VERY NEW TO CAKE BAKING---- red velvet 2 tier wedding cake coming up in march--HELP - Page 3

I think the cake is the least of your worries.  Doing the i am baker rose swirl (which is what she said she was doing btw) is the PERFECT first time wedding cake deco.  So easy and it hides a multitude of sins.  ;)   Now the 400 cake pops on the other hand... 

Sorry I am with K8 on this.  Why do beginners always want to bite off more than they can chew?  If you have never done a wedding or large event before, and you are just one person doing it out of your home you could be heading for disaster. I hope you are doing this for ingredient cost only or free because if not don't spend any of the money except on ingredients. You may have to give it all back. Things like cake artistry take talent, and education, and experience to successfully deliver an order this large.  You have no photos of your work so have no idea if you do have talent in cake decoration.  Even seasoned professionals from time to time bite off more than they can chew and 9 times out ot ten will admit they made a mistake in taking on so much or trying a new technique for the first time on a client's cake.  If you really want to take this on you need to have adequate freezer storage with no other foods other than the cake order in it.  Be very methodic in creating your timeline of when things must be done or you will get overwhelmed.  Practice any new techniques several times before attempting to do them on a client's cake.  These are words of caution from someone who has been there, done that, and regretted it.  I now have 28 years of decorating experience under my belt and continue my education as often as I can to learn new techniques that are being developed.  I wish you much luck on this endeavor, you will need it

she's planning a two tier cake and about 1.000 balls, bites & rolls if i counted correctly

 

it's a lot of work but certainly doable

 

and as i should have said earlier she's asking for a recipe not instructions on a two foot tall extreme cake sculpture as some of us do

 

and her bride is willing--why not do it

thee most crucial issue here, the saddest by far is that i've never heard of nor will i get to eat one of those cinnamon rolls on a stick

 

i am a serious cinnamonaholic and that'a brilliant idea

@FireChick, can I ask why you are making a cake at all?  Seriously....if she just want's something red-velvet flavored then make half the cake pops red velvet and just make the cake out of cake dummies.  Then you can make it all now out of fondant and store it in a dark dry space until the day of the wedding.  Or better yet, just make the top tier real cake so she can do the photo thing and then save  the drama on the bottom. 

 

I think a lot of us jump to the conclusion that it can't or just shouldn't be done when we can't see the portfolio of someone's work, but honestly if you are willing to bake all those mini desserts I think you can probably pull it off.  It's just a question of whether or not you should. 

I have a red velvet recipe that I recently used to make 2 6" inch round and 2 4" inch round cakes that were each 4 inches tall, I cut each into 2 layers and used 3 of each size to make a two tier stacked cake for my daughter. My cream cheese frosting recipe covered the entire cake and filled it, with leftovers. I'll PM both to you.

Personally I think you can probably manage the cake, it's only two tiers and that rose swirl is one of those gems that looks like it was way more work than it is. And like you said she doesn't want the cake to feed all 200.

It's the other stuff that would worry me, the cake pops alone would scare me, I often make them with leftover scraps of cake and it can take me an hour just to roll and cover 20!

You can do this if you have a deep freezer or a completely dedicated full sized fridge with freezer. Plus lots of airtight plastic tubs.

 

You need to think like an assembly line.  You CAN make 30 dozen danish pastries by hand in one day if you made the dough the day before.  Danish type dough is good for cinnamon rolls because the dough must sit in the fridge while you are shaping a portion.

 

I see that many responses haven't even read that your bride WANTS a cake mix cake.  You could bake those layers and completely ice with buttercream this weekend and put those cakes into the freezer. Wrap well after they have frozen solid. Thaw in the fridge the night before the wedding.  Add borders after you get them to the site.

 

Proceed with the other baked goods on a similar schedule.  Figure out how many items you have to make each week, and proceed by baking the cake Monday evening and doing the rest on succesive evenings. For the cake pops, you use a small ice-cream-type scoop to make them uniform and to save half the work of rolling.  You might want to plan to dip them into melted white coating and then roll into grated white coating. That way any bumps don't affect the end result.  Add the sticks after thawing.

 

For brownies and other bars, bake them in foil pans and keep them in those pans.Once iced and frozen, the pans can be stacked to take up less room. Keep them in double zipping freezer weight bags. Do not cut until you get to the site. 

 

Buttercream flowers can be made NOW and frozen in airtight plastic tubs.  Use 1 cup shortening, 1 pound icing sugar. Add 1/2 teaspoon almond flavour (no white fake vanilla, thanks). Add white corn syrup to make the right consistency for the type of flowers you need to make.

 

And that brings me to the last area: get your serving ware organized NOW, and see if you can get some help on the day of the wedding to put everything together nicely.  It looks to me like a full day of setting-up work. Remember that you will be putting all the goodies into paper cups on that day.

 

OK so after this is all over, you want to take a week off from baking to recover.  Then look carefully at what items you would make for a customer again, and which ones were not worth the fuss.  This will be extremely useful information for your future business.    

Edited by BakingIrene - 1/30/13 at 10:11am

So this order is your perfect chance to buy heavy duty tools. Like a solid maple rolling pin with ball bearings.  Like a good chefs knife or three.  Like some cookie sheets to carry stuff and to use as trays in the fridge/freezer.

 

In fact I would buy the 6" and 10" cake pans and not fuss about confirming with your bride.  I don't know where you live, but you might check for good brands that are not as familiar.  There is a local factory here in ON called "Crown Cookware" that makes better quality than Magic Line, and there is a discount place that sells at half the price.  PM me if you need them. 

speaking of the distinct and breathless joy of buying cake toys etc.

 

disclaimers~~some people feel they got ripped off and i don't have one

 

but

 

there are cake ball rollers for sale out there

 

you gotta get the consistency just right for it to work

 

just tossing that out there--i think it rolls many like 9-12 at a time??

 

i almost think small ice cream scoops might work better

 

or roll a long snake in waxed paper like sushi and cut off sections

 

but i don't make cake balls so don't mind me--just ad libbing

 

 

 

btw--how do the cinnamon rolls stick to the stick?

I watched the videos for that cake ball roller.  I noticed that the consistency of the dough is very dense and your cake ball mixture might not be the same.  So I would invest in small scoops that have the self ejecting feature, but hold off on this cake roller device.  You may not want to offer cake balls again.     

 

Cinnamon rolls--I have baked and frozen more of these than I can count.  I would advise you to use a fairly rich dough, because you are planning to freeze smaller rolls than normal (right?). Mix a good strong cinnamon/sugar filling with a teaspoon of flour per cup of sugar.  I would advise you to  NOT brush the sheet of dough with any fat for small rolls that are to be served on sticks, to help the layers of dough to stick together.  You can freeze these in bags, and put the sticks in at the last minute for serving.

 

Anyway, I hope that you are feeling enthusiastic about this whole project.  It sounds like great fun when you have hands to help.

yeah--that roller would be awesome if you hit the right consistency

 

i mean no reason why you couldn't get it right if you are flexible with your formula

 

and willing and have the time to try a range of consistencies/formulas

 

i'm sure you've seen the other threads on here about that

 

and again--i do not have one

 

just chatting

Cinnamon rolls--let them rise only a half hour on the pan, bake them just done. 

Freeze as soon as they are cool, they thaw in an hour at room temp and they taste exactly like fresh.

 

If you have the option, you can gently reheat them onsite.  If you plan to do this, wrap them into foil after they have cooled, before they go into freezer bags.  Then you can reheat a bag at a time in a 300F oven (not microwave, it dries them out) and serve them warmed up.  People will swear they were baked that day.