Baking and preparing your wedding cakes for decorating

BEFORE YOU BAKE

Being prepared and organized is essential when creating a tier cake. Imagine having baked and decorated all the cakes for your design only to discover at the reception hall that the tiers and plates don't fit on the stand! Because a tier cake design can be adjusted to serve as few as 20 and as many as 400 people, you'll want to be sure your cake set-up will work without a hitch. This means doing a dry run of your cake construction.

To do your dry run, get all your construction pieces together-pans, plates, pillars, stand, even the fountain and stairs if your design calls for them. Now assemble the parts as they will appear on the finished cake. This way you can be sure you have the correct size plates and boards for your cakes and that your stairs or flower holder rings will fit properly in the set-up. This is especially helpful if you have to cut your cake boards for specialty shapes like petals or ovals. You can be certain that you've cut to the right size for the cake.


BAKING

Concentrate on three factors when baking and preparing your cakes for decorating:
• Perfect light golden brown color
• Precisely level top and bottom
• Smooth, crumb-free surface.

1. Prepare the pans. Thoroughly grease pans using Wilton Cake Release, applied with a pastry brush. Cake Release eliminates the need to grease and flour pans and releases cakes perfectly, without crumbs. You may also grease pans using solid vegetable shortening; sprinkle inside the pan with about 2 Tablespoons flour and shake so that flour covers all greased surfaces. Turn pan upside down to remove excess flour.

2. Fill the pans. Any cake mix or recipe will work, but for fondant-covered cakes you may want to use a firmer cake, such as pound cake. When baking in Wilton pans, use these recommended batter amounts. It helps to clip Wilton Bake-Even Strips on the outside of pan before baking to keep cakes level and reduce cracking or crowning. Pour in the batter, filling pan about 1/2 to 2/3 full. Tap filled pans lightly on a countertop to reduce air bubbles in the batter.

3. Bake cakes on middle rack of a preheated oven for time specified in recipe. To test whether a cake is done, insert a toothpick or cake tester near center and remove. If tip is clean, cake is done. Set cakes in pans on wire racks to cool for 10 minutes. To unmold cake, place a cooling rack against the cake and turn both rack and pan over. Flip back to place on cake board. Lift pan off carefully; let cool at least one hour. Brush off any loose crumbs before icing.