Tips to Bake the Perfect Wedding Cake

By Kristi Patrice Carter

There's no doubt about it: Summer is wedding season. With so many people marrying this time of year, bands, florists, and venues are hard to come by, and they charge top dollar for their services. One way to skirt the busy season, save a little money, and personalize your wedding is to create your own ideal cake. Follow these tips for a perfect cake.

Start way ahead of time, at least six months, researching flavors and deciding on number of servings. These considerations will affect your plan on baking day.

Gather recipes and experiment. At this point, you don't need to bake a full size cake, but you should bake and sample several small ones to pick a flavor and texture that you love.

Watch TV! There are several shows on the various cooking channels that focus on cake baking. You'll get lots of creative ideas and helpful tips. The internet also has a wealth of information.

Invest in top quality equipment. Your pans, mixer, oven, and frosting utensils will make the experience doable or a disaster. Now is not the time to hit the big discount stores for the cheapest pans you can find. If you're planning to take on a pro's job, you'll need to use the pro's equipment.

Perhaps the most important investment is top quality, fresh ingredients. There are plenty of bargain ingredients to be had, but you'll want to use real Mexican vanilla, fresh locally produced flour, fresh organic eggs, genuine butter, and real fruit for the filling. Don't think that baking powder or soda that's been in the cupboard for a year will work. Buy new ingredients. That cake you can buy from any grocery store in the country? There's a reason it tastes like sugar with lard spread on it. They use mass produced, cheap ingredients. Make sure your ingredients are real, fresh, and wholesome. Guests will be able to tell.

Make a test run. Bake and decorate the whole cake exactly as you want it for the big day. Don't forget that factors such as humidity affect baking so make your trial run far enough away from the wedding that you have time to fix problems, but try to stay within the same season so that the weather is similar to the day of the wedding.

Now is the time to get advice if you need it. Ask experienced friends, pay a visit to a friendly baker, call a cooking show, or do some research to find the answers you need.

Enlist friends to help you on the day you bake the cake. Everything is more fun with company you enjoy, and you can probably use a hand with the work.

Figure out how you will transport the cake to the venue. You need a van ready to go when it's time to move the cake. Don't try to cheat and stick it in the back seat of a compact car. Find a vehicle with plenty of room and a driver so you can ride by the cake to keep it steady.

Have your stand, topper, knives, and tablecloth ready at least one month in advance. You don't want to be scrambling at the last minute for an accessory that you could have purchased any time.

The main idea is to plan and practice. With these tips in mind, you'll be able to create a one-of-a-kind cake that will be remembered for years to come.