project wedding cake: the cake is baked
That’s right, folks. The. Cake. Is. Baked. I mean, sure, it’s not filled. Heck, I haven’t even tracked down Indian or Philippine mangoes yet, bought the chocolate for the ganache filling or successfully tackled Swiss Buttercream, but we’ve got time for all that–FOUR WHOLE DAYS in fact. Pshaw, it should be nothing at all.
But the cake is baked! I made the 12-inch square chocolate cake layers on Saturday and the 10-inch and 8-inch vanilla cake layers on Sunday, which if you’re keeping track at home is nine squares of parchment paper, washings of the Kitchen Aid bowl and beater, nearly four pounds of butter, three boxes of cake flour, a five-pound bag of sugar and at least one minute and twenty seconds of projecting Bakers Joy spray, which was indeed the Joy of my cooking this weekend. They are each frozen and wrapped in triple layers of plastic wrap and separated by cake boards.
All of the dishes are done and the cleaning lady will hopefully not break up with us when she sees what this process has done to the kitchen floor. And walls. And surfaces.
The cakes, by the way, are the bomb. Although I have a few white cake recipes on this site, I have yet to find one that I swear by, but this one is now definitely in the lead. I could imagine using it for cupcakes and birthday cakes and trifles and you-name-it. It’s tender and moist with a most delicious batter and crumb. I’ll probably brush the layers with some lime-hinted simple syrup just to ensure it stays as moist as possible until serving time, but it doesn’t even need it.
I also have a chocolate cake recipe on this site I think is Amazing with a capital-A, but I was worried about using it for the chocolate cake layers because it is so soft and so moist, it’s not easy to move around. I will continue to use that for birthday cakes and cupcakes but when you need a sturdier and still abundantly delicious chocolate layer, this is it.
The vanilla layers will be filled with the aforementioned mango curd, and although the original chocolate cake recipe I used called for a raspberry filling, I know how Chocolate People are, and will instead fill it with a brandied chocolate ganache. The combination of brandy in the filling and coffee and cinnamon in the cake creates great cake; intense enough for the chocolate-obsessed groom (and mine!) but grown-up and complex enough to hold it’s own next to a lime-zested vanilla cake with mango filling. Gah, I can’t wait.
[Updated with] Some baking notes: For all of my worrying about how I would bake these beasts, I can’t believe I forgot to tell you how I handled it! In short, I took most of your advice, which fell into three categories: the majority of you didn’t think I needed to use the heating core, most of you agreed the wet strips were helpful but not mandatory, and a whole lot of you thought that an even better approach was to simply bake the cakes at a lower temperature. In the end, I did a combination of the wet strips and the lower temperature for a few cakes, and realized the time that I forgot to put the strips on that the lower temperature was enough to get the cakes to bake quite flat. There will still be a tiny bit of leveling needed, but a whole lot less than I’d expected. Thank you!
Next up: I will try and hopefully triumph over Swiss Buttercream, test it on a cake left out on the counter under the skylight for hours and see how it holds up in a container overnight. (I need to get the cake to the restaurant at 8 a.m. on Sunday morning, and will understandably be much happier if I can have the extra frosting I’ll need made the night before.).
One year ago: Classic Madeleines… it was a simpler time, yes?
Chocolate Butter Cake
Adapted from Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes
One thing that is cool about this cake is that it is essentially one bowl, not following the regular cake pattern of creamed butter and sugar, eggs added one by one and then alternating dry and wet ingredients. That’s the good part. The bad part is that because of the curious way of assembling the cake it is imperative that you scrape down the bowl often, all the way to the bottom, overdoing it even. Otherwise, little deposits of unmixed butter or flour will sneak up on you.
The cake is insanely moist and while quite chocolaty, not so much that it is overwhelming–i.e. a perfect balance. We used a larger version of this recipe to make the 12-inch square bottom tier of a wedding cake.
Makes one 8-inch square, three layer cake
3 cups cake flour
3 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch process)
3 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups freshly brewed coffee, cooled to room temperature
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter three 8-inch square cake pans. Line the bottoms with parchment or waxed paper and butter the paper.
2. In a large mixer bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. With the electric mixer on low speed, blend for about 30 seconds. Add the butter and buttermilk and blend on low until moistened. Raise the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.
3. Whisk the eggs and coffee together, and add to the batter in 3 additions, scraping down the sides of the bowl and beating only until blended after each addition. Divide the batter among the three prepared pans; each pan will take about 3 1/4 cups of batter.
4. Bake for 38 to 40 minutes, or until a cake tester or wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Carefully turn them out onto wire racks and allow to cool completely. Remove the paper liners only when they are cool.
Vanilla Buttermilk Cake
Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes
This might be one of the best yellow cakes to come out of my kitchen, and I will certainly be coming back to it to try it in cupcake format soon. My notes are the same as for the chocolate cake above: you cannot scrape the bowl down enough. Otherwise, the cake is really quite simple, a relief when you’ve got, oh, 6 layers of it to bake.
Makes one three-layer 9-inch round cake [Equivalent in batter to an 8-inch square; we scaled it up for a 10-inch square/middle tier of the wedding cake]
3 3/4 cups cake flour
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon plus 2 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 sticks (10 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups plus 1/3 cup buttermilk
5 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Butter three 9-inch round cake pans. Line the bottom of each pan with a round of parchment or waxed paper and butter the paper.
2. Combine the cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large mixer bowl. With the mixer on low speed, blend for 30 seconds. Add the butter and 1 1/4 cup of the buttermilk. Mix on low speed briefly to blend; then raise the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.
3. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the whole eggs, egg yolks, vanilla, and the remaining 1/3 cup buttermilk until well blended. Pour one-third of the egg mixture into the cake batter at a time, folding it in completely after each addition. There will be 9 cups of batter; our 3 cups batter into each pan.
4. Bake for 26 to 28 minutes, or until a cake tester or wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
5. Turn the layers out onto wire racks by placing a rack on top of a pan, inverting it, and lifting off the pan. Peel off the paper liners and let cool completely. When the layers have cooled, place a cardboard cake board on top of a layer, invert again, and lift off the rack. To make the layers easier to handle, wrap them on their boards completely in plastic, so they don’t dry out, and refrigerate them.
i don’t know what should amaze me more … that freezer with nothin’ in it but cake, or that you have all the wherewithal to take such beautiful photos during all of it! i love the spacial juxtaposition of the round (eggs and paper) with the square (butter). good luck with the buttercream!
Thank you for letting us all follow your progress! This is going to be fantastic and I can’t wait for the finale! You are doing a great job!
Oh, my. My hair is falling out just reading this (not to self – wear a hairnet when ooking next meal).
This is such an amazing process to watch. Can’t wait to hear more about the next step!
the cake sounds absolutely delicious, sounds like you were able to satisfy everyone’s tastes. I don’t have much experience with cake baking on this scale but it sounds like you’ve tested everything soundly. Wish you the best of luck and would love to see the finished product.
Wow! Those cakes sound delish! I love the shot of your freezer too! Where did all the food go? I’ve got my fingers crossed for you!
Oh that lucky Bride and Groom! This is reading like a suspense novel — I can’t wait to see the finished cake..
You are a very good friend. A very, very good friend.
I fell in love with your site a little over a year ago (shortly before the home made Oreo post- LOVE that one!). Good Lord, but you now have me on pins and needles. I agree with Elise- you are a very, very good friend. I can’t believe you even have time to be updating the blog right now! I’m rooting for you! And the cake! Now I must go eat something sweet…
Deb darling — You have/had an empty freezer. You had an empty freezer. How? I know you’re going the butter-cream route, but, here’s my contribution to frosting recipes — just for your everyday cake/cupcake frosting. (I have NO idea if it’d work in the hot sun, etc.)
I’ve used this recipe since I was 13, I’m 65 now, you do the math. America’s Test Kitchen stole it and it’s on their website. Google America’s Test Kitchen + Strawberry Cream Cake to double check it. This is from memory.
2 cups heavy cream (not ulta-pasteurized)
8 oz. cream cheese (not the whipped, the solid, and I highly recommend Trader Joe’s)
1/2 cup suger (I use less)
1 teas. vanilla extract
pinch of salt (I don’t use any)
I have a big ballon whip on my hand-held mixer and this recipe takes me minutes to prepare and always gets raves. Whip cream cheese together with sugar, vanilla. Then add cream in slow stream. Whip until stiff peaks form. Makes 4-1/2 cups.
Please check their web-site, I’ve no idea how to create a link. Sorry.
This is the best frosting ever. Not too sweet and I’ve come up with all kinds of variations. Add instant coffee plus Kalua (to taste) on chocolate cake. Yum. For Christmas I add some peppermint extract and spinkle with smashed candy cans. Candy canes go on at last minute or they’ll melt into the frosting. Cup cakes, infinte variations.
If I were doing a wedding cake I’d frost it plainly, simply, with this frosting and use real, fresh white flowers as decorations. I’d be sure there was a very cold kitchen and come in at 5:00 am. Then keep refrigerated ’til last minute. Is there a cold kitchen in the venue where you could go at 5:00 am to frost at the last minute so to speak?
All best wishes for much success!
I too am shocked at the empty freezer — I didn’t know it was possible to empty a freezer.
Great series of entries, by the way. It appeals to the side of me that loves planning big projects like this. Please tell me there were lists involved.
Wow. Just wow. That first picture is so impressive and not only do you make 13 layers of cake but also take the time for fabulous photos and document the process in such a way that we feel, yes, you CAN make a wedding cake for 52 people, from scratch! Your friend is lucky indeed! Good Luck, I can’t wait for the next installement!
Wow…even your trash looks beautiful! LOL! Good luck with the final assembly this weekend! I’m sure you will do just fine with that Swiss buttercream. Just keep whipping even after it looks like it’s falling apart.
Yowsa! The suspense mounts! I only wish someone would invent tasting via the internet!
That chocolate cake sounds so simple and easy, can’t wait to try. Yellow cake is one of my favorite flavors and sadly, I have yet to find a recipe that beats a boxed mix in the flavor department. I may have to try this recipe! Thanks.
I got married 9/2006 and people are still telling me that our wedding cake was the best cake they’d ever had. I’m really starting to appreciate all the work that went into it now. Holy cow! I can’t wait to see the final product!
Making that wedding cake doesn’t seem nearly as daunting of a task as cleaning out that freezer was. Now that’s impressive!
i’ve become totally engrossed in the whole wedding cake process, to the extent that i decided that i too should make a wedding cake. so now i’ll be making the cake for my cousin’s wedding! and i’ve already told her that she has you to thank!
thanks for all the great recipes and commentary!
Boy, and I thought I was cool because I bake for the Daring Bakers! Huh! You are light years ahead of me, lady! :-) Everything looks great so far. I can’t WAIT for the decorating part – I used to do that for a living and love it! Good luck! P.S. You must have an extremely patient hubby! hahaha…
HOLY-MACK-IN-OLY look at all those layers. I’m confused … I thought you were having a 3 teared cake…but I see/count 13 cakes in your freezer. Are some of those cakes for practice with the buttercream and filling? WOWZERS … I cannot WAIT for the next installment. Just a great project – and fun to see the progress. And look what you can do in an apt. sized kitchen! FAN-DAMN-TASTICK!
Deb, I owe you responsible for me clicking onto that amazon link, then the one-buy option, then the-yes-I’m-sure-I-damn-need-this-book-blame-Deb.
Thank you xxxxxxx
i agree with marie! how the heck did you empty your freezer for this lovely cake? :)
The best thing about this post — aside from the whole wedding cake that’s baked and in your freezer — is the fact that you have the “food service size” can of Baker’s Joy!
Ohmygoodness. I am SO looking forward to seeing the final results of this amazing project. I must echo the reader who said you are a very good friend indeed.
One small question about the vanilla buttermilk cake… the ingredient list calls for 1 1/4 cups plus 1/3 cup buttermilk, and then you mention adding 2 cups of buttermilk and later another 3/4 of a cup. Which is correct? Thanks, Deb, for letting us in on the fun :)
I am so enjoying these posts following the wedding cake journey. :) I especially love the pics of the cake layers in the freezer.
As always – your photos are almost as impressive as your recipes. Thank you for documenting this endeavor! I am confident it will be a great success & cannot wait to see the pictures. I only wish I could taste the cake! Maybe I’ll have to go turn on the oven :-).
I didn’t realize that an empty freezer was the ultimate triumph! Honestly, our freezer is ForgotAboutIt or FearofBugs-ville. We mostly keep ice cube trays and vodka in there, along with a lot of baking items–flours I rarely use, nut meals, cornmeal products that small crawly things seem to love, etc. They can all sit out for a few days without harm. Everything else I found cleaning it out was something I was appalled we still had.
I love following your wedding cake posts! It looks like your cake is gonna be a success, since you are so dedicated to it. Beautiful pictures! ~Y
I can’t wait to see the finished product! I’m not the biggest fan of cake (I KNOW!), but your descriptions of the cake layers have even me drooling :)
Those flavour combinations are making me drool. I’m enjoying this odyssey.
You are seriously a fantastic friend, and should be very proud of yourself for taking on this task with such skill and thoughtfulness. I cannot wait to see the final product (though I am sad for how early you have to wake up on Sunday to get the cake to the site), and am quite sure that it will be both beautiful and delicious (a feat that most wedding cakes rarely accomplish). Thanks so much for sharing this experience!
One quick question/observation: All these years, I have read that whenever you add the dry ingredients, they need to be added last, and only mixed until incorporated. For that reason, I am shocked that the chocolate cake calls for adding the dry ingredients 1st! Having they been lying to us all these years?
Deb, I tend to have round pans, not square. Thoughts on how to convert this recipe for round pans?
Allie
8 inches square is nearly exactly what you’d put in a 9-inch round pan.
Sounds wonderful.
I can not wait to try it.
This is so much darn fun. I would not have the courage to do this, so kudos to you, smitten. And thank you so very much for sharing it.
This is such an interesting project! Thanks for detailing it for us; I can’t wait to see the results. I’ve got my fingers crossed that everything goes splendidly for you.
Deb,
PLEASE post the correct amount of buttermilk in the yellow cake recipe. I’d love to bake this cake today but the ingredient list and the directions have differing amounts of buttermilk.
Thanks!
Ok, this is possibly a stupid question–but what do you mean by filling? Is it piped somehow into the layers of cake, like cupcakes with cream centers? And how do you fill?
Even the empty eggshells are beautiful!! ….and an empty freezer….!!!
The buttermilk is fixed now. The ingredient list was correct, it’s just that the book does this confusing thing of only having directions for one cake size, the 12-inch. All good now (I hope).
Rebecca — We’re putting filling between each layer. So, you probably see three chocolate cake layers (god I hope so!) in the freezer. They’ll be stacked to form the bottom tier with a brandied ganache between them. The white cakes that will form the upper two tiers will have mango curd filling.
That’s a good start anyway!! How do you get your cakes to bake so evenly, mine always rise too much in the middle and I have to trim them?!
I’ve been reading all of this with great interest (and envy, even, at the scope of the project). I generally use Rose Levy Beranbaum’s butter cake recipes, which follow the same pattern of adding the butter and liquids to the dry ingredients before adding the eggs, and had noticed the same issue with needing to scrape down the sides of the bowl *constantly*. My mother went to a kitchen expo, and came back with the most fabulous tool, and I cannot recommend highly enough that you get yourself one: A Beater Blade (http://www.amazon.com/Design-Beater-5-Quart-KitchenAid-Tilt-Head/dp/B0015TMHFG/ref=pd_sxp_f_pt). It’s a KitchenAid attachment that functions the same as the standard beater, but it’s got silicon wings attached to the sides, so it is constantly scraping down the sides of the bowl. Saves you about 90% of the scraping effort.
I’m so glad I get to watch you do this project!!! I signed up to make cakes for the centerpiece of each table at my sister-in-law’s wedding in April and I’m nervous about the whole project in general. I’m curious – Did you wind up using the even-bake strips? Did they help? What about the heating core? Best of luck to you with the rest of this project!!!
I cannot wait to see the end product. You must be excited beyond belief! Just remember to breathe. :)
I entirely forgot to tell you all how I went about the baking! I’ll update the post now with that.
You are amazing! Congratualtions.
You’re a true American hero.
This may sound strange, but I’ve always found that a de-frosted cake is actually better than one that was never frozen at all. I won a cake walk when I was a kid, and ended up with two cakes, so we froze the chocolate one. Two weeks later, we thawed it and I remember thinking it was one of the best cakes I’d ever eaten. I think freezing then thawing actually makes for a moister, richer cake. Anyway, I cannot wait to see what this one will look like!! Good luck! :)
I am so impressed! Can’t wait to see the finished product! It sounds like you’re going with buttercream and I’m so glad. Dunno, just “goes” better on wedding cake in my opinion. I really hope it works well for you. You can do it!!!
Dying to see the finished product! Good luck with everything (or is that like saying good luck to an actor where you’re supposed to say break a leg instead? I can never bring myself to say that because what if somebody really did break a leg? that would be horrible! So, how ’bout “Break an Egg!”?)
http://roundoaktablev2.blogspot.com/
I love following your progress here, it’s so exciting and nerve wracking it’s making me sit on my hands so I won’t bite my nails! You are a good friend..but I think you are MAD, woman! It makes me just shrink with fear to think you are doing this experiment…LIVE! Oye..what guts! I’d have done it for my own aniversary first before I ever volunteered it for someone else. But..I have food fear..you don’t. I wanna be like you!
I love the flavor and sturdiness of buttermilk yellow cakes..they can be tricky though! Overbeaten, they can get a cornbread-like texture. Gotta follow the mixing directions explictly!
It’s great to see your process and I cannot wait to see the final result!
Wow, that’s a lotta layers! Can’t wait to see the finished masterpiece.
I swear, this is like watching an addictive tv series…i find myself looking forward to the next “episode” as soon as i finish reading the most recent one! You’re work is amazing!! I can’t wait until the season finale :P
I agree with the other posters – I don’t know which to be more amazed at – your gift, your progress so far, or the emptied and now perfectly filled freezer.
I bow to you.
You’re amazed that the empty freezer generated so many comments? Remember, to a baker/cook, food storage spaces (freezers, pantries, etc.) are like that closet in Sex & the City.
A question about cake flour. Do you use Swan’s Down because it’s easy to find or do you prefer it? I’ve used King Arthur cake flour in the past but it isn’t readily available.
what are the small round cakes? are they going on top or are they extra?
Deb, a quick note about the mangoes! I know previous commenters have weighed in with Indian v. Philippine suggestions, but the main thing I look for in shopping for mangoes is a cultivar called “Kent” – the name refers not to a brand or grower but to a particular ‘varietal.’ They’re in season right now, and while they generally may look a little greener on the outside than your average mango, as long as you pick the soft ones that FEEL ripe, I have found them reliably sweet and almost always string-free – thought this might help save you the need for straining the curd!
wow I’ve been following this and it’s working out so well for you. Am so impressed you’re managing this and making it look so easy aswell, dying to see the finished article!
deb, this incredible baking project of yours has spurred me to post my first comment: i’m simply overwhelmed by the math involved! i would have to adjust the recipes and recalculate a shopping list for 13 layers over and over to feel sure my numbers were right. i’m very impressed with the entire undertaking and have loved following along. thanks!
Thank you for thinking of the chocolate people. There is nothing worse than seeing a really yummy chocolate cake and then biting into it only to find out that someone stuck raspberry goo in there. That is the root of all evil.
Best of luck with the cakes. I’ve made a couple really big ones before and transported them and it was a very scary drive. I think I am going to make those white cupcakes for Friday!
The mangoes have been purchased and the mango curd has been made, as of last night. I used the small yellow ones from the Caribbean. They looked great and tasted wonderful. I’m quite pleased with the results–hooray.
Beth — The math has my head exploding some days. Seriously, kids, do your math homework is what I wanted to say. Alex and I actually like math as kids and yet our brains are still throbbing from all the numbers.
Allie — The small round cakes are samples (you saw the pic on the first entry, I think) I was trying of Dorie Greenspan’s Perfect Party Cake. I thought it would be great for the wedding–pure white, quite fluffy, and I could use the yolks for the curd–but in the end went with this more traditional cake recipe, in part because it is more moist. I plan to use the small ones to make strawberry shortcakes for a July 4th BBQ.
Constance — I use Swan’s Dawn because it is readily available in the stores that are closest to our apartment. It’s the same reason I use Ghirdelli chocolate for almost everything that requires chocolate. ;)
Are you sure you aren’t an engineer or maybe one in a former life? Those cakes in the freezer are awesome.
Wow! You’re so brave for taking this project on. My hat goes off to you!
If your Swiss buttercream goes soupy or just plain won’t come together, chill three quarters of it in the fridge and freeze the last quarter until almost frozen but still beatable, then beat the two mixtures together on high speed. It should come together like magic!
(I don’t expect you to have any problems with it, but I seem to remember hearing something about a heatwave on the east coast? Never a good thing for buttercream.)
Deb, you’re making me want to get married. I just want the cake.
If I were your friend’s I’d be standing at the altar with my tummy growling, thinking about your cake!
I just wanted to let you know that my obsession with your wedding cake saga is freaking my boyfriend out.
I am not sure you are going to be very successful in finding either Indian or Philippine mangoes. I lived in both countries and can attest to them being the most incredible mangoes ever. Coworkers would tell me that you can get them into the US by going to a canner that will seal green (unripe) mangoes in a nondescript tin can and put a label of some sort on it and it passes through Customs without a problem. Of course I’d imagine the fruit flies are so happy to have made it to the US when the can is opened that they fly off to paradise and on to other fruits, but it is the only way to get a Philippine mango from what I understand.
I have found that the small mangoes from Mexico closely resemble both the Indian and Philippine varieties, but now we are all scared to purchase produce coming in from Mexico. Well, most people are afraid, but I am a risk taker and bought one yesterday. :)
I hope you find what you are looking for. I’m sure it’s going to be DEElicious!
Congratulations. We’re so proud and so in awe.
Oh my god Deb – all I have to say is one day you’re going to be a famous wedding cake baker…like it or not. Too bad I’m already married. I would have hired you and paid a gazillion dollars. I’m drooling!!!!
ooh all the butter makes me drool. the cake layers just look fantastic enough to be eaten right now and then, i’d snip a bite if you weren’t looking! more pictures to be expected from the stacking, tiering, and finished product! wOOt
Whoa, so you are cooking for and going to a 4th cookout the day before the wedding for which you are baking a cake?
Girl, you are cray-cray. I don’t think I’d be able to leave the house the day before! You are a stronger woman than I am. At least the shortcakes will be easy – enjoy yourself on the fourth! Good luck!
Deb,
I’m getting married next summer. I want to make my own wedding cake a la Smitten style. Am I insane? Is this a horrible idea or do you think I can do it?! My biggest worry is not having enough time to frost Saturday AM before my 3:30 wedding. Oh and did I mention, the reception will be outside. hmmm, I may be insane.
WOW! Totally amazing. You are AMAZING. I know you have the mango curd already, but for future reference for anyone who is looking, Indian/Filipino mangoes can be found in the U.S. Usually Asian markets (in heavily populated Asian neighborhoods) or sometimes on the streets of Chinatowns.
Deb, I feel petty asking you this during your anxious hours, (and worse, it is not food-related!) but what camera do you use for your fab close-ups?
WE have complete faith in you by the way! Cannot wait to see the final, triumphant, no-doubt-gorgeous pics. And hear how amazing it tastes!
I actually found both Haitian and Carribean mangoes at the Manhattan Fruit Exchange in Chelsea Market–they were really inexpensive, too!
Evelyn — All of our camera information is here, however I am realizing now it is out of date. We have upgraded to the Canon 40D and have added a wide-angle lens to our stash. I’ll update the post when I’m not elbow-deep in deadlines and buttercream!
WOW!!
Fab website! I am making my sisters wedding cake (aug 08) & your site has been an inspiration – Thank you!
I don’t know about you – but I will be sooooo relieved when the wedding day arrives. I’m starting to forget I’m bridesmade too – the cake is taking over! It’s early days for me & my oven is already feeling the strain and friends and family are starting to reject all the tester cakes I bake !!
Good luck
WooHoo!!! We’re cooking now!
Please, please try this recipe for buttercream frosting before messing with Swiss Buttercream again. If you accurately measure the shortening and don’t skimp on the beating time, it is light, fiendishly delicious, and pure white. And it is far, far from overly sweet. The last time I made it, my friends said it tasted like “really expensive wedding cake buttercream”.
Whimsical Bake House Buttercream
In Mixer bowl, stir together:
6 Cups Confectioners’ Sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Using whip attachment, add and whip on low speed:
1 cup boiling water (3/4 cup on hot days)
Whip until smooth and is cool.
Add and whip until smooth again:
2 3/4 cup Hi-Ratio* or regular vegetable shortening
6 ounces (1 1/2 sticks) butter; slightly chilled and cut into 1″ pieces
Turn up mixer to medium-high. Whip until double in volume and is light and fluffy. About 10-20 minutes. Recipe will almost fill a 5-quart mixer bowl when done.
Makes 9 1/2 cups
I agree with Ruth #75. i love the WBH House BC. it’s light and fluffy and not too sweet. it renders colors very well too. i just love it.
also, i live in the philippines and i’m kinda surprised that people think we have the best mangoes here since am not a big fan :) i like the green mangoes though.
And thanks to Amelia (Post #41), I have now purchased a new silicone beater for my Kitchen Aid. Because I hate THE SCRAPE!! (Phew, that felt good.) I will report back on how well it works for me once I get it from Amazon. Thank you Amelia, by the way!
Oh my gosh! You’re so luckily I’m many states away because I would love to chow down on all that cake, no frosting needed.
I can’t wait to see the finished cake! I stumbled on your blog a few months ago and it has been keeping me very entertained, especially with the recent wedding cake posts. Since I have a small kitchen, I’ve had a love/hate relationship with baking for a while now, but your vanilla cake does sound easy enough, so I’ll have to give it a try sometime.
I love your project! I have a secret ambition to become a wedding cake maker! I’m sure you will prevail and with flying colors.
Two quick things…just wanted to say that I/we LOVE your website! I found it a couple of months ago (saw a link on Eco-chick) after I started working at the public Library here in Little Rock, and have gotten a few of the people here addicted to it. Some of us love to bake/cook (and even more importantly, we ALL love to eat!) here at our branch, and so we have fallen in love w/ your gorgeous pictures and recipes…and witty posts!! I am planning on trying out some of your recipes to bring to work.
The second thing is that, along with everyone else weighing in, I give you lots of kudos for taking on this wonderful, heartfelt project and wish you luck on the big day that everything goes smoothly! I/we appreciate you keeping us updated, and I’m not sure how you even have time to post on the blog w/ all the cooking and planning you are doing! As we say in the South..’Bless your heart! You go girl!’ :)
Watching the progress with bated breath. The oh so frost free freezer with nothing but cake is the most astounding thing so far.
Just found your website recently and I love it! How funny thought to come on here and find that you’re making a wedding cake while I am finishing up two wedding cakes (for the same wedding). Good luck with your cake…I look forward to seeing the finished result. Just to confirm what most others have already said, assemeble on site and take an emergency kit for touch-ups. And use non-slip liner to set your cakes on while transporting them. Try to breathe and enjoy it…if you’re anything like me you’ll be your worst critic and see what nobody else will even notice. Good luck!
A tip on Swiss Buttercream: use the best butter that you can, the one with the highest fat content. This will make it easier to incorporate the butter without having is seperate, which is pretty much the worst thing that could happen. Plugra unsalted butter is my favorite.
I’m exhausted just watching you go through this process. Amazing. It does give one a new founded respect for what wedding cake makers that do this every day go through to make the perfect cake. It’s entirely overwhelming.
Deb! Can you share your secrets for freezing and thawing these beautiful cakes? You mentioned three layers of plastic wrap, but what else? How long will these keep frozen?
Thanks!
Sarah (about to attempt a first wedding cake!)
I know you’ve already made the mango curd and all, but I just have to put my two cents in about mangoes..
Philippine mangoes are the ABSOLUTE best. The best Philippine mangoes, though, come from Guimaras, an island province in Visayas. I don’t think they are readily available in the States though, as I have tried to find them in vain.. :/ I grew up in the Philippines and had this kind of mango all my life. I didn’t really know about other mangoes until I was older, and nothing really compared to Philippine mangoes. Hopefully someday you’ll get to enjoy it.
In the States though I think they sell “philippine” mangoes that they grow in Mexico.. Don’t be fooled. They do not taste the same! They’re also smaller..
I’m glad that your mango curd worked out! I was really excited when in the first wedding cake post you said you were making a mango filling! :) And the chocolate layer sounds amaaaazing.. drool.. Good luck on the final assembly! I can’t wait to see pictures!
You are amazing – I cannot wait to see what this looks like finished and I am sure everyone will love it.
i tried the chocolate cake recipe. and in a moment of stupidity used baking powder instead of baking soda. the cake did not rise at all. but it tastes really good. am gonna try it again and hopefully do it right.
For those making round cakes, I made the chocolate recipe this morning and it was the perfect amount of batter for two 6″ rounds and two 8″ rounds. The cake is in the oven now, so I haven’t tasted it yet, but the batter is delicious.
Good luck finishing this project! It has been tough going from what I have read.
Good luck tomorrow! It’s going to be incredible!
Good luck tomorrow! It has been really neat to watch this unfold over the past week or so. Based on the prep work and your enthusiasm, it is sure to be a huge success! Oh to be there for a small taste… :)
Is Marie who posted on Jul. 2 about the cream cheese/wh. cream no fail frosting still around? I have a question for you.
Hi Deb, I am new at your site. It’s sooo lovely. And so helpful too. I am learning to decorate cakes and stuff, hoping that one day I can open a kitchen like yours. One can always shoot for the stars right? Anyways, do stop by at my site if you have time (just made one.. hehe..). Oh, I hope you don’t mind me linking your site!
Good luck on the wedding cake… It will be lovely! :)
Hi Arriba — I’m the Marie who posted about the Whipped Cream, cream cheese frosting recipe. After I wrote the post I went and checked the recipe. I forgot to mention the cream cheese must be at room temp. Also, if you use the ultra-pastureurized whipping cream and use those small beaters that come with most hand-held mixers, it takes much longer to beat “until stiff peaks form.” With the balloon wisk attachment I can do it in minutes.
I can pipe with it, but I’ve only done simple stuff. Please feel free to ask away about any questions. I do hope someone “out there” does try this recipe and lets me know if they like it.
Deb — Most of us have our freezers stuffed to the gills with things we should have thrown out years ago!!!! I’ll send you a picture.
Your sample cake looks divine. You’re devine! I’m hyper-ventilating for you as you may not have time. I keep thinking of all those dishes needing to be washed. I bet Alex has pruney fingers. He’s a mensch. So are you.
What a lovey gift from a lovey friend.
Much happiness to the Bride and Groom!
Marie
Hi Arriba — I’m the Marie who posted about the Whipped Cream, cream cheese frosting recipe. After I wrote the post I went and checked the recipe. I forgot to mention the cream cheese must be at room temp. Also, if you use the ultra-pateurized whipping cream and use those small beaters that come with most hand-held mixers, it takes much longer to beat “until stiff peaks form.” With the balloon wisk attachment I can do it in minutes.
I can pipe with it, but I’ve only done simple stuff. If you have any questions, ask away. I do hope someone “out there” does try this recipe and lets me know if they like it.
Deb — Most of us have our freezers stuffed to the gills with things we should have thrown out years ago!!!! I’ll send you a picture. We’ll all send you pictures.
Your sample cake looks divine. You’re devine! I’m hyper-ventilating for you as you may not have time. I keep thinking of all those dishes needing to be washed. I bet Alex has pruney fingers. He’s a mensch. So are you.
What a lovey gift from a lovey friend.
Much happiness to the Bride and Groom!
Marie
Hello Marie! Thanks for your response. I wondered how one would flavor this frosting with lemon? Would you make curd and fold it in? I think plain lemon juice would react with the cream and/or cream cheese. I found the ATK recipe for Strawberry Cream Cake and as you said, there was your frosting recipe!
Hi Arriba — I’ve never tried it with lemon or orange or lime. Hmmmm. My guess is I’m put lemon jest/juice into the cake, and leave the frosting plain. I think you need to take into account the amount of liquid you add to any frosting or cake batter as it will affect the end result.
Many cheesecake recipes call for lemon juice and finely grated jest. Mine does. Cheesecake has cream cheese in it and it works, so . . . If you try it, let me know.
Now, the next important part of this project is: Deb — what are YOU wearing to the wedding???
Marie
p.s. To anyone reading my posts, you may have noticed: I can’t spell. Without Spell-Check, I’m lost.
Thanks Marie! I could use lemon curd between the cake layers for that burst of flavor. My favorite is Pierre Herme’s Lemon Cream that is in Dorie Greenspan’s book–you rub lemon zest in your hands with the sugar to flavor the sugar(zest is later strained out for smoother texture). You add LOTS of butter to the warm curd in a blender for 20 minutes or so–the end result is ethereal!!
MARIE – i love that whipped cream -i use it all the time. its so yummy.
ARRIBA – ive made that lemon cream- it is delicous.
ZAKIA, you are SO right! It was so fabulous, I can’t remember now how I used it! hard to resist just eating it right from the blender!!
Well, the chocolate cake was delicious. It had a really fine, tender crumb. I would like to torte it next time and was curious if anyone had done that with the chocolate cake. I’m worried it will crumble since it is so tender
To the Amazing Debbie!!! We just got back from our Honeymoon and the whole time we were away…I was dreaming of the cake. As we walked into the door, I ran not walked to the frig for a few pieces of both the mango & chocolate cakes.
Thank you so much for your beautiful & yummy gift. Not only did it look good, but boy it’s the best cake Kev and I have ever had.
To all of Debbie’s readers & follower’s she is truly truly a wonderful, beautiful, loving and amazing friend not to mention an awesome cook and baker extraordinaire. Thank you for making our wedding day sweet and delicious.
Thank you and Alex for everything again.
Lots of love,
Pearl & Kevin!!!
deb, i want to make the chocolate cake for a birthday. do you think the swiss buttercream would make a good filling and frosting? i don’t want to do too much chocolate…what are your thoughts?
Just recently found your blog via David Lebovitz’s, and am so glad I did. Great posts and photos. A question: what brand of square cake pans did you use? (Couldn’t find the info on your site…) The sides on mine kind of angle out, which makes it difficult to stack the layers into a straight-sided square. Yours appear to be a lovely 90 degrees from bottom to sides. Help! Thanks.
p.s. – congrats on quitting your job and heading out on your own — that takes guts.
Okay, forget the question in my last post. I was suffering from lack of sleep and today realized that a quick search of Amazon would lead me to a whole slew of “professional” square pans that have perfectly straight sides. :)
Instead, another question (As if you have so much time to answer the hundreds of poster questions, but in case I catch you during a free moment…) You mentioned that baking the cakes at a lower temp results in a flatter top, even without the magic strips. Are the temps in each of the recipes the temps you used for the wedding cakes? If not, how much would you suggest lowering the temp to bake these beauties? Much thanks.
What’s the difference between dutch processed cocoa and regular?
I am planning to make my daughter’s wedding cake for her September wedding and am in the process of practicing various decorating techniques and recipes. I am so anxious to try the two cake recipes you mentioned. Question…you mentioned brushing the layers with lime-hinted syrup to keep them moist. I’m just wondering what the syrup consists of. Is that something you make from scratch or do you buy it somewhere? I have loved reading your notes about the progression of your wedding cake. Awesome job. Looks beautiful.
I made a simple syrup: 1 part sugar to 1 part water and boiled it with some lime peel for a bit. When it was cool, I added a few tablespoons of lime juice. I am sure you can interpret it with other flavors or liquers added to the chilled syrup.
I want the recipe for the brandied chocolate ganache filling! Did I miss it? Also, do you think another type of curd might work instead of mango? I may be making a trial wedding cake.
I made this cake tonight in the form of cupcakes and it was DELICIOUS!!!! Hands down the best cake I’ve ever made!
if it is not all a blur.. you mentioned that you baked the cakes at a lower temperature…do you remember what that temp was?
i loved reading about this project well done!
Thanks for your help and advice with this recipe, Deb! I made the chocolate version as a birthday cake, to go along with the swiss meringue buttercream, and even my non-cake-loving family gobbled it up. As you said, the cake was very moist, but not too fragile to layer. A very sophisticated tasting chocolate cake.
Jessica: As far as I know, natural cocoa contains just cocoa (should be the only ingredient you see on the label), and is acidic in nature. Dutch Processed Cocoa has alkali (e.g., potassium carbonate, etc) in it, and tastes milder than Natural, which is strong, deep and bitter. Hershey’s and Ghiradelli both make natural cocoa. Fry’s, Droste’s, and most store brands (at least in Canada) are Dutch Processed. Hope that helps!
I think I’m going to use the chocolate cake part of this recipe for an all-chocolate wedding cake, but can I ask, why do say to NOT use dutch-process? Thanks! :)
Matt, I’m not Deb but I had the hardest time trying to find natural cocoa, so I did a lot of Googling about the topic, to see if I could use dutch-processed instead. As far as I know, the Natural cocoa will taste deeper, giving the cake a more intense and “sophisticated” chocolate-y taste.
And perhaps more importantly, the acid in Natural cocoa might help the baking soda do its thing in the cake batter. Baking soda, unlike baking powder, needs acidic ingredients to activate it. Dutch Processed Cocoa is not as acidic.
Hey Matt–here’s Deb’s official word on the difference between cocoas:
http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/01/dutch-versus-regular-cocoa-powder/
:)
I made the chocolate cake for my daughter’s cupcakes (with pink icing) yesterday, and they are amazing. It was such a different way to make a cake, and it made a bit of a mess while my kitchen aid churned away at the batter, but it was totally worth it.
I’ve now got over 2 doz cupcakes in the freezer. yummmmm….
thanks!
I have baked both of these cakes many times now and they are awesome! Moist, soft and delicious, yet sturdy. They are my favorite recipes now for cake. Thank you so much for posting.
Hi, I’ve tried the chocolate cake recipe. Hmm…the cocoa powder used here is Natural cocoa right? Evytime i tried a recipe like this, the cake always turned out very dense and not loose crumbs like yours. Do you know what could possibly be the prob?
I used non-Dutched cocoa, just the regularly available stuff. Hersheys, actually.
The cake should be soft, but it’s slightly more on the dense, pound cake-like side than most layer cakes.
i made my layers on fri. and chilled over night frosted them sat.will they keep in the fridge till wed. our do i need to frezze them
Can you email me the recipe you used for the 12″ squares? i want to make my own wedding cake and this looks like a perfect recipe!
Thanks
how much of a lower temperture did you use to bake these?
Hi Mary — I cooked it 25 degrees lower. Unfortunately, I get a lot of requests to email the full recipes for the wedding cakes, which I do not have typed up. The book is very inexpensive and includes a lot of good information that I have skimmed over here.
Thanks for that tip on temperatures. I’m going to trial a couple of different recipies this week. Is chocolate brandy ganache just cream, chocolate shot of brandy?
Hi Deb-
I am planning to make the white cake for my daughter’s birthday. In the recipe you said that it is for three 9″ round pans. If I want to do this as a 1/4 sheet cake how much batter should I use. My pan is a 9″ x 13″. Also, if I were to do this as a round cake…my oven is not big enough to fit 3 round pans. Can I refrigerate part of this batter while I bake it in two batches?
This page is a good resource for pan size conversions.
I’m a little confused – you baked them both at 325? (the chocolate cake says 350, the vanilla says 325degrees)
Would you be willing to post the ganche and mango fillings you used?
I’m also thinking that both recipes could be used, scaling down the vanilla to a third, and the chocolate to two thirds of the recipe, for a combination chocolate and vanilla cake w/ 2 chocolate layers and a middle vanilla layer. (Can you do four layers or does that topple?) Do you have icing suggestions (or recipes for what you used here?)
I found the recipe for the brandied ganache here (http://smittenkitchen.com/2009/03/layer-cake-tips-the-biggest-birthday-cake-yet/)
but not for the mango filling
If I bake the chocolate layers in 9 inch rounds rather than 8 inch squares as you do for the vanilla cake, does it get a shorter baking time? You have it as 26 to 28 minutes for the vanilla cake and 38 to 40 minutes for the chocolate cake – is that solely due to different pan sizes or due to the recipe being different?
The Mango Curd recipe is in the previous post, and linked twice at the top of this one.
The baking times should be fairly equivalent. The base area of the two size pans are almost exactly the same, as are the heights of the cake layers.
I am sorry I missed that! Thanks
I made the cake and it was a hit with everyone. I thirded it to make 1 layer and forgot to reduce the water in the coffee, it was still super. Thank you.
I’ve been watching this thread and am fascinated with finding out how this cake turned out, but can’t seem to find the final pictures anywhere. Can someone direct me to where they are? They sound yummy! thanks!
There are links at the top that direct you to previous and next posts. The next two post are also about the project, and the second one shows the final results.
I made the vanilla cake with the Swiss buttercream frosting for my Hungarian class potluck and it was a hit (well the office got most of the leftovers, and they loved it). It topped the begli makos that I made before. I used store bought lemon curd to fill the cake, because I’m completely lazy. Anyways, I ended up having to use confectioner’s sugar for the icing and that turned out ok.
I also thought maybe replacing the buttermilk with coconut milk, and adding some coconut in the milk and icing could be kinda fun. Especially if you filled the center with some kind of pineapple filling….make it a little pina coldaish…..although that could get ugly. Maybe just the coconut part.
But yeah…awesome hints…it went off well and was mostly a cinch.
Do think this would fit nicely into a 12 inch round x 3 inch deep pan? the recipe for vanilla sounds perfect for a two tier bridal shower cake i am making. also the freezing idea. i need these cakes for a thursday night and i work ( my money job) all week. i am freaking out about how to bake these beforehand, cover with icing, fondant and still taste fresh for friday morning. how long to defrost them? please help anyone!!!
Check out the link in comment #128. It is the best resource for pan size conversions.
Thank you so much, Deb, for the documenting the whole process. I’m making wedding cakes and cupcakes all over the place this coming summer, and the detailed pictures are so helpful. I think I’m going a bit more rustic and less tiered, but I just tried out the vanilla cake recipe as a possible base. I subbed yogurt for the buttermilk, and the result was very creamy and tangy–possibly too much so. I want to try it again with buttermilk. I’ll be documenting my search for the perfect cake type (the one part you left out, over at my blog during the next few months. Thanks again. You give me courage and the comforting knowledge that obsession is universal.
Hi Deb,
I was wondering what brand of pans you used for this cake. I love the straight sides and how perfectly flat the layers baked up.
Thanks!
I used a mix of cake brand pans, I do not have a preference. I bought them all at a baking supply shop, where most that are sold have the straight sides because they’re intended for professional bakers. Check out Fat Daddio pans on Amazon for cheap ones, too.
Hi Deb,
Help! How high would you say the layers for the vanilla cake (3 x 9″ rounds) are supposed to rise? I made them this evening–following the recipe to the letter, with a Kitchen Aid stand mixer, using an oven thermometer for accuracy, and ending up with around 9 cups of batter as described–but the cakes rose very little. I would say they are about 1 to 1 1/2 inches thick each. I was hoping for a slightly more dramatic height–do I need more batter or did I do something wrong? Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks, love your site!
oops, sorry, forgot to say, they also took longer to bake, and although browning around the edges, still ended up quite sticky and pale on top (I’m using brand new, heavy-gauge non-stick pans, a little darker finish than I would have liked, but it’s what I could find…)
Hi Deb! Wow what an amazing site you have. Wow!! I am baking this cake for a wedding in 2 weeks for my brother and soon to be sister-in-law. How many cups of batter do I need for a 12 in square (Chocolate Butter Cake)? I am filling the cake with your Brandied Chocolate Ganche and an orange glaze to lock in mosisture! How long can the Swiss Buttercream be set out for? Does it have to be in the fridge before I frost the cake? I am in a logistical nightmare with no fridge space for the cake! I am frosting the cake late friday night and the wedding is at noon on Saturday.Will the frosting be okay if it is set out? Thank you for all your WONDERFUL recipes! I am into photography as well so your site has opened new doors for me with photographing food!
My Mom & I have recently been assigned to bake a wedding cake for my brother’s upcoming wedding in Utah. My Mom has a fabulous stove up there (a large Wolf range that makes me weak in the knees!) and I think we are going to skimp (yee gads, I know) and use boxed cake mix- the Groom has an affinity for the Betty Crocker butter-mix cakes.
So here is my question. We are doing the same cake size(s) for each tier you did but we are baking the cake at 4,879 feet altitude- right on the cusp of high altitude baking. What adjustments, if any do we make?? (If you don’t know this perhaps another reader can help?!) If you were going to adjust your cake recipes how would you do that? Any suggestions on adjusting a mix recipe other than the notes on the box (are they correct?). We are going to test run the tiers a few times but any advice in advance that could save us a flop or two would be appreciated!
Not sure I can be a whole lot of help: I have only made cakes from scratch, and NYC is at sea level, thus your changes won’t resemble mine. However, I’d suggest the same thing I have throughout these comments and posts: Practice. Test out your recipes, make sure they work, hold up, ice well, etc. You don’t need to make a full practice cake but you’ll save yourself a lot of drama to have worked with your cakes before you plunge into the final product.
Deb…you have motivated me, and I am making the cake for my cousin’s wedding in July. I have made both cakes and they are delicious, both came out of the oven full and gorgeous like the picture in the pan above, but once they are out they settle a lot. They fall and get really dense. They still taste unbelieveably delicious, but they fall to about half their original height. Is this supposed to happen? Is that the experience you had? Thanks for the help and advice…
Nope, not at all. Are you working at a higher altitude? That can throw things, I understand.
hmm, I was afraid of that…Boston is many things, but higher altitude, it is not…it remains a delicious mystery…
A question. I have been reading about your wedding cake adventure. My granddaughter is getting married on July 11th and she wants a white cake, not a yellow cake. DO you have a particularly good recipe you would reccomend. I think the swiss buttercream will be great! Cudos to you!!
You’ll be looking for an egg yolk free cake, however, the risk with these pure white cakes is that they get much more easily dried out — definitely need a syrup basting. I tested the Perfect Party Cake from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking From My Home to Yours before opting for these cakes. It was good, but again, drying out is a risk.
Hi, I’m new to your site and I love everything about it! I have a few question about cakes. Do you bring your frozen cakes back to room temp before frosting? How long a room temp until I can serve previously frozen cakes layers? Can I just add some melted bittersweet chocolate to your swiss buttercream recipe to make chocolate buttercream? If I need a non-alcoholic recipe (making a cake for Father’s day and my father-in-law doesn’t drink) for chocolate ganache, should I just omit the brandy or would you suggest something else? Thanks again.
You should read my layer cakes tips post. Everything else will be trial and error: each freezer is different, each cake recipe freezes a little differently and I have not made a chocolate swiss buttercream before. There are innumerable ganache recipes out there with no brandy in them — no reason to use one that’s flavor hinges on it.
Hi Deb,
Can you tell me what the approximate height was of each vanilla cake layer? I worked it out for the round cakes above (assuming 1 cup = 14.44 cubic inches and pi*r*squared*h for the volume) and came up with .68″ high, but this seems really low to me. Is my math screwy (always a possibility!) or are these really thin layers? Thanks!
(I forgot to mention that my computer at work won’t display your images, otherwise I’d just eyeball the height)
Sorry, didn’t measure them! Maybe 1.5 to 2 inches?
Ha ha! I know why my math doesn’t match: the cakes RISE while baking. Duh. :-)
After reading this whole wedding cake thing, I wanted to try out the vanilla cake as cupcakes (and try this SMBC that everyone’s raving about). The vanilla cake was surprisingly easy to make, and the tester cupcake I had last night was VERY tasty. The one problem, I’m in a new apartment and the oven runs a little hot, so some of the cakes have a blackened edge. Anyway, unlike most cupcakes, this one was moist all the way through, a definate plus.
I tried a variation on the mango curd (peaches. . since I couldn’t find mangos at the store) but it didn’t congeal, so the cupcakes went without filling.
The SMBC frosting, though, was very easy to make, especially after reading everyone’s stories about how you keep at it. I’ve never had it before, and now it’s my favorite frosting. So much so that I found myself licking EVERYTHING that I used to make the stuff. The pastry knife, the mixer, the bowl. The dog took care of the floor. All in all, very much a success (my roommate liked them, now to see what the co-workers think)!! I can’t wait to try out more of the stuff on the site!
I did have one problem, though. I have no idea how to frost cupcakes/cakes so that they don’t look like a 5 year old fingerpainted all over them. Any tips?
I want to try the vanilla buttermilk cake in a 10×3 inch round. Any idea how I would scale the recipe to fit this pan? Thanks!!
In comment #128, I link to a good resource for pan size conversions.
I’ve recently made both the vanilla and the chocolate version of the cake and was really happy about the outcome. The cakes I made (strawberry/coconut to go with the chocolate and raspberries and cream cheese with the vanilla one) were very high and absolutely tasty, although they were a bit more compact than I expected them to be, not like the sponge cakes I´m used to here in Germany.But me and my boyfriend really liked it that way and I was already ordered to make it again for the next big celebration.
Love your blog!
Deb, your chocolate cake looks so nice. How much batter/how many cups did you use in the 12 inch square pan? I’d like to make this cake. Unfortunately, when i bake in 12 inch pans my cakes always sink.
I just wanted to say that I used the chocolate cake recipe for my first attempt at a layer cake and it was wonderful!!! the cake even survived a 30 mile drive to the party site (unstacked of course). I am going to use this recipe for a wedding cake next month! Thank you for posting this story, it is very helpful and inspiring!
Hi Deb,
Hate to bother you, but you’ve never done me wrong and I need some advice. I’m making my birthday cake this week and I haven’t ever found a white cake/vanilla cake recipe that lights my fire. Is this the one or do you think I could turn your vanilla bean pound cake into a 9″ round?
Thanks for your help!
kaitlyn
Check out my most recent post for a new yellow cake recipe.
hi deb. i’m planning on making a 10*10 cake. do you think i need cake strips?
how much lower the temp did you adjust? 25 deg or 50+?
i hate slicing domed tops. they’re never right..
HI !!!
I tried your chocolate cake recipe and it was to die for!! Everyone at work raved! Can i ask what measurements you used for a 12″square or a 14″ square? I’m having trouble figuring out how to translate it to a larger size!
Thanks for your help!
Lauren
Hi, I was wondering about measurements you use for the recipes, when you say ‘a cup’ what would the measurements of a cup be in grams. Also how do i translate the measurements from you recipe (Chocolate Butter Cream) if i want to use a bigger tin? 10 or 12 inch Square? Regards Ayman
This is the best cake ever i tried the chocolate cake and it was truley delicious oh my oh my oh my you go girl and by the way i love your web site
I made the chocolate cake last night as cupcakes, using 1/3 of the stated amounts for a dozen cupcakes. I filled the molds 2/3 full and put a dollop of raspberry jam buried in the middle of each, and they baked up moist and perfect in 22 minutes. Deb’s brandied ganache recipe (I used a 1/4 recipe), chilled in the fridge while the cakes were cooling, was perfect for frosting them using a piping bag and tip. Just wanted to share in case anyone else wanted to try the chocolate cake as cupcakes. Thanks for the great recipe, Deb!
K – this is perfect! I was searching the page and scratching my head about making this in a cupcake form. Thanks a lot!
I am making it for kids, for my sons birthday. Does it have a strong coffee taste (I am hesitating about subbing something for the coffee)?
If you’re concerned about the caffeine content since you’ll be giving the cake to children, maybe try decaf coffee. The coffee doesn’t so much have its own flavor in the cake as enhance the flavor of the chocolate. Right, Deb? (sorry to usurp the question)
Thanks K, perfect timing, I am about to beat butter and whip eggs. I will use decaf coffee.
Boy, I am drowning in cupcakes! 36 standard sized cupcakes plus another 18 differently shaped smaller cupcakes! Remember: next time — scale!
The upside of the story is that they are going to disappear in a blink, actually they are already 2 cupcakes short (I had to try it, right?). They are good, very good.
In the process of dividing the batter into the forms, I remembered why I don’t do cupcakes. I just can’t pour it without drips and trails of the batter all over the place. It seemed like a good idea at the time, to make B-day cupcakes for 30 kids, and it will be again at the serving time and cleaning after the party, but boy! the baking process is messy!
Do you (or someone else) have tips on pouring the batter into cupcakes? Please, please shear!!!
You are awesome! I finally got around to making the vanilla buttermilk cake from sky high but realized I only had 9″ cake pans, not the 8″ called for in the recipe. This is for a birthday and I didn’t have time to get more pans. I googled sky high cakes to see if anyone else had the same problem and I found you and you wrote out the conversion! Yeah! Thank you so much for showing us how you made this recipe in 9″ pans! You saved the day and 3 cheers for you!
I made the Chocolate butter cake for my friend and her hubby to be’s birthday partay. It was a hit! This recipe is awesome, so chocolatey but not too sweet. It’s just the right balance, enough to get you hooked. I melted down some mayan hot chocolate (similar but sooo much better than Abuelita brand Mexican hot chocolate bars) and mixed that with the whipping cream for the filling. She called me today (day after the big birthday bash) to say her and the hubby to be were fighting over the last piece of leftover cake….and that now I’m screwed ’cause she will be wanting me to make her wedding cake. I can only hope she’s joking, this was my first “from scratch” layer cake. Eh, bricklayer, baker what’s the diff….bricks and mortar, cake and filling. Really bout the same thing. Thanks so much for the awesome recipe and great tips!
Hi Deb, i’m going to try this cake as well. based on what i’ve read, i have to adjust the baking powder when increasing the pan size and batch. did you do this for your cake or did you just put the appropriate amount of batter in the pans?
JENI — I’ve never read that and didn’t adjust mine.
Hi Deb, I’ve accidently found out about your website and it’s wonderful! I love how you have step-by-step pictures so I’d know how it should look like. I need to make a tier cake for cake decorating class this weekend and I’d like to know if the two cake recipes here are dense enough to be covered with buttercream and fondant? Or should I use Best Yellow Layer Cake recipe instead of the Vanilla Buttermilk Cake in this page? I’m thinking to use this recipe amount and bake 2 thicker layers instead of 3 like yours. Thanks a lot!
ps. Your son is adorable!
I just love your website!I am making a wedding cake in a couple weeks and was wondering if you have a go to butter cream recipe?Thank you so much(-:
Hi again,I have another question that some how slipped my mind.I am planning on making the vanilla buttermilk cake for a LARGE birthday party this weekend,I was wondering how I could make this recipe work for a 3 layered 12 inch round cake.
hi just wanted to say that when we got engaged 18months ago this post convinced me to make my own wedding cake, now its 4 months til the day and ive got my tins, had the book (sky high) imported to UK and just about read this post another 90 times. every time i am wavering and thinking of paying someone to make me a plasticky tasteless cake i come on here and am filled with enthusiasm and pure excitement!!!! thanks deb!
The chocolate cake is delicious!! I’ve only had a chance to nibble the scraps from construction so far, and I’m really looking forward to eating a slice tomorrow. I like the hint of cinnamon.
I used three nine-inch round pans to bake the cakes, and they came out just fine. This is the first non-pound cake recipe I’ve made that did not collapse in the middle upon cooling. Excellent!
Hi there!!! After reading this (late, of course), I wanted to give the vanilla cake a shot. I’ve done it both as a cupcake and a regular cake. However, I’ve tried different ovens (I’ve moved recently), and I always end up with the top being very sticky, so that even after the cake cools, if I wrap it in saran wrap (or try to store the cupcakes on top of each other), the entire top layer comes off when I take the wrap off, or when it touches something like the cooling rack.
Did yours have a sticky top, or am I doing something wrong?
Oddly, I find the stickiness has more to do with how an oven bakes. My old oven did almost no top-browning, the tops were always sticky. My new one puts a nice golden brown lid on everything, I have little sticking. I’d suggest freezing the cake layers unwrapped, once they are frozen and not sticky to the touch, then wrap them in plastic. You can unwrap them before you defrost them on the counter, if they’re not out too long it will not dry it out.
This goes for the stickiness issue. Over the past year, I have been brave enough to go all the way homemade with cakes instead of the box route – a lot of trial and error, definately. I have noticed that if I beat my butter and sugar for at least 5 – 7 minutes, even been told 10 – 12 min., then I don’t have the stickiness. Whenever I beat for 2 or 3 min., I am guaranteed stickiness and my horses end up getting a sweet treat. I may be wrong but this has seemed to help me.
I came accross you Wedding cake story abput a year ago and the Vanilla buttermilk cake has since become a staple in my Kitchen. I have subsequently acquired a copy of the SHTLC book as well. In my quest to make a perfect chocolate cake I have on many occasiona tried the chocolate buttermilk cake from this book but have always ended up with a flat fudgy wet cake instead of a nice spongy one. I do not get cake flour easily around here so have tried bothe vanilla and chocolate versions with all purpose flour (gold medal) the vanill aworks fine but the chocolate did not. recently on a trip overseas i bought some cake flour (snow flake) and tried this cake once again…:( same problem…..the cake tastes awesome but just does not rise nor have a spongy texture. I have tried baking it longer than the recipe says ut then have had the outer crust dry out with a kind of wet ring inthe middle area. Any help from you or others that have tried this recipe is much appreciated.
Ok so I have a question about freezing cakes. I have heard people say that freezing the cakes after they’re cooled will keep them moist, of course while saran wrapped. Then after taking out is easier to decorate. Is this true?
I’ve never frozen any of my cakes only because I’m worried they will lose their moistness.
Why do you freeze your cakes?
Cakes won’t lose their moisture if well-wrapped, in fact, they stay freshest when kept in the freezer. They’re also easier to decorate. You might enjoy my layer cake tips too.
I made this for my partner for his birthday-smashing success, his new favorite cake! I want to make this for two friends for birthdays 1 day apart. I was hoping to make one batch of batter & split it in two, using smaller sized cake pans to create 2 two-layer cakes. Can you suggest what size pans to use-no preference for shape. Thanks in advance!
did you double the recipe for the chocolate cake to make the 12 inch? Did you split that 12 inch layer in 2?
Deb, have you tried these with cupcakes? I need to make 200 cupcakes for a wedding and I was thinking of using this white cake and chocolate cake as my base. Any idea on how many each recipe might yield? Thanks!
A bunch of commenters (118, 159, 171 etc.) have made these as cupcakes and reported their results. Hope that helps!
Duh, thanks Deb! I didn’t see those :-)
Hi Deb,
Made the chocolate cake for my son’s first birthday and covered it with marshmallow fondant. It was amazing!! Thank you for sharing such a great recipe. I had to bake the cake twice though because the parchment paper thing never works for me, my oven does better with good old shortening/flour and then popping out the cake. No biggie because I used the extra cake for cake pops! Can’t wait to try the other cake!
This is WONDERFUL! I’ve made the Chocolate Butter Cake twice now … with outstanding results. This most recent batch involved margarine and soymilk+vinegar thanks to a milk allergy … and it came through with flying colors!
How may cups of batter does this recipe yield as written above for one 8 inch square three layer cake?
Normally I’m more of a reader than a commenter but I have a question and after reading this I’m sure you’ll have the answer! I’m making a baby shower cake to feed 100 people for a friend and I’d like to make it as stress free as possible. I want to bake the layers a few days in advance and was wondering if I need to spritz them with a simple syrup or liquid of some form before I freeze them. It is a fairly moist recipe but I want to make it perfect. Thank you and I love your site!
I made this chocolate cake for my brother’s wedding cake last weekend. Thanks for the awesome recipe. This will no be my go to chocolate cake. I love the way it’s put together. I’m planning on trying the other recipe soon. Possibly for my MIL’s birthday.
Oh I made the Swiss Buttercream too and it was amazing, but couldn’t use it for the wedding since it was outdoors in Georgia in August.
Hi Deb! I’ve made the vanilla buttermilk cake a few times now, and I love it. It is so amazingly rich – which is something so awesome in a white cake. And! it makes your whole kitchen smell like butter in the best way possible.
Mine, though has never made 9 cups of batter. Rather, exactly 8. I don’t at all think it’s a recipe issue – rather, I am a rebel and have always used all-purpose rather than cake flour – that’s probably it, right? (Rebel? Or “too lazy to have more than two kinds of flour in the pantry”??) Just an FYI in case you’re like me. I just measure the batter as best I can. 2 2/3 c instead of 3 c per layer got me close to even. Can’t wait for your cookbook!! xo
Hi Deb,
How long did you bake your 4″ test cakes for? I am baking this cake for a friend’s wedding and am going to be doing a lot of testing, so I figure 9″ cakes every time might be overkill.
Thanks!
Hi, Deb… I love your blog and have used both of these cake recipes, and the swiss buttercream, to make cupcakes in the last couple weeks… all with rave reviews. I liked them so much that I ordered the Sky High book to try some others. Thanks so much!
Hi Deb – I’m getting married in November and am planning to bake my own wedding cake. I have been voraciously reading your blog and trying to get as many tips as I can. We get married on a Saturday, I was hoping to bake the cakes on the Thursday and then decorate (with a fondant covering) on the Friday. I’m hoping that the cakes will be okay for 24 hours during the heat of an Australian summer! If, however, I can bake the cakes well in advance and freeze them, that would be so much easier.
I had a question about freezing the cake – how long does it need for defrosting? If I have the cakes frozen in advance, do they need to be fully defrosted before I apply the fondant? (Will the temperature difference somehow affect the fondant layer? I’ve heard some people say that once the fondant has been applied, you shouldn’t refrigerate the cake because you risk getting water marks on the fondant coating.) Or can I take the cakes out of the freezer on Friday morning, apply the fondant, and then let them defrost over the course of that day? If it’s the second option that would be great, because they’d only effectively be at room temperature for about 24 hours or less, as opposed to 36 hours+.
Sorry for so many questions, but thank you for your advice! Seeing the photos of how beautiful your cake turned out makes me hopeful that I can do this mammoth project, even though I’ve never decorated cakes before!
I made this cake last week for my sister’s wedding and it was a huge hit. Especially the chocolate. Abbie, I baked and froze the layers and transported them frozen down to NC. I pulled them out Friday night and they defosted overnight. I put it all together on Saturday.
The buttercream was tasty but it was a rock for a while. I finally started putting it the microwave for 20 secs at a time and that finally worked.
I made a lemon curd mousse for the yellow cake and a chocolate mousse for the chocolate. Both were delicious! Thanks!
Deb, I host a New Years Day open house every year and serve the traditional Black Eyed Peas, Greens, and Skillet Corn Bread. We’re in Florida and have a Meyer Lemon Tree so I make lots of lemon aid too! For dessert I always make a Citrus Buttermilk Cake- I thought I’d see about using a different recipe and saw this buttermilk cake (which I’ve heard from friends is wonderful!) Questions: There would be no problem with me adding citrus zest I’m sure, but I’d like to make it in a bundt pan and then add a citrus glaze to it. You know, the kind where you poke the cake with holes and let the glaze soak inside the cake… would that work on this recipe? And how might you adjust the baking time for a bundt pan?
Thank You!!!
Jessi — I’ve never made this in a bundt and can’t promise it will work the same. However, this lemon bundt is phenomenal, and I highly recommend it.
I love your blog! The chocolate butter cake recipe sounds great. I wanted to ask if you think this cake would work with fondant icing. Also, would it be possible to list the ingredients in UK measurements or in weight (grams)?
Thanks!
Hi Deb.
I looove your blog. You are so talented.
I just have a question about baking the cakes ahead of time.
I am making cakes for a wedding in NC and I live in Boston.
We are driving and I was planning on baking the cakes ahead of time and finishing them off in NC. The wedding is a friday night, and we are planning on leaving boston on wednesday. I was going to bake the cakes tuesday. Do you think they will still be fresh by friday? I figure I would wrap them really really good in plastic wrap them put them in a cake holder with the tight lid. I really don’t want to freeze them because I am nervous about the defrosting process on the way to NC, and it will still be days before we serve them. What do you think I should do?
Thanks. ~Kara
HI! I’m so glad I found your website!! I just made the chocolate butter cake, followed the directions to a tee.. I made a 6 inch, but the the cake seems really soft. Will it become dense after it’s been frozen? I need a cake that’s firm enough for fondant. The flavor is wonderful so I really want to use the recipe. What would you suggest to make the cake denser?
Thanks in advance!!
Tennille
I suggest that you freeze it because it is so soft. It becomes firm enough that it’s easier to work with. Once defrosted, it will be tender again. My preference is for tender cakes, so most of the chocolate cake recipes on this site will not yield a sturdy one.
What is the best way to freeze and thaw the cake? I have read that some peoples cake was soggy after they thawed it. How do you do yours? Thanks!!
Hi Deb.
I looove your blog. You are so talented.
I just have a question about baking the cakes ahead of time.
I am making cakes for a wedding in NC and I live in Boston.
We are driving and I was planning on baking the cakes ahead of time and finishing them off in NC. The wedding is a friday night, and we are planning on leaving boston on wednesday. I was going to bake the cakes tuesday. Do you think they will still be fresh by friday? I figure I would wrap them really really good in plastic wrap them put them in a cake holder with the tight lid. I really don’t want to freeze them because I am nervous about the defrosting process on the way to NC, and it will still be days before we serve them. What do you think I should do?
Thanks. ~Kara
Hi- So just wanted to follow up.. I went ahead and froze my layers and actually didn’t have any problems with the cake layers under the fondant.. I put a thin layer of buttercream on and added chocolate ganache to give it a little more support and added the fondant over it and it worked out great! I also made cupcakes with the left over batter and I could not stop eating them, even without frosting! The recipe is so good and moist. It taste like a brownie!
Thanks!
Debbie,
I’ve been baking this cake for a few months now, but lately it’s been coming out heavier and seems to be uncooked. I don’t know exactly how to explain it. The cake looks fine from the outside, it’s cooked but when you open it it looks kind of uncooked, darker in some areas and not fluffy at all. :o(
I’ll try sending you a couple of pictures to your email.
I have a feeling that it could be either the oven temperature or the flour.
I’ve always used all purpose flour because cake flour is very hard to find, but a couple of months ago I switched to a different brand, that comes in Big bags, 20 lbs, I believe, and now I’m thinking it’s not as good as the previous one.
What do you think?
One more thing, the cakes look very nice when they come out of the oven, but they immediately shrink. Could it be the baking powder?
Hi Veronica — Sorry you had trouble. It’s unclear from the photos or your description what happened. I’m unfamiliar with Big Bag brand but if you can double check, make sure that it is not a self-rising cake flour. Some are, but this recipe calls for the unleavened stuff. If it was, it would explain the obvious difficulties because there would have been way too much baking powder/soda in the cake.
Hi Deb,
Thank you for your quick respponse and sorry about my english, I don’t know all the american expressions and sometimes I can’t explain myself very well. Big Bag is not the brand, it’s a 25 pounds bag all purpose flour from ConAgra Mills that I bought at Costco to save some money. But I ended up not saving anything. I got the Gold Medal flour now and new baking powder and will try again. Hopefully they’ll come out as good as they used to be.
Quick question, where do you get the cake flour? I can’t find it in the supermarkets in my area (I live in Miami) but I’m sure they sell it somewhere.
Thanks again!!
Veronica
Hi Veronica — You can make your own cake flour, and save yourself the hunt for it!
Beautiful!! Thanks so much!!
I’ve never thought about that.. :o( I’ve been like crazy, two of my kids are celebrating their b-days tomorrow and I’m in the middle of baking the cakes.
FYI, I made the cake again with new flour and new baking powder and came out great!!!
Thank again for the advice!
By the way, I made a variation of this cake , a coffee cake, by dissolving 2 tablespoons of granulated coffee to the egg/buttermilk mixture and it came out great. All my friends loved it and it’s been very popular with my clients too.
If you want to experience the latin flavors you can fill it with Dulce de Leche .. it’s a great combination and taste yummiiiii!
Testing out cake recipes for my own wedding cake (yes, fiance and I are insane, we know) and as I am already subjecting my coworkers to about a cake a week, am reluctant to ALSO make a large quantity of cupcakes. Deb or anyone have any tips on how to scale these recipes down to make only 2 6″ pans instead of 3 9″ pans? Thanks in advance!
6-inch pans with 2-inch sides hold half the volume of 9-inch pans. You’ll want about 1/3 the recipes.
Thanks so much!
To follow up, tried the yellow cake in 2 6″x2″ round pans last night. I was meticulous about the measuring (2/3rds of an egg yolk? 1/6th teaspoon salt?) because that’s how I roll, but in the end I don’t think it was really necessary. Rounding up slightly (1 egg yolk. 1/4 tsp salt) probably would have worked out just fine. Using baking strips and lower temperature (and probably the reduced ingredient factor) caused the cakes to not rise quite as much – only about 1.5 inches per cake, although they didn’t need ANY leveling – they were amazingly flat. They also took longer to cook – about 32 minutes. The finished product had a nice density, subtle flavor and cut very cleanly but dried out VERY quickly when left out for coworkers to sample (frosted with The Cake Bible Neoclassic Chocolate Buttercream). Again, I blame that on the ingredient reduction. More eggs. More butter & buttermilk. Bring it on! Can’t wait to try the chocolate variation (with raspberry filling) over the weekend.
I’ve settled on the vanilla buttermilk for a wedding cake I’m making for some (very, very) good friends in a couple weeks because the crumb is so lovely and fine. I wanted to keep doming to a minimum but thought 325 would be low enough. Top doming wasn’t huge, but I had the problem of the sides pulling in at the top, so I had to trim the sides in addition to the top, which was kind of a pain. Do you think baking at 300 would have solved that problem? Or do I need to consider cake strips on the pan sides? I have visions of big layers just sitting in a 300 degree oven for hours and hours and just turning into bricks. (I’ve never baked 16″ layers before. Is there anything to be aware of?)
I just baked this cake today and it was really fantastic! I have been trying to find a good quality cake recipe with terrific flavor that retains it’s moisture. I was really excited to find a keeper. WE baked 2 different recipes last evening from another site and it wasn’t a good move. Thanks so much for your recipes!
these posts have been SO USEFUL while i prepare to make my best friends’ baby shower cake. i tested the vanilla buttermilk cake on sunday, subbing in lemon for the vanilla, and it was easily one of the best cakes i’ve ever made. just wanted to say thanks!
Deb- My husbands favorite cake is that “boxed cherry chip cake stuff”! I am going to try and make it from scratch for his birthday this week. Do you like this white cake recipe or your yellow cake recipe better? I think it will taste better as a white cake but I’m curious which is better. Is the white cake more dense?
Deb, I just tried this as I’m making my own wedding cake for May. This is a trial run and so far so good, except that as I was transferring it to the cooling rack my stupid, too-thick, oven mitt slipped and the cake half fell of resulting in a broken cake :-( Anyway, apart from that it looks really good and I’m excited to try out the buttercream tomorrow to finish it off. So annoyed at myself for breaking it! Thanks for the wonderful recipe!
did you let the cakes thaw before decorating?
What is the difference between this cake and your ‘Double Chocolate Layer Cake?’ Which one would taste better with the chocolate ganache? Is the only difference that this one is more stable/firm?
The other is softer and richer. This is more sturdy, and more like a butter cake.
Hi Deb, the trial was a resounding success with hubby and best friend. I made the butter cream and put raspberry jam on each side and then filled the butter cream with blackberries. Yummy. I’m starting to bake the real thing this week and luckily BF has freezer space cause I don’t! Emma
Hi, Deb… I am baking a wedding cake as we speak, and your blog post here has given me inspiration not to freak out… ok I am freaking out a little bit, but if I wasn’t that would be a larger concern! I have baked both the vanilla buttermilk and the chocolate butter cake recipes from Sky High in the last year (thanks for the book suggestion!) and these are the ones I am using for the cake. So far so good! Oh, I definitely reiterate others who posted about the freezer. I am very impressed that you were able to clear it out. I cannot say the same…
I made this yesterday and baked in a 12-cup bundt pan, which turned out awesome. I scaled back the sugar to 2 cups total (not on purpose, just ran out), and I really liked the subtle sweetness. Took almost exactly 1 hour at 325 in the bundt pan.
Cake was very buttery, delicious. Looked like it would hold up well as part of a layer cake. Next time will fleck my batter with lemon zest…
Hi Deb..I love your blog and could spend all day perusing it..unfortunately I have 2 small daughters who seem to get in the way of that.By the way your son is a bobbydazzler..gorgeous!
Anyway down to the cooking business..I have offered to bake cake for my brother’s wedding in August.I’m half excited and half terrified since I am basing this on a couple of wonky childrens’ birthday cakes.
I haven’t managed to read all the comment so far but I wonder if you could throw a bit of advice my way..I think his bride would prefer cupcakes rather than a tiered version but if I have to make this ahead of time is tiered really the only way to go(frankly till I read your ‘blow by blow’ account I thought you just plonked 3 cakes on top of eachother..how wrong I was)as cupcakes would dry out?
Thanks for any light you can shed..
I’m by no means a professional baker. Baking is therapy for me. So I decided to make the chocolate buttermilk as the 12″ for my nieces’s wedding. It was a huge hit! Everyone loved it. The cake had height and density that was perfect for stacking. I also made the yellow buttermilk with the mango curd as the top tier which they will have on their anniversary.
I still read the blog cuz I enjoy the way Deb writes. Truly inspiring for those of us willing to be more adventurous.
The vanilla buttermilk cake is GLORIOUS. I made it for my birthday party (yes, I, like you, spend weeks if not months deciding what to bake for my own birthday, and it’s one of the best parts of the event every year) and filled it with mango curd and fresh blueberries between the layers and iced the whole thing with swiss buttercream. Oh lordy. It made a gorgeous tall 3-layer 9-inch round cake and it was just complete perfection. I was nervous about the strange method for mixing (it felt like making bread dough, mixing liquid into the flour and beating it for a few minutes like that) but it came out perfectly, even though I ran out of cake flour and had to use half AP. I have a feeling that this is going to be my standby yellow cake from now on. Thank you, Deb!
Made a three layer 8-inch round yellow cake and a three layer 12-inch round chocolate to make my wedding cake. The wedding is this Sunday, and I have the small tier in the freezer and the larger cake is in the oven right now! I just wanted to share that adding about 2 tablespoon of lime zest to the yellow cake is fantastic! It compliments the mango curd really well and adds a nice kick of flavor. The amount of batter here is perfect for a triple layer 9-inch round, and then I just made two batches of the chocolate recipe for the 12-inch round (come out to about 6 cups of batter per pan).
I also had a question. For those of us with narrow side-by-side freezers, any thoughts on the best way to freeze the larger tiers? I was thinking maybe I could freeze it tilted if it was still in the pan? Or maybe cool it in the fridge (maybe sitting in the pan and then in an “ice bath”) long enough that I can put it tilted in the freezer? I am just worried that it will crack or come out lop-sided if I put it in there and it isn’t level!
This chocolate cake recipe is amazing!Thanks so much for posting this ;) I am making a chocolate cake for my best friend’s wedding. I made a trial cake three weeks ago and they loved the cake. The plan is a 3 tier, 2 layers, homemade cherry filling, covered in shiny dark chocolate ganache.
I bought some Magic Line square cake pans 6″, 9″, and 12″ and all 3″ deep, from a bakers supply site, and used a heater core just for the 12″. By the way the recipe listed worked wonderful for the size pans I had. 1 recipe = 1 each of the- 6″ and 9″ square pans and then another full recipe just for the 12″ square cake. (remember I have the 3″ deep pans though) So I have made this recipe 5 times now, 1 for the trial and four for the 6 cakes for the wedding cake. They all baked beautifully except for the 6″, it sunk in the middle considerably, both layers. I am not sure if I had too much batter in the little pan or what, but considering I have to level them, I figured I could fill in the space with extra cake. They came out of the pans beautifully too. I sandwiched them between cake boards when they cooled and wrapped them tons with saran wrap.
My question is when should I take them out of the freezer? The wedding is this sat the 18th…I need to ganache them Friday (the day before) So I still need to fill and crumb-coat them and I don’t know whether to store them in the fridge or at room temp…Can anyone help me here?
and by the way this is a trial run for my own wedding in October. (I will be using the awesome vanilla cake and I am not sure about the filling…I am also thinking of trying a white chocolate ganache)
@Devan – I’m no expert but I am also making a wedding cake for this weekend (Sunday) and have been doing A LOT of research (and three test cakes) so I may be able to help you out! I would take it out of the freezer Friday, and fill with the ganache and crumb coat while still frozen. Then stick it in the fridge till the crumb coat hardens. Then do your final frosting (and decorating if you want) Friday night. From there you can easily leave it out a room temp overnight, as long as it isn’t warm enough to melt the butter in the frosting. And as long as your filling doesn’t have a lot of cream or eggs, or stuff that would spoil (like mine has the mango curd and I can’t leave it out).
You can leave it in the fridge if it is too warm where you are, just watch out for condensation, misc fridge odors, and be sure to leave it out 1-2 hours before it is served so the butter cream isn’t too hard.
Correct me if I got anything wrong people! Good luck!
Thank you Jaclyn and Good luck to you! Hope we both have wonderful and beautiful cakes!
The vanilla buttermilk cake is absolutely delicious, so good that I can proudly say that it is the best cake I have ever made, and to top it all, it is with out a doubt the best cake I have ever eaten… and I’ve eaten lots of cake! I have been endlessly searching for a good yellow cake recipe and this is THE BEST…I have made the perfect birthday cake from your site, but this I believe is unbeatable! I can eat this cake right out of the pan without frosting, it’s simply divine. I’ve made this twice in a week and a half and have gotten rave reviews. From the sweet aroma, to the tender, soft crumb, to the light and buttery taste, this cake is superior to all others…quite simply the BEST! By the way Deb I love your website and must say I have never been disappointed in a single recipe.
I need to make a 16 inch cake will your recipe for the butter cake that you have on this web site be suitable for that size pan
Question: Would it be wise/ok to sub some of the liquid with bourbon for either/both of these recipes? I want bourbon cake. Lots of it. If it’s possible, how would you go about it?
You might be able to get further with less bourbon if you add a splash of bourbon to a simple syrup and brush it over the cake when it comes out of the oven.
I just made the vanilla white cake last night and it came out amazing! I do want to mention that I made it parve (i.e. with no dairy) because it was to serve as dessert after a kosher meat meal. I substituted margarine for the butter, and water for the milk. It probably sounds awful but it came out moist and delicious.
I love your website, and it would be great to find some dairy free desserts if you’ve experimented with any.
Thanks for the recipe!
Hi, just came across your website while browsing for a good chocolate cake recipe….tried the one you posted here and found it very nice :o) However, it is very soft, does anyone know how I can make it more dense (want to cover it in fondant)…maybe add more egg? Or less buttermilk and more flour? Any suggestions pleaseeeeeeee.xx
Both of these cakes are amazing! Deb, I used your suggestion and so instead of putting bourbon in the cake batter, I brushed the cakes with bourbon once they were baked (straight bourbon, not in a simple syrup). Boozey but not too much. Thanks!
And to Bou, I would suggest baking the cake at a lower temperature (300 instead of 350) for longer time. I did that in order to have a flatter top, and the cake turned out densely brownie-like. Also, if you freeze/chill the cake before moving it around, that helps as well.
I have a few questions:
best way to store a cake layer if using in the next day?
best way to store a crumb coated cake for later use?
best way to store a buttercreamed cake for use the next day?
I have read so many different ideas and want to find one that works and doesn’t become stale.
Hi Deb, Do you have a recommendation for a chocolate frosting that would be good with the vanilla buttermilk cake?
Found you through Google. This recipe is awesome. You just made my life.
Okay. Update–I made your vanilla buttermilk cake and buttercream frosting and filled the cakes with a super-secret family cannoli filling. I made a 4 tier cake (6,8,10 &12 inch layers) for my sister’s wedding. IT WAS AWESOME. I got so many compliments! Everyone loved the cake and I must say, it was delicious.
Thanks so much for sharing this! I can’t wait to try the chocolate cake (and I’m already getting requests for other friends’ wedding cakes).
I’m pretty much praying that you respond to this soon, as I have to bake a 3 tier wedding cake this weekend. How would these cakes turn out using AP Flour? My store doesn’t have cake flour, and I’m out of corn starch to make my own!! Please help. Thanks!
So I mixed up the buttermilks, and put the smaller amount in first, rather than the 2 1/4 c. And I also used heavy cream with vinegar as a substitute for buttermilk. It came out fantastic, I can’t thank you enough for such a stellar recipe!
I would like to make this chocolate cake recipe for my son’s birthday party. I’m planning on freezing the layers and then cutting them to make a monster truck cake. My first question, do you think it will be dense enough for that? Secondly, I’m a little worried about the coffee. Does the cake have a coffee flavor? I’d love it but my family would not. Does it just deepen the chocolate flavor or actually give it a coffee flavor?
my sons get to pick their birthday cakes for school, and i’m trying this chocolate cake in lieu of the Rebecca Rather version from Fine Cooking for her cocoa/marshmellow topped cake. Smells delish, baked up fine and even, but i’ll be scrubbing chocolate off my walls for days! The one-bowl method is about as messy a cake i’ve ever made, no wonder you were worried about your housecleaner!
Hello Deb,
I have made the vanilla buttermilk cake and i LOVE it , it is amazing but now i would like to make it in a 10 inch would you please share you upscaled recipe you use for the 10 inch. And also please for the chocolate butter cake.
Thank you so much.
Best regards,
Astrid (The Netherlands).
Hi Astrid — I didn’t hang onto the math I did for the cakes. A 10-inch round cake holds about 25% more batter than a 9-inch round, so you can just scale the recipe up that way.
hey deb, im baking my friends wedding cake in may and she wants a mounds cake (dark chocolate cake, coconut filling with a chocolate ganache & white chocolate buttercream) and vanilla White Chocolate Cake(vanilla cake & white chocolate buttercream, hazelnut crème filling). and i had a few questions. 1) can i use the chocolate cake recipe you have here and simply use dark chocoalte in the mix? 2) can i turn your swiss buttercream recipe into a white chocolate one by adding white chocolate to the mix?
deb, i feel like i’ve been searching for a good vanilla cake recipe forever. for some reason, they’re all either muffin-y, or cornbread-y, and never moist or tender enough for my tastes. but this? this is amazing. i found it in sky high cakes last night and came on here to see what kind of vanilla cake you suggest.. and low and behold, same recipe!
anyway, i just wanted to share in my enthusiasm for this cake. it’s perfect. it’s light, fluffy, delicious. i paired it with a ginger lime cream cheese frosting, and oh my god. http://www.grouprecipes.com/4764/ginger-and-lime-cream-cheese-frosting.html
thank you for the inspiration!!
Hello. My mom, my maid of honor, and I are planning to make my wedding cake for my June wedding, and I’m very excited to see hints and suggestions. :) I have a few questions about how your final cake turned out though. (1) I’m planning to make a groom’s cake with a lemon curd filling and I wondered how far in advance you assembled and filled the layers. Did you have any problem with the layers getting soggy next to the curd filling. I love the texture and flavor of curd, I just dread soggy cake. (2) I think fondant is fairly flavorless and am planning to use a Swiss meringue buttercream on the wedding cake. How did the frosting hold up on the cake? Did you notice any problems with temperature (did it melt) or did it appear to be a fairly robust frosting? Again, thanks for all of the words of advice!
I did not find the cake soggy next to the curd. (Curd isn’t terribly wet, more thick than liquid. Setting it with gelatin makes it even thicker.) I think the frosting holds up great. Mine didn’t melt but it was an indoor temperature-controlled wedding. Good luck!
Hi there-
I am essentially making this same exact cake (just raspberry filling)
I feel like this is going to be a completely “No Duh” type question, but did you bake each layer separately, or did you cut the cake into the different layers?
And if you did bake them all separately is the recipe for each individual layer or is it for one big cake that gets cut into layers?
I baked each layer separately.
I have what I fear is a terribly obnoxious question. I adore this chocolate cake. ADORE! It is THE cake that has ended my search for chocolate cakes, and I will never make another. I’ve read comments about successful cupcake conversion and I, too, have made it into cupcakes countless times. While glorious and delicious, they are flat – this of course makes sense for a wedding cake recipe but makes me long for domed cupcakes. Any thoughts for helping them rise up a bit? I have adjusted the vanilla cake by just adding the full 2T of baking powder (a bold move, I know) for cupcakes and it worked great, but the chocolate seems less obvious for that change. Higher oven temperature perhaps? Never have I commented on a blog and here I am, sounding like a crazyperson in front of my favorite culinary genius and the rest of the internet. Even if they are eternally flat, I still love this recipe passionately! Thank you so much for all of your brilliance!
Hi there Kristen,
Just saw your post and hopefully I can be of some help. If you turn up your oven temperature (maybe to 375?) and put the pan on the top shelf of the oven, it should help dome the cupcakes a little. No promises, but should help, in theory. Good luck!
Hi Deb,
I’m trying to make this cake for a wedding, and I’m having trouble getting it to rise properly. The volume of the three 8″ layers is about the same as one 15″ round, so I was just making the full recipe and putting it in the 15″ pan. The cake rises to the top of the pan, but then shrinks considerably when I take it out of the oven. It then has more of a flourless chocolate cake consistency. The same thing happened when I tried to scale the recipe down to make a 6″ round. All the ingredients are room temperature. The toothpick had only a crumb or two when I pulled the cake out of the oven, so I don’t think I’m underbaking it. But I can’t figure out what else I might be doing wrong.
Thanks so much!!
- Margot
Hi Deb
LOVE your website and cake section. I would like to get into professional cake decorating (just have been made redundant and 3 months of being an at home mummy is definitely leaving me needing more :) ). I will definitely be giving your chocolate and vanilla cake recipes above a try as I want to get the basic cakes right. My question is do I need to use coffee for the chocolate cake. I am not at all a fan of coffee and wonder what effect this has on the cake.
Coffee compliments chocolate. If you don’t want to use it, you can use water but you’ll lose a depth of flavor.
How did you get your cakes to bake up flat? I made this today and mines domed quite a lot on the top.
Deb,
I made my first wedding cake in May using this incredible chocolate cake recipe. I brushed it with a Frangelico simple syrup and filled with a Nutella/Frangelico mousse, and frosted with a white chocolate Swiss buttercream. Success! Thank you so much for sharing these recipes and tips. Three tiers completely devoured and I’ve been asked to make cake for upcoming weddings. Thank you again.
Kaitlyn — There’s a paragraph in the post devoted to the two things I did to get the cakes to bake up flatter.
Hi Deb,
Would it be okay to substitute milk for buttermilk? What are the advantages of using buttermilk instead? I have never used it before.
Thank you!
Nicole
Thanks Deb, I will definitely give it a go with coffee!
I made the vanilla cake (3 layers) for my niece’s birthday and it was great. I just have (what I hope is) a question – other than the difficulty that comes with cutting a cake into 3 equal layers, do you recommend three individual cakes (i know you said this in your recipe here, but is this what you normally do) or would you go for one big cake and cut layers.
I knew there was another question ;)
You wrote that you amended the recipe for different size cake pans. Is there such a simple thing as a standard equation for adding/subtracting an inch in cake pan size or was this something you have learnt over time.
For me, I’m trying to keep cake height the same no matter the pan. Just my preference. So, I scale recipes according to the bottom area size. From this, I’ve learned that a 6-inch round cake pan, for example, holds about half the batter of a 9-inch round or an 8-inch square. That’s the only one I know off the top of my head.
Re, cutting cake layers — It’s up to you. I do it sometimes, not others. I prefer to only cut a cake layer once, to make my life easier. The more you cut, the more risk you run. When you break one big layer, you’ll inevitably wish you’d just gone through the trouble of baking the layers separately.
Wow, can’t wait to make this cake- I have a 3 tier cake to do in August and will start making the layers with this recipe!
I am pretty sure I made this a couple of years ago with no issues using Fry’s, which people are saying is dutched, though I didn’t realize at the time and assumed wasn’t since the words “dutch” or “dutched” aren’t anywhere on the label (Canada… might be different in other markets.) The label on the can says “cocoa, sodium carbonate”, a different alkali from the more usual potassium carbonate. Maybe it is only weakly dutched, because it isn’t very dark. The colour is more similar to photos I’ve seen of natural, and it’s just about the only cocoa I can buy around here that isn’t clearly labelled dutched.
Anyway, I was running low, and my regular store was out, so I bought some more cocoa from a different store, and it was clearly labelled as dutched and much darker. After reading what David Lebovitz had to say about cocoas http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2010/02/cocoa-powder-faq-dutch-process-v/ I decided to throw in a teaspoon of baking powder just in case. Hopefully the cake won’t taste strongly of leaveners. Can’t really tell you about rise height, though, because I wanted 8″ rounds, so I did two 6″ rounds for excess batter, along with the three 8″ rounds.
Another theory on why (Canadian) Fry’s might not pose much problem: maybe the acidity of the buttermilk helps activate the baking soda, too.
Seems natural cocoa is hard to find outside the US (see above David Lebovitz link, and Glitterati’s comments.)
One more thing :) is the temp in the above recipe the original “Sky High” temp, or is it the reduced temp you used to help the cakes bake flatter? Mine are still domed, but as you’ll see above I don’t have natural cocoa, so it could be affecting the leavening.
Would love to know how the Chocolate Butter Cake and your Vanilla Buttermilk Cake hold up if covered with butter cream and then Fondant and also the weight of sugarpaste flowers – for a wedding cake.
Lorraine, your results might vary from mine, since I don’t have true natural cocoa (I haven’t tried the vanilla one yet) but I got a very dense velvetty crumb that can take a lot of weight.
I made these (as rounds) for a wedding this weekend. Used the yellow for 12, 9, and 6 in rounds, and the chocolate for 13 x 9 inch cakes (which i then cut up, and made lego cakes for the groom’s cake). They were great. The yellow baked beautifully flat (I used flower nails and bake easy strips), and tasted great. I paired them with lemon curd, raspberries, and the same swiss buttercream you use Deb (I’ve probably made it a half dozen times). Chocolate was especially delicious (crumbier as I was icing, but so it goes). Only trick with the yellow cakes is I couldn’t figure out how to scale down the recipe, what with 5 eggs and 2 yolks. Will make the chocolate cake again, and will make the yellow again if the occasion calls!
Not a wedding cake, but used your instruction and these recipes to take on an elaborate baby shower cake: tiered rounds with the Wilton teddy bear sitting on top, enrobed in the Swiss buttercream, tinted baby blue. The prototype of the bear turned out great- the yellow cake is the perfect density to get in all the crevices and come out cleanly. Thanks for blazing the trail!
excitedly making a triple layer, 8″ round vanilla cake ( with whipped cream & raspberries ) by request for our daughter’s 6th birthday. i will add vanilla beans, just because i like the speckley look in the cake.
Ive just baked my chocolate cake now, took a while to convert all to grams (hate this cup business) then reduce by 1/4 for 20cm x2 tins for a nice high cake, risen well with nice flat top, smells good too! I added a good teaspoon of vanilla extract a must for chocolate cake. I’m interested to see the texture and taste as I usually make a chocolate cake with real chocolate but sometimes too heavy. I bought raw cocoa a while ago off e-bay (health food shops will prob have it too) and will be interested to taste the strength of the chocolate as there was a consider lot (120g). A normal UK victoria sponge hasnt much taste with 20g cocoa.
Ok had my first slice and it looks fab and on the taste was great then all of a sudden I get (once again) that butter/flour roux taste. Now this is the 3rd sky high cake I’ve made (previous ‘not so humble pie’ blog one) and on all occassions I’ve had this strange background taste that isnt pleasant. Its def not the flour as I use a high quality organic brand plus I use different butters. I did use the raw cocoa. But wondering if this is a flaw with these dry and wet mix cakes. The flour content is high too. My husband noticed it too. Just wonder if there is a flaw in my baking? Please help!
Hi Deb!
I made the vanilla buttermilk cake for a friend’s birthday recently and added an amaretto cream filling. It was a big hit! I love this cake so much that I want to make a strawberry version of it. I was going to add strawberry puree to the recipe but wanted your guidance. I would normally just make your strawberry cake recipe, but the creaminess and flavor of this cake is my favorite. How much puree should I add? Should I decrease the buttermilk? Any other suggestions?
Thanks again for being my cake goddess!
Leah from Nashville, TN
I need some advice! I want to use these recipes to make cupcakes and I’ve no idea what the time conversion would be, or if I should bake at a different temperature. Any help is greatly appreciated.
Katy — Cupcakes are usually baked at the same temperature and usually bake for anywhere from 18 to 22 minutes, though individual recipes vary.
Hi Deb, Have now made both cakes which have been delicious. Just a quick question re freezing the cakes – what is the max amount of time that you would freeze cakes for? I’m just trying to work out how far in advance I could make these for a party – ie would 3 weeks well wrapped in the freezer be too long?
Thanks!
Jen — That will really depend on your freezer and how fast it makes things smell “freezery.” In most freezers, however, I think 3 weeks would be fine. Wrap each layer it three times in plastic. You cannot be too careful.
Thanks Deb – and congrats on the book. I am expecting mine to arrive any day – can’t wait!!
Just made this (swiss buttercream, mango curd and all) for a birthday. And gifted my friend your book (one of the 4 you graciously signed for me). Both were a hit – thanks for making me look awesome!!
I must confess I must have been stupid not to have tried this cake even after I was there to watch the complete post from the beginning!! chocolate cake came out so beautifully!!!! thanks a ton!!! oh btw, the book is real blessing!! Trying recipes one by one and guess what I am a 5 star chef now :-)))))
Hello Deb, I just stubbled across your site and am soooo glad I did! I started to read your blog and found the hours just disappear. I Love to cook and bake so I am constantly on the search for new and exciting tried and true recipes. I love how your wedding cake turned out. I want to invest in some good cake pans, but I couldn’t find anywhere on your site where you tell what brand of cake pans you use.
Hi – I LOVE your pics!!..I’m kindda new to baking so I’m learning new things all the time – what really baffles me is halving and multiplying recipes. To do a small 1 layer 6 inch cake how would you adjust this recipe? I’m looking for a go to chocolate cake recipe for large party cakes, 3d cakes etc as well as small cakes for friends and family.And really hope this could be it. I just need to be sure that it can be double and halved easily and do well when stacking and carving etc…
For me the starting point is a 6inch 1 layer cake that is baked in one pan – I can multiply the recipe and figure out the pan size after that..so what I really need is to know how to adjust this recipe to fit 1 6 inch pan….thaaannks a million
See my suggestion in comment #223. In comment #279, I talk about how I scale cake recipes.
Hi thanks deb.
Just one more question (so sorry to keep bugging you) does this cake carve well? I’m hoping to do 2 cakes next month – one is a 3d and the other a shaped cake – I’m a bit nervous as I have never done either before!! Thanks and once again sorry for the trouble..
I just made the vanilla buttermilk cake and it was only 7 cups of batter when I was finished. I’m positive I put in the correct amounts for each ingredient. Just how light and fluffy does your batter get before putting in the egg mixture (which I folded in, I did not use a mixer)? Any ideas? Thanks!
I know this is a few years late…but I tried Marie’s cream cheese and whipped cream frosting (comment #9) on a vanilla cake today. It was a huge hit! Great taste and texture. I think it will be a great addition to my frosting arsenal. I would probably not use it on a cake that had to sit out though–especially in a warm room. Although it tastes great, it gets pretty soft (our house was a piping 75 degrees).
Hey Deb, I am writing in hopes for a quick response lol but this has been baffling my partner and I, We have made this cake more then 20 times, it’s a great cake! We do event cakes on the side. Its a wonderful texture when it’s baked small, anything larger we get a pound cake consistency. We need help! lol This cake is so great for shaping etc, it’s never failed us! We got the chance to sit and taste the difference between the tiers at one of the events and we get the response, it’s heavy and a little dry… not too dry but you def need milk with it. Baked as a cupcake, no problem whatsoever lol what the heck do we do? lol
Hi Michelle — It’s a bit sturdier than the plush yellow cakes most of us prefer for events; it’s great for weddings but really doesn’t need to be brushed with some sort of syrup. My go-to yellow cake is this one.
Hi Deb, your cakes look fantastic! am just wondering if you could please give me any recommendations for the best cake pans, what brand do you use?
Thanks!
i am a novice baker from Zimbabwe.Your recipe for chocolate cake is amazing. i made it yesterday and it was amazing. it was a black forest cake with four layers . one ganache, another chocolate mousse and the middle layer being cream all layers having a great amount of black cherry filling. had to support it with skewers but it was soft,moist,melt in your mouth chocolate goodness. thank you
Jennie — I don’t have a favorite brand (although Williams Sonoma’s Gold Touch pans are consistently good). Mine are from a mix of places and baking supply shops. I look for pans that feel heavy for their size.