make a cascading wedding cake with silk flowers
It's interesting:"On behalf of the bride and groom, I'd like to thank everyone for coming here today. Some of you have travelled considerable distances in order to be here and celebrate Paul and Linda’s happy day. Africa, Continental Europe, the Americas and Asia are not actually places where anyone has travelled from, but I hear that Uncle Jim and Auntie Morag had a 5 hour drive down from Glasgow."
A cascading wedding cake is made from a cake stand, composed of individual cake trays arranged like a staircase. If you want a wedding cake that is a bit different from a traditional cake, use separated tiers of square cakes, covered in smooth fondant and icing pearls and a trail of silk flowers trailing from tier to tier. Use silk flowers in colors that coordinate with the wedding’-s color scheme, or show off your love for color with a riotous rainbow floral display.
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Things You'll Need
- Packaged store-bought cake mixes (5)
- 12-inch cake pans (2)
- 10-inch cake pans (2)
- 8-inch cake pans (2)
- 6-inch cake pans (2)
- Wire racks
- Cake filling
- White or off-white butter cream icing
- Fondant (4 packages)
- Rolling pin
- Fondant smoother
- Pastry bag with round icing tip
- Clear icing gel
- 4-tier cascading cake stand
- Soft tape measure
- Floral wire
- Silk flowers
Instructions
1
Prepare the cake batters for the cake pans, according to the cake mix directions. You will need 5 store-bought cake mixes. You can prepare and bake all of the cakes together or prepare one cake at a time and save the leftover batter in the refrigerator for up to 45 minutes.
2
Divide the batter between the pans to fill them about two-thirds full. Bake the cakes in a convection oven (or on a convection setting) for the time specified on the package. You can bake the cake in a regular oven, but switch the pans between the racks halfway through.
3
Let each of the cakes cool in the pan for 20 to 30 minutes and then take the cakes out of the pans and place them on wire racks to cool thoroughly.
4
Make the top of each cake smooth by cutting off any domed tops. Spread a layer of filling on top of one cake of each size and stack the corresponding cake on top. You now have 4 two-layer cakes.
5
Smooth a coating of butter cream icing over each cake.
6
Roll out 4 sheets of fondant. Make each about one-eighth inch thick. Lay 1 sheet of fondant on top of each cake. Hold the fondant smoother against the top center of one cake and smooth toward the edge. Repeat to smooth the other half of the top and then smooth down the sides of the cake. Repeat for each cake.
7
Open the end of a pastry bag. Squeeze clear icing gel around the sides of the bag. Spoon white or off-white buttercream icing into the center of the bag until it reaches about two-thirds full. Hold the tip against the bottom edge of one cake and squeeze gently to make a pearl. Move over and repeat all the way around the bottom edge of each cake.
8
Gently place each cake on top of one section of the cascading cake stand. Place the 12-inch cake on the bottom tier, the 10-inch cake on the second tier, the 8-inch cake on the third tier and the 6-inch cake on the fourth. The tiers of the cascading cake stand are arranged in a curved or zigzag pattern that looks like an odd staircase.
9
Measure the length of the cascading tiered cake, from the top center of the 6-inch cake to all the way over the 12-inch cake. Use a clean, soft tape measure so that it will follow the staircase arrangement down the tiers.
10
Cut a piece of thin-gauge floral wire to this length. Cut small 1 1/2- to 2-inch-long pieces of the wire. Cut at least 20. You may need more later.
11
Wrap one end of a short piece of wire around the underside of one silk flower. Hold the flower at one end of the long wire and coil the remainder of the short wire around the long wire. Repeat with each silk flower, working your way all the way down the long wire to make a long strand of silk flowers.
12
Lay the long wire on top of the cascading cakes, draped gently across the tiers. Insert the short stems of extra silk flowers on top of the cakes, around the strand of flowers, to make a more impressive silk flower display.
Tags: each cake, cake pans, cake stand, long wire, silk flowersSource: www.ehow.com
