Customer Reviews

Wedding Cakes You Can Make: Designing, Baking, and Decorating the Perfect Wedding Cake

5 star:		(55)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have an enormous collection of cake decorating books and I was pleasantly suprised when I received this wonderful book by Dede Wilson. Most of my books are either centered around the DESIGN of the cake, with very little emphasis on the specific how-to's (like how to transport the cake, which icing to use, etc.)to the taste of the cake (focusing little on how to decorate.) Both categories are important but can be daunting if you don't know where to start.

However, Wilson provides designs that almost anyone can do, as well as fabulous recipes that I have not seen in condensed form in any other book. Usually, the reader is provided with a white and chocolate cake recipe, a ganache, and a buttercream. This is perfectly fine, but I was looking for something that took my recipes to the next level. Wilson provides recipes like Lemon Blackberry Cake, Raspberries and Cream Cake, Marzipan and Orange Essensia Cake, Chocolate-Covered Caramel Cake, and my FAVORITE, the Chocolate-covered Cherry Cake. The design of the last cake has an inside of white cake layers with bittersweet chocolate shavings folded in, kirsch moistening syrup, and a filling of vanilla buttercream with actual chocolate-covered cherries. The outside is a stunning white-on-white with a bead border and chocolate plastique roses that are easier to make than you think!

Wilson provides recipes, ideas, and pictures for a simple and casual summer wedding cake like the Italian Rum Cream with fresh fruit on top, to a sophisticated Gilded Mocha Cake with a chocolate glaze topping and real gold leaf.

In addition, she goes further than any wedding cake book I've seen in explaining exactly how to transport the cake and set it up in the venue, and EXACTLY how far in advance EVERYTHING can be done. I just can't say enough about this book---IT IS A MUST!!!

I recently agreed to make a wedding cake for my friend's wedding and although I bake regularly, I had never undertaken such a large project as a wedding cake. After coming across Dede Wilson's book and poring over it I was able to make a beautiful wedding cake with confidence. The pictures are beautiful, the recipes are wonderful, the instructions are clear and Ms. Wilson provides helpful tips throughout. A great book for anyone considering making a wedding cake.

This is a very practical guide to baking and presenting a quality product. You will not learn how to use pastry tips -- plenty of places to do that...but if your goal is to bake a really good tasting cake and good looking cake, this book gives you great advice. Resources in the back of the book are terrific.

This is an excellent book for beginners. Included in the book are the following:
A few cake recipes
Buttercream recipe
Sugar syrup recipe
Resource guide to help fine supplies
General tips and advice on which tools to use
Cake pictures and the instructions on how to make/assemble the cakes.

I found the resource guide to be extremely helpful
Another feature in the book that I find helpful are the cake batter recipes. In most books they give you one recipe that only yields enough batter for one particular pan size. If you want to make a larger cake then you have to guess as to how much batter and/or ingredients you'll need which can lead to unfavorable results. In this book however, the author gives recipes for different pan sizes. Recipes/batter amounts are given for 6", 8", 9", 10", 12", 14" cake pans. The reader then does not have to guess.

All in all I found ti to be very informative and well written

I decided to learn about cake decorating so I could make the cake for a family wedding. I was completely new to the process and didn't have anyone to give me advice on it so I was pretty green. I've bought a few books and looked up information online but this book is the one I've referred back to the most. It answered a lot of the questions I had about the actual beginning to end process of my cake. There's tons of helpful information that saved me from having to learn on my own or waste a lot of time and effort guessing. The 5 tier wedding cake, which was made in one state and setup in an another state, went off without a hitch with lots and lots of compliments! I Love this book!!!

This book is a wonderful step by step guide. It has great recipes and suggested combinations of flavors for cakes and fillings. It is excellent for beginners through advanced cake decorators. I haven't done a wedding cake in a long time and this book has really gotten me prepared to tackle this fun project again. If you're trying to decide whether or not you've got the guts to try to make a cake for yourself or a friend this will give you all the tools and confidence you need!

I bought this book on the basis of the reviews --wanted to get at the scaled recipes-- and am so very glad I did. It was a really valuable resource for me. The basic yellow and chocolate cake recipes are wonderful -- the chocolate cake in particular is a delicious standout, with a very moist crumb. The yellow cake is not actually that yellow for those of you concerned about color; I'd say it's ivory.

I used Swiss Meringue Buttercream (recipe found elsewhere) which worked beautifully and eliminated the stress of boiling sugar, which would have been too overwhelming for me. I used the book's proportions to cut the buttercream with passionfruit curd (for bride's cake) and Valrhona Noisette, though -- and both frosting turned out beautifully.

Giving this four stars instead of five because I think the book leads first-time bakers astray in a few areas. First, the "hot spatula" technique should be called out in very big, bold font -- it's really the only thing that is going to give a perfectly smooth finish on the "finish coat" of the cake. And, as an amateur you can't underestimate the amount of time you'll spend dipping that spatula into hot water, wiping it and running it over the frosting -- but it works like a charm! Second, she recommends transporting the cake already stacked. Holy recipe for stress and disaster! To do this you need to drive a pointed dowel through the entire cake -- I honestly can't imagine anything more terrifying after you've spent so much time (and money) creating this masterpiece. If you're doing a simple flat coat with floral embellishment, save yourself some stress and transport the "finish coat" layers to the wedding site, stack them there and then apply the final decoration. Third, don't be afraid to leave your cake out of the refrigerator longer than she says in the book. If you refrigerate it and only have it at room temp for an hour or two before serving time, the larger layers will still be cool and with a Swiss or Italian Buttercream, you'll have a mouthful of cold butter which is not so great. The cake and frosting need to be 100% at room temp to release their deliciousness!

Quantities of moistening syrup recipes are, as other reviewers mentioned, waaaaay too much syrup for your cake. BTW use a spray bottle instead of a brush if you're doing this step.

This is a fantastic step-by-step instruction book. I had no idea how much planning really went into creating a wedding cake but this book lays everything out for you in a pretty easy-to-follow format. I've only made one cake so far (a sample cake, like she recommends) and the frosting was spectacular but the cake itself didn't really taste like much of anything. I'm thinking that I'll borrow a lot of the techniques mentioned in this book and apply them to a recipe from another cookbook. A must for a novice baker!

I have never really baked much in my life outside of bread. Yet, I somehow got the crazy idea that I would bake my own wedding cake. This book is so thorough, well laid-out, and easy to read, that making your own cake, for whatever occasion, is easy. There are instructions for 16 different cakes, with pictures and easy to follow, detailed instructions. The cakes are gorgeous. I never would have known that I could really make such an elegant cake myself.

I checked this book out from the library when I was first asked by a family member to make their wedding cake. I LOVE THIS BOOK! Especially for me at the time it was extremely helpful.

What it does tell you:
~The basics of baking a cake including tips on pans, mixers and ingredients.
~A basic how to for assembling a stacked cake.
~Basic recipes for cakes (white, yellow, chocolate)and a basic (non powdered sugar) frosting.
~Several flavor combinations that expand on the basic recipes.
~Simple decorating ideas
~Suggestions on schedules for when to make each component of the cake (you don't have to do it all the day before!)
~Charts on serving sizes, pan sizes, pan capacities, amounts of frostings, syrups, fillings needed for each size cake, etc.

What it won't tell you:
~How to use frosting tips to make designs. This isn't a cake decorating book in that sense. Most of the designs while pretty are simple and use very basic frosting techniques. The book does instruct you on how to do the ones shown.
~It isn't really a cookbook so don't expect to have many different types of recipes. She has a few basic ones that are expanded on to make many variations (and she has plenty of suggestions) but if you are looking for a bunch of different types of recipes, this isn't the book you want.

I bought this book because I like having all the flavor ideas in one handy reference and the photos are beautiful. It was extremely helpful to me when I was doing my first cakes but if you are experienced you likely already have the recipes (or similar ones). For an experienced wedding cake maker this book will probably be far too simplistic. For the novice though, it is an excellent resource that gives you the confidence and tools you need to actually pull off a wedding cake. :)