Wedding Cake Practice

I'm really excited and really nervous about making my friends wedding cake next month. I don't want to give too much away but she wants four tiers, three chocolate and one rich fruit. I'm doing the small top one in the fruit which is going to be a nightmare as I won't be able to add it to the cake until the very last minute for fear of it sinking into the lighter chocolate cakes. It shouldn't though, because it will only be a small cake (even though it's heavy) and I'll be using a cake board between it and the next cake. I'll also be dowling every layer of cake below it, so hopefully they should be well supported for the few hours they need to be. Fingers tightly crossed anyway.

The three chocolate cakes will have chocolate filling and a chocolate ganache under the icing. So I've been practising my chocolate cakes with ganache and icing and I think I have it sorted. I will need to do my icing a little thicker than I usually like so the chocolate doesn't show through. I'm really not fond of thick icing though. Maybe I should have pressed for white chocolate, but then I hear that it is more difficult to work with.

The cakes will need to be as perfect as possible as there is not going to be too much decoration. There will be some vines and tiny blossom and butterflies. The cake will also be in two colours, not just white. I can't give too much away on the colour scheme.

On the top I'm going to try and make icing figures of the bride and groom, and on the next layer down, their two little boys sitting on the edge of the cake.

I've already had a go at making one of the boys and I was really happy with it, apart from the face...that needs a little more practice.

Here is a cake a made last week to practice the flavours, smooth icing and vines and butterflies. It's not really a representation of the finished cake, just me practicing some skills.

When I make the actual cake this will be the second smallest cake at 8" round and 5" high.