
Crumb coat the tier.
The crumb coat is important, so don’t skip this step. It will catch any loose pieces of cake and let you end up with a smooth, clean outer icing.
To start, put a big blob of icing on top of the tier. You’re going to do a crumb coat to encase any crumbs and fill in gaps between the layers. The icing should be the consistency of a spreadable soft-ish peanut butter.
Cover the top of the tier and drag the icing down the sides of the cake. This is a thin coating of icing, so it doesn’t have to be opaque, you should be able to see the cake through it in spots.
Make sure to really fill in any gaps in the spots where the layers meet so that the filling won’t come out and any air pockets that might get trapped will be eliminated.
Let the crumb coat crust over for a while if you’re using a confectioner’s sugar buttercream. If you’re using a meringue buttercream you can do the final icing coat right away.
If you want to refrigerate the cake to firm the crumb coat un you can do that, but it can make the final icing coat firm up as you’re putting it on, which can make it a little harder to work with.
While the crumb coat is setting, get the bottom board ready if you’re using a cake drum. You can either hot glue the cake onto the board or use loops of packing tape. I prefer the packing tape because you don’t need to juggle a hot glue gun while you’re dealing with iced cakes.
I put the crumb coated bottom tier onto the cake drum, and the crumb coated upper tiers on flexible cutting boards to move them around.
Do the last layer of icing.
For the final coat of icing, put more icing on the top of the cake and drag it down the sides again, being careful not to drag the crumb coat off in the process.
This coat can be on the thick side, but don’t make it too thick.
Leave a little ridge of icing that’s higher than the top of the tier so that you can smooth it out later.
Smooth the icing.
If you’re going to smooth it out this it the time to do it, before the icing crusts over. Use the straightedge/triangle or a bench scraper and hold it perpendicular to the cake while it’s on a turntable.
Holding the straightedge against the side of the cake and against the board surface, remove enough icing to smooth the surface as you turn the turntable. Go around as many times as you need, removing bumps and smoothing the icing as you go around.
Clean the straightedge regularly to prevent icing from building up on it and ruining your surface. If you start seeing the cake through the icing you’ve taken too much off, so put some more on that area and smooth it again.
Fill in low spots and make sure to keep the straightedge flat on the board to keep the side of the cake straight.
Level off the top edge.
When the sides are smooth, take the offset spatula and drag the icing from the top edge in toward the center of the cake.
If you’re going to do a rustic finish you don’t need to smooth the icing out at all. Just put a thick-ish coat of icing over the crumb coat and swirl the surface with the offset spatula to make the texture. This is a lot easier than trying to smooth it out!
If you’re smoothing it out, let the icing set up for a bit until you can tap it with your finger and not have it stick. Don’t put it in the fridge though, because you want it to be at room temp to do the final smoothing.
My opinion on cake smoothing.
I wanted to add this because there are a lot of systems that are sold now to get a perfectly sharp edge on a cake tier. My opinion is that most people aren’t going to notice how sharp your cake tier edge is as long as the cake looks nice in general.
The acrylic round systems and other methods that are sold can also be pricey, and you probably won’t use them again, so in my opinion it’s an unnecessary expense.
To be perfectly honest, a rustic-iced cake LOOKS more appetizing to most people because it reminds them of a homemade cake, so I’d suggest that you do that.
But if you do want to smooth out your cake icing, this is how to do it.
Smoothing out the icing.
Once it’s crystallized and you can touch the surface without pulling icing off, take a Viva paper towel or a Kleenex without a pattern and smooth the icing.
As long as the icing is crusted enough you should be able to really put some pressure on it to smooth out any bumps and ridges. If the icing sticks to the paper towel it needs to sit for a bit longer before you smooth it out. In this photo I’m using a fondant smoother to smooth the icing. It’s good to use one of these because it’s totally flat and won’t put marks from your fingers on the cake.
After going over the surface with the paper towel you can go over it with a piece of printer paper to really finish the surface off.
Now the surface should be finished, and you can put the cake tiers in the fridge and let the icing harden up. This could take some time, but it’s easier to stack the tiers when the icing is hard so that you won’t stick your finger in it! You can definitely do the stacking while the icing is at room temperature but you’ll need to be careful not to ruin the smooth surface.
You might have a slight ridge of icing that is higher than the top of the tier. Don’t worry about that now, it’s easier to remove that when the icing is cold after it’s been refrigerated.
Stacking a cake with pillars and plates.
There are a few different systems to use for stacking tiers. The simplest is wooden dowels, but if you’re worried about how sturdy those will be you can use a stacking system of plates and pillars that you can get at craft stores.
The best are pillars that push through the cake tier itself and hit the board under the tier. They’re very secure and won’t wobble and fall over.
Hidden pillars can be cut with scissors to be completely inside the cake.
Push-through pillars are usually taller than the tier so they’ll leave a gap that can be filled with flowers or other decorations. The benefit of using this system is that you can decorate the tiers as they sit on each plastic plate, and transport them separately. They can be stacked at the reception site, which might make you feel less nervous about moving a stacked cake.
To use the pillar and plate system to stack the cake, get some plates that are either the same size or 1” larger than the size of the tier.
You’ll need a plate to go under the top tier and the middle tiers. The bottom will still sit on the cake drum, so you don’t need one for that.
The plates have four bumps on the bottom where the pillars will sit.
Take the plate that will support the tier and use it to mark the tier underneath it to show where the pillars need to go. Gently press the plate into the iced tier and remove it. The marks will show where you need to insert the pillars.
If you’re using hidden pillars that will be cut off level with the tier so that they don’t show, insert a wooden skewer into the tier to measure how long it needs to be so that you can cut the hidden pillar to the right height.
Use the first pillar that you cut to size to measure the other pillars so that they’re all the same height and the plate will be level.
When you insert the pillars into the tier, make sure they’re straight up and down and not crooked. If they’re crooked remove it and adjust the angle so that they sit flat on the board under the cake.
Make sure to buy plates and pillars that come from the same company, because there are different systems that don’t all work together. Wilton makes the most commonly-sold ones that you can get in craft stores, and their pillar and plates are designed to all work together.
Wooden dowel stacking.
The most common way to stack tiers is to use wooden dowels or bubble tea straws (the thick ones).
The dowels need to be food-safe, and you should NOT buy the bamboo Wilton dowels, they’re very flimsy. Get food-safe wooden dowels that are ¼” wide and NOT made from bamboo.
Insert the dowel into the tier and mark slightly above the surface on the dowel. Make sure the dowel is straight up and down.
Remove the dowel and cut the dowel under the mark so that it’s the same height as the tier.
Use that cut piece to measure and cut the other dowels to the same size.
It’s important that they’re the same height so that the tier they support will be level and not tilted.
I use a cable cutter to cut the dowels, but pruning shears will work too.
Peel off any splinters that may have formed on the ends when the dowel was cut.
Insert the dowels into the tier, making sure they’re straight and upright.
Insert about 1 dowel per 2” of diameter in the tier, plus 1 if you need to in order to get an odd number. For an 8” tier that would be 5. (4 for the 8” diameter plus 1 to make it an odd number.)
Put the dowels inside the area where the tier on top of it will sit. If you want to press the bottom of the cake pan onto the top of the tier to mark it you can do that, otherwise just estimate it. You can also add another dowel in the center of the tier if it’s a very large tier.
Stack the tiers.
You can remove the ridge of icing by using a spatula or a knife to cut the ridge off. If you’re putting a border on the top edge you may not need to do this at all.
Put a circle of waxed paper over the dowels, making sure that it’s smaller than the tier that will sit on it. This will help to keep the icing from sticking to the board that sits on it.
Place the next tier on top of the dowelled one, using your fingers or placing a spatula under the tier to maneuver it into place. If the icing is cold it will be easier to move it around without ruining the icing.
When the tiers are stacked, check to see if the top one needs to be adjusted to make them evenly spaced.
If it’s too far over on one side, take a spatula and slide it under the cake until you can raise it up slightly to adjust where it’s placed.
Pipe borders.
If you’re going to pipe borders on the cake, you need a coupler and a piping tip.
Put the coupler inside the piping bag.
The tip goes over the coupler and the bag.
Screw the coupler top onto the body of the coupler to hold the tip in place. It might be tricky because the bag can make it difficult to screw the top over, but just keep working at it until it’s secure. You don’t want it to explode off in the middle of your piping.
Turn the piping bag inside out halfway over your hand or a drinking glass and fill it about 1/3 of the way with icing. Don’t fill it too full or it will be hard to pipe with.
Wipe the icing off of the board before piping the borders. If you want to cover the board you’ll need some fondant or gumpaste. Roll out a thin band and put some water on the board, then put the fondant strip on the board. Cut it even with the edge of the board.
This particular cake was going to be picked up by a client, so I didn’t cover the board since it’s easier to handle without fondant on them.
Pipe the borders using a simple round snail trail of dots following each other. Practice on a cutting board before doing it on the cake.
Once you get the rhythm you can do the border on the cake and cover any gaps between the tiers.
If you’re doing a rustic finish on the cake (not smoothing out the buttercream,) you’ll just need to add a little more buttercream around the base of the tiers, no piping is required.
Cover the cake board.
To cover the edge of the drum, use a glue stick and put glue on the board, then wrap the ribbon around it and secure it with a straight pin. You can also use washi tape to cover the edge of the drum.
Make sure that you put the seam around the worst part of the cake, or on the angle that makes it look a little crooked, if you have that going on.
Every cake has a back, so put the seam at the back of your cake!
If you’re going to have the cake sitting on a table in the middle of the room where people can walk around it, you can cover the edge of the board with rose petals or other flowers to hide the seam.
Decorate the cake.
To decorate, you can put gumpaste shells, snowflakes, or other decorations on it. You can also use gumpaste flowers.
To insert the wired stems of gumpaste flowers into the cake, you’ll need to cover them first so that the wire doesn’t come in contact with the cake itself.
Using drinking straws, cover the wire stem and cut the straws off so that the wires are enclosed. You can bend the wire over itself to make it thicker so that it stays tightly in the straw and won’t fall out.
Insert the flower into the cake and arrange the petals. You can press them gently into the icing when they’re arranged to keep them in place. You can also add some extra icing behind the petals to stick them to the surface.
Final tips.
And here’s the finished cake…You can refrigerate it until it’s time to take it to the reception site.
One thing to be careful about is the gumpaste…If the refrigerator is very humid the gumpaste can absorb moisture and soften, so you might want to wait to put the flowers on the cake until the morning of the wedding or right before you deliver it.
If you keep the cake cold until you move it, it will be easier to transport and FAR less likely to tip over or collapse while it’s being moved.
I always felt comfortable moving a three-tiered cake that was completely stacked and cold from the fridge, but for four tiers I wouldn’t move it assembled.
I would take three tiers and then put the fourth tier on the cake at the reception site. The last border and decorating can be done then.
Here’s a video showing how I set up the box to transport the cake in my car. Always put a wedding cake on a flat surface in a car, NEVER NEVER NEVER on a sloping car seat!
A note about cake stands…Cake stands aren’t all intended for a tiered cake to be put on them. Some are more decorative than useful.
Tiered cakes are heavier than you think, and if the stand isn’t extremely sturdy it can collapse and fall over. It’s better to use a footed stand ONLY with a one or two-tiered cake unless it’s specifically built to be sturdy enough to hold a decent amount of weight.
If in doubt, don’t take a chance. You don’t want to go to the trouble of making a cake only to have it fall off the stand five minutes after you put it on.
Search this site for more cake decorating articles and tips for making flowers and other cake decorations.
