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Wedding cakes: Pastry experts show it’s not a piece of cake to make special creations

BY JEFF NACHTIGAL, Californian staff writer
e-mail: jnachtigal@bakersfield.com | Tuesday, Sep 11 2007 5:00 PM

Last Updated: Tuesday, Sep 11 2007 10:54 AM

There are wedding cakes, and then there are really great wedding cakes — the melt in your mouth kind that leave everyone eyeing the cake stand for seconds.

Building that beautiful wedding cake — one that tastes as good as it looks — is pastry chef Stephanie Caughell’s goal.

“If you’re going to cut into something that’s gorgeous, it better taste amazing,” said Caughell, the owner of Gimmee Some Sugar Sweet Co.

Bride-to-be Alexis Rahder ordered an four-tier, black and white wedding cake for delivery on the luckiest day of the year, July 7, 2007. To make this cake, Caughell and her staff managed 25 steps spread over 20 hours on three days.

Day I: Tuesday

Caughell and her pastry team get started on a Tuesday.

It begins with the concept of “mise en place,” French for cooking in an organized manner. Watch the Food Network and you’ll see each ingredient measured into bowls and laid out in a row before any cooking begins.

The cable TV show didn’t come up with the idea — it’s a basic French culinary rule. At Gimmee Some Sugar, organization is the foundation for all their wedding cakes, Caughell said.

Following instructions to a T — creaming the butter and shortening, and carefully mixing wet and dry ingredients — makes a moist, lump-free cake. Freelancing a recipe doesn’t, said pastry chef Rebecca Hedge as she scooped and poured ingredients with measured precision into a spinning KitchenAid mixer.

Out of the oven, the pound cake layers are shrink-wrapped and stored in the freezer to lock in moisture until decoration.

The shop takes on no more than two wedding cakes per week — no production-line cakes, Caughell was emphatic — to ensure they have time to create a cake that perfectly meets the newlyweds’ wishes.

Day II: Friday afternoon

Gimmee Some Sugar sets itself apart from other bakeries by using only whole, natural ingredients.

In the cake business, preservatives and stabilizers are often used to save time and money.

With classic French pastry training, Caughell and Hedge make everything from scratch using only all-natural ingredients.

The first step on day two is flavor infusion. Each layer of chilled pound cake is soaked with Madagascar vanilla bean syrup.

Next comes the filling: “white” pound cake layers get strawberry buttercream filling layered over with fresh strawberries; “black” chocolate tiers of the cake are filled with Belgian chocolate ganache.

“We love it when we hear that guests at the wedding ran around from table to table to try different flavors of the cake,” Caughell says as she places strawberry pieces into thick buttercream filling.

A thin layer of buttercream called a crumb coat seals the layers to make the next day’s decoration go crumb-free.

Day III: Saturday morning decoration

Saturday is a split shift, for decoration and delivery.

Each of the four tiers is coated with Italian buttercream frosting, so smooth and creamy, Hedge says, that some people mistake it for whipped cream.

Caughell shapes vanilla-flavored fondant icing with a rolling pin, then carefully smooths it over each tier. She applies a delicate pin-prick to pop a fondant air bubble, then works the icing as if polishing a paint job to a high gloss. With a steady hand she spells out “He loves me — She loves me” in royal icing.

The cake is nearly complete, but there’s one thing a pastry chef absolutely cannot watch, Hedge and Caughell agree. They absolutely will not watch the cake cutting, Hedge says with a laugh, and a slight cringe.

Saturday evening delivery

“Finishing is our last chance to make it perfect,” Caughell says, the stress clearly evident in her tone.

She packs her “kit,” a bucket with essential tools, from assorted spatulas to extra buttercream, and wet and dry towels. “Think about it like you’re a doctor going to someone’s house,” Caughell suggested.

Moving with choreographed precision, Caughell and Hedge shuttle cake layers to an air-conditioned Suburban idling on the curb.

They arrive at the Bistro, and whisk layers of cake through a 100-degree evening and into the climate-controlled banquet room. One of the biggest hazards is temperature, which can wreak havoc on natural ingredients.

While Hedge spots, Caughell stacks cake tiers. Fifteen minutes later red Gerbera Daisies adorn yet another smooth assembly.

The two high-five out the door. Margarita hour for the pastry chefs.

But delivery doesn’t quite tie the knot on a successful cake. Final confirmation of a job well done comes when the newlywed bride checks in.

Sometimes a honeymoon gets in the way, but this black-and-white cake earns a prompt day-after phone call.

“When I saw it I was just holding back the tears. It was more than anything I had imagined,” bride Rahder said about her cake, nine months in the planning.

“After everyone left, I walked over with a fork to eat,” Rahder said.

Deconstruct this four-tier, black-and-white cake, and it reads like a work of art:

Madagascar vanilla bean syrup is soaked into each layer of pound cake; chocolate cake layers are separated by Belgian chocolate ganache filling; pound cake gets strawberry buttercream filling topped with fresh cut strawberries; each of the tiers are first frosted with Italian buttercream, then receive a coating of fondant icing; royal icing piping circling the layers spells out, “He loves me • She loves me.”

The finished cake is decorated with red Gerbera Daisies.

Designed to serve 200 guests, the four-tier wedding cake was 22 inches tall and weighed about 140 pounds. With fondant and extra detail work, the bill was $1,300.