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Hello all – please forgive me for the lack of recipes of late I have had a huge project on the go…
A wedding cake for my sister Charlotte and her husband!
It’s all over and done with and whilst I considered blogging each step for you the design of the cake was a surprise for Mr & Mrs Rodgers so I couldn’t give the game away.
Of course I need to share it with you so here it is. More detailed tutorials on the elements will be making an appearance in due course!
I started with this….
And now just have this left!
I worked my way through:
2530g butter
2960g caster sugar
38 eggs
2158g plain flour
696g self-raising flour
934ml milk
180g cocoa powder
and 3 teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda
for the cakes alone.
The top three deep tiers are cake, the bottom and largest is a covered cake dummy. The request was no fruit cake so there are two madeira cakes (14″ and 6″) and one chocolate cake (for Mr Rodgers) at 10″. My life it weighed the same as a baby elephant!
The lace is made from Sugarveil and completely edible.
And here they are cutting the cake – congratulations Mr & Mrs Rodgers! xx
Ruth Clemens, Baker Extraordinaire
Ruth, I am speechless, the cake is stunning and the lace well…. so elegant and classy. Wish I had just 1 gram of your talent. It really is beautiful.Well done x
Thank you Sue! xx
Ruth thats AMAZING! wow Well Done!!! x
Absolutely beautiful. I need to get hold of some of this edible lace. I love it.
Ruth,
This is a truely beautiful cake, and one to be VERY proud of. I’m sure it was one of the nicest things you could have done for your sister and her husband. You talent knows no bounds!
Well done, B x
WOW !!! Fantastic …so sophisticated …Love it. Brilliant work x
Beautiful! You are so clever! You were right about the sugarveil, def worth the investment, gives such a wonderful detail to the cake, so elegant. Well done you! X
I saw your picture of it the other day – it’s absolutely breathtaking! Exactly what I’d like if I was ever to get married again (to my husband, of course…or Robbie Williams).
Are the recipes you use for the sponges the ones in your book, Ruth? I’m in the process of decorating a wedding cake for this weekend and have used your sponge recipes! I used them a few weeks ago for a birthday cake and they definitely got the thumbs up! xx
Oh yes, I made them from the book!!xx
Edible lace? Never seen that before. That cake looks amazing.
This is fabulous…well done on creating a complete masterpiece.
I was worried something had happened to you! Consider yourself forgiven, you have been very much missed x
wow, the lace is stunning.
totally stunning! x
As a complete rookie to this cake decorating malarky, I am so very impressed with what you do and I also feel at ease with what you do, not intimidating as are some of the websites I have visited!! The wedding cake is superb and I can only hope that some day I might be as good.
Ruth this is truly amazing well done its gorgeous, although I’m not suprised!! I’m so amazed that the lace is so delicate and intricate yet edible, how did you do this with all your boys running around.
No wonder Mr Clemens looked relieved when he had dropped it off, what a responsibility.
Hope you enjoyed the day x
Very classy and elegant I thought. I love your sister’s dress too (am I allowed to say that on a baking site?!!!).
Wow it is beautiful- so elegant 🙂
Absolutely beautiful. Very elegant, love the sugarveil. Bet your sister was thrilled.
Ruth it’s amazing. How was the Sugarveil to work with? I am planning my own wedding cake and thinking about making an investment..
Tricky but I got there with a fair bit of practice – I will do a post of sugarveil and how to avoid the mistakes I made x
Thanks Ruth – I’m looking forward to it 🙂
Wow – that IS amazing!!!!! Xxx
Beautiful ! Love the lace.
What a stunning cake! No wonder your sister looks so radiant, with a cake like that you would always remember your wedding day 🙂
What an outstanding cake! Very well done! Your sister must have loved it, it’s beautiful! Edible lace, who knew?
Ruth that looks absolutely amazing and i’m sure it tasted as good too! You must have felt very proud of your wonderful creation.
Loving the edible lace that looks so intricate.
Congraulations to the lovely couple, can i say your sister looks like you!
Absolutely stunning, but it’s not just that you’ve made it so perfectly, it’s the ultra elegant simplicity of the design. Your creativity is inspirational! And just to depress all Mummy elephants, how long did it take to create your *baby elephant”…? 🙂
I think four days from start to finish but I could be way off….! x
AMAZING! I made my sister in laws cake last year. It was four tiers and weighed a ton. I was more worried about carrying it from the car to the hall than I was making or decorating my first big cake!
I love your design and colour choice. I reckon you’ll have lots if family requesting the same now!
Georgeous looking cake Ruth. Classy! I also like the way the cake bow corresponds with bow on bride’s dress.
Look forward to info on Sugarveil.
well spotted! x
Really, really lovely. So simple (looking)and so elegant. Brilliant
Ruth, you are SUCH an inspiration. And, unless you´ve moved without telling us, all accomplished in one of the titchiest kitchens I´ve ever seen!! So very well done!!
Thank you! No, no secret moving but a lot of the decorating ended up being done at the dining room table! x
Well done ! It is such a gorgeous cake, your sister is a lucky girl to have such a talented sister. Love your sugarveil work , have been looking at it myself too. Was it easy to use ?
It wasn’t without its tribulations! I’ll be doing a separate post on sugarveil and how to avoid some of the pitfalls I found myself in! x
Thank you, will look forward to reading all about it ! X
That is a stunning cake – love the idea of edible lace! Congratulations to the happy couple too!
Oh my gosh…. That’s fantastic. You should be very very proud of yourself!!
Ruth, cake is beautiful. Congrats to the newly married couple 🙂 x
You’re so talented – the cakes look perfect, beautiful and very classy. Well done, and lucky sister in having you to bake her cake!!!
Ruth,
the cake is beautiful and very inspirational.
Many congratulations!
Cleo
I love the simplicity of your cake and am blown away by the perfect execution. Edible lace is incredible.
Congratulations Ruth! What a beautiful and perfect wedding cake!
What a challenge to make this for your sister!
Super work! Bravo
Karla
Your cake is stunning Ruth, you must be so pleased with the end result.
I have also had problems with calculating ingredients to make larger and smaller cakes. My husband recalculates ingredients for me when I want to make smaller/larger cakes. He also uses a ratio of volumes but uses pi to calculate the volume of round tins. However, the problem that we have is determining the cooking time and oven setting for the resized cake. How do you solve this problem please?
Sheila
Hello Sheila the oven setting should be the same but I don’t know of a way of calculating baking time other than keeping an eye on it and testing with a skewer for when it’s done x
Thank you for replying to me Ruth, that is what I do so I shall carry on in the same way.
BTW, I meant to say that lace is out of this world :).
that cake is absolutely gorgeous!
Congrats Ruth.Wow your sis is so beautiful. Your wedding cake is very very very beautiful.Looks so delicious.I wish icould fly from singapore to meet u,try yr beaut.yummy cake.You’re so talented.Thanks.cheers!
Thank you x
Hi Ruth,
I have watched your progress from the the Great British Bake off and been totally amazed! I think you have given me confidence that it is possible to do things in your life that you feel passionate about!
Ive been making sugarpaste cakes for friends and family for the past year but would like to take it further! How do I go about it? Thought about starting up a home run business!
I love baking and believe I have a great talent. Id be ecstatic if you had a look at my website or had any advice! http://www.cakedinicing.blogspot.com
Thanks Rhian x
Mottram Hall…? I recognise the wallpaper!
Great cake, looking forward to your post on sugar veil. X
Got it in one! x
Ruth, this is absolutely amazing. Well done you! What a wonderful gift to be able to give your sister. I’m loving the edible lace! x
Thank you xx
Wow your sisters cake was amazing.I have a wedding cake to make next week and will be using your madeira recipe for some of the tiers.Just wondered can you convert the recipe to a chocolate cake by adding cocoa because I need a cake that will last a week at least so I can decorate it with quite a time consuming design. Also could it be turned into lemon by adding lemon zest and extract. Normally I would use a sponge mix but don’t need them to last as long. Any help would be so grateful. Thank you.
Thank you! I would convert the madeira to lemon by adding grated lemon zest to the creamed butter and sugar and then lemon juice stirred through at the end. I would use a Devils Food Chocolate Cake for the chocolate version as that also keeps very well.
Hello Ruth, This is in relation to your Traditional Wedding Cake on the BBC website. I am making this for my daughters wedding next April and am going to make the 6inch first as a practice run. You may not respond to individual enquiries but it’s just one question – What size eggs do I use? As there are 12 needed for the 12inch I want to be sure. Many thanks. Marie
Hi Mags – large eggs x