The First Wedding Cake

​In June 2017, I was tasked with my first ever wedding cake.

I’ll be honest from the start, I was utterly terrified. Long before the baking had even started, the stress and fear took over.

This wasn’t any old wedding cake, you see, it was far more important than that, as not only was it for a lifelong friend of mine, it was also the wedding gift from us to her and her now husband. As you can imagine, that makes the pressure I put on myself even higher than any other cake.

This cake was a lot of firsts for me, and proved itself to be a massive, monstrous learning curve. One that I am truly grateful for. It was my first wedding cake, first tiered cake, first ever consultation session, first hand painting on a cake, and first ever stressful delivery.

There was so much devil in the detail that I could barely sleep in the weeks leading up to it.

The boards and fondant had been ordered, the cupboards stocked with ingredients, over 50 bars of white chocolate bought, and the final cake design agreed and approved. Now came the time to switch the oven on, line the tins, and get baking.

Beth and Jelle’s wedding took place on a Thursday at the beautiful Dalmahoy Hotel & Country Club, in Edinburgh. In that same week, we had our daughters first birthday, my husband’s graduation and another cake order to complete. It was an absolutely insane week, and I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.

At the time of making this cake, we stayed in a smallish flat, with an even smaller kitchen and there was no way I’d have managed to complete a cake of this size in the limited space we had. You see, this was a HUGE cake. In total there were about 200 wedding guests, who all loved cake. This beauty needed to be a massive 5 tiers of cake, and every inch of it was edible.

In order to complete such a task, I took over my poor in-laws kitchen. With masses of worktop space, it was just what I needed. Granted they didn’t have a kitchen for the better part of a week, but I will always be grateful to them for their small sacrifice.

All of the baking was completed in my own oven, and as much preparation as possible was done at home. Then came the almighty task of humphing and hauling 15 individually wrapped sponges, what felt like 3 million tonnes of ganache and fondant, and numerous boards and boxes over to my newly named ‘caking station’.

With a lot of 3-4am bed times, another cake order, split oily horrible ganache, a mountain of help (from my poor sister and husband) and an abandoned 1 year old, the cake was finally completed. I could have cried with relief (if I’d in fact drunk enough fluids to be able to) when it was finally finished.

The morning of the wedding, we were boxed up and ready to go – and I’ve never been more scared of driving in my life.

Those of you who have ever been to the Dalmahoy will know how stunning a venue it is. But you will also know of those pesky speedbumps that would easily take off your car exhaust given half the chance, without so much as a thought to the damage.

Over every one, I held my breath as my husband drove as slowly as he could to prevent any damages to the stacked tiers.

We parked up, and with no damages, we found our way and began to assemble the cake. I don’t think my hands have ever shaken so much. No near misses, no dropped tiers, no cracks, no damage.

We did it, my first wedding cake was a success.

Was it worth the sleepless nights, the stress, the tears, the tantrums and the masses of mum guilt? Absolutely. Would I do it again? Always!

The positive feedback from both the Bride and Groom and their wedding guests gives me the warm fuzzy’s and makes it all worthwhile.

I love wedding cakes and all things wedding, and it feels incredibly special to play a small part in such a significant day for one couple and their families.

I’ll finish by sending a lot of love to the wonderful Mr & Mrs Koers, Beth & Jelle, and a huge thank you for trusting me.

All my love,

Erin x