Weddings – The Ocelots' Den

Let Them Eat Cake! Old and New Traditions

By Julia on 30 June, 2021

I am enjoying these weekly features SO much.

When I started researching the tradition of exchanging cake after it is cut, I thought it would be a fun little fluffy piece of history.

The more I read about it, the more emotion I began to feel. I mention this mostly to express that my stance is obviously skewed towards skipping the cake smash. It goes against my personal values. The fear, the uncertainty, the lack of trust that can be displayed (if you express your desire and then it isn’t honored). Revenge, power, pride, force, and the potential for resentment.

This is clearly my stance. I do believe cake smashes can be done lovingly and playfully. But it has to be done with respect. If one of you doesn’t want to do it, this isn’t something to compromise on, don’t do it.

If you are wild, silly, playful, and aren’t worried about messing up your makeup (or your partner’s makeup) or getting a cake with a filling tuning your clothes, then HAVE a blast! Squish that cake in their face!

If you are like me, you will leave the cake smashes to the adorable babies. If you aren’t, that’s great, just make sure to be honoring the spirit of your partner. Don’t have your laugh at the expense of your partner, especially so publically on your beautiful day.

In all of the cake topics I’ve researched and planned to highlight, this is what I feel is the most controversial. I am incredibly supportive of couples following their bliss and seeking their joy, but I couldn’t write this up in an unbiased way.

You are spending money on makeup, dresses, tuxes/ suits, and the delicious cake. Enjoy the cake! Avoid the mess of your makeup, staining clothes, and savor those sweet bites with your honey.

Recommendations

Communication is the most important thing. (And my number ONE marriage tip). Talk it through. Share openly.

Talk about each of your visions about the cake cutting. It may feel silly, but this is your life partner. It isn’t silly. Talk through how you plan to cut the cake. (Ask your baker about recommendations for cutting that first slice. There may be structure inside of the cake that you need to be aware of). Then talk about how you plan to feed each other the cake (or if you want to particiapte in that tradition). Will you use a fork, will you use your fingers, will you feed one at a time, will you feed at the same time?

I’m a planner by nature. So my suggestions above may seem like overkill. Maybe you like things more loosey goosey and that’s great too.

Baked Goods | Cake | Wedding | Weddings

Stack ’em Up: Elevate Your Celebration with Tiered Cakes

By Julia on 23 June, 2021

I’m over the moon with excitement for today’s featured wedding question. “What is the difference between tiers and layers?” To put it simply a cake is made of layers. Tiers are the individual cakes stacked!

I relish ANY opportunity to make a tiered cake. I have even made them for myself for my birthday JUST BECAUSE I CAN! 😹

Stay tuned on my IG. Eventually, I will find and show some photos of my first ever tiered cakes. Let’s just say, I’ve come a long, LONG way.

The MOST important aspect of stacking a tiered cake is the structure in the cake. Without a structure, the decadent and often heavy cake will sink and tilt and RUIN the visual experience of your cake. Looking at the bright side, the cake will still taste great!

Julia’s Baking Journey Detour

This was the foundation of my baking story. All I wanted was a cake that tasted GOOD. In my experience, prior to starting my cake decorating journey, all those fussy cakes with buttercream flowers, carved shapes, or fondant coverings were not filled with delicious cake. I felt like they were a waste of calories. 🙀 I would have rather eaten boxed cakes. (Another controversial opinion. I like the taste of MANY box cakes). I still feel this way about a lot of cakes (I’m looking at you, generic grocery store cake).

Back to the Structure of Tiered Cakes

Structure is usually made out of wooden dowels, smoothie straws or even metal rods and cake boards (made of cardboard, acrylic, plastic, or metal). I use smoothie straws and cardboard most often. The smoothie straws are cost effective, but I’m actively seeking other alternatives before I resupply. The straws (rods or dowels) create a base for the cake boards to rest without squishing the cake below.

I always use at least 3 straws in each tier. Think of it like a table. A table with two legs cannot stand on its own. If you tilt or bump it may shift or fall. I often use 4 for the size cakes I bake. (The largest base I make is 12″). I can bake up to 14″ cakes, but I haven’t had any requests thus far.

Final Thoughts

The fun of tiered cakes is they have limitless options. You can mix and match the number of layers and shapes. I am waiting on pins and needles to make a cake with varied cake layers. Hoping I’ll find an excuse to do one this year! (I’d do it for my birthday this year, but I am going to work on perfecting Macaron making!!!!)

Do you have any additional Cake Tier Questions? Please share them with me.

Baked Goods | Cake | Wedding | Weddings

Naked Cakes: Brazen, Beautiful, or Boring?

By Julia on 16 June, 2021

At this point in my wedding cake series, I’m sure it isn’t a surprise that given the choice I choose cake over frosting. IMHO, naked cakes are the perfect balance between frosting and cake. However, it may surprise you that I will always veer towards suggesting a Fully Frosted or Nearly Nude cake. And not just because I enjoy their alliterative names.

While I adore the look of a naked cake, and the balance is my favorite, a truly naked cake is more challenging to make. I know this may seem unrealistic. There is less icing—fewer materials. There aren’t countless swipes to make the icing smooth. On the other hand, the layers need to be baked to perfection to get crisp lines. The cake crumb needs to be intact for an even-ish color. That cute crumb that comes through can literally tear the cake if the icing isn’t the perfect consistency.

I suppose you could say, I have a love/hate relationship with naked cakes. I’ve had TWO naked cakes topple over. It was HEARTBREAKING! (Luckily they were cakes for experimenting… and many lessons were learned to prevent this from happening again). A nice chilled outer coating of frosting is firm enough that I don’t worry about the cake slipping or sliding or turning into a leaning tower.

The final concern I have for naked cakes is they can dry out. The frosting on a cake insulates the cake and seals the moisture into the cake. Most bridal cakes are made days ahead of the wedding. Naked cakes have more opportunities for the cake to be out and exposed. Don’t worry though, if you have your heart set on a naked cake, there are ways to compensate and mitigate the risk of having a dry cake.

A simple syrup brushed between the layers can infuse more flavor (if it is an infused syrup) but it can add that moisture you may have lost. Additionally, hopefully, your baker (like me) can plan to bake your cake closer to your event. Currently, I only bake ONE wedding cake a week. I plan ahead of time and for naked cakes especially to bake the day before the wedding.

Nearly Nude

A Nearly Nude cake has the lightest layer of frosting. It still looks very much like a naked cake, yet is more forgiving. It seals in more of that coveted moisture. It is easy to handle (which is important for tiered cakes). This cake is the Goldilocks of cakes. 😸 This cake style is also commonly called Nearly Naked and Semi-Naked.

At the Den

If you choose to work with me, I am happy to answer any additional questions about these cakes. My bias is purely for what I like to eat & what is easiest for me to make. I am over-the-moon excited to make ANY cake. I provide information, answer questions, and then create YOUR dream cake!!! Whether it is for a wedding (LOVE), Birthday (LOVE), Celebrations (LOVE), Just Because (LOVE). I feel immense joy bringing cake dreams to life and infusing my love into these creations.

Baked Goods | Cake | Wedding | Weddings

Layering in the Flavor

By Julia on 2 June, 2021

It’s time to dispel some confusion. Layers versus Tiers. One of the things I love the most in creating treats for my clients is truly customizing their visions.

What is a Cake Layer?

Let’s get down to basics. The Cake layer is basically the bread of making a cake. If we are thinking of sandwiches as an analogy for cake making. A sheet cake is an open face sandwich. (One layer of cake/ bread + /frosting/toppings. A Layer Cake is a traditional Sandwich with at least 2 pieces of bread + any number of toppings.

All of my cakes are 2-inch layers of cake. Whether they are 1,2,3, or 4 layers of cake. This creates a nice uniform size. Cakes can have thicker or thinner layers of cake, but I use this standard measurement so each cake is baked the same and I can achieve consistent results.

Between each layer of cake there is at a minimum a layer of frosting. It can be the same frosting as on the outside of the cake, a different color of the same frosting, or a different flavor all together.

Additionally, fillings can be added. Fruit, nuts, candy, caramel, chocolate etc. I pipe a dam of icing around the edge (to seal in the topping) and then fill the inside with extra delicious flavors.

Tiers are when you have smaller cakes stacked on top of larger cakes. We’ll get into tiers more in future posts.

The Process of Ordering a Custom Cake

Here are some of the first questions I will ask.

What is the event? (birthday, Wedding, Celebration, Anniversary)
How many people are you anticipating at your event? (So I can guide the sizing)
What flavors would you like to include? (Cake, Frosting, Filling, Toppers)
Are there any dietary concerns?

Once I have those more basic questions, I can hone in and figure how best to scale the cake for the size of the event.

Size is often the biggest question. Cakes of various different shapes can feed the same number of people.

Sheet Cakes are typically one layer
My standard Cakes have two layers
Tall Cakes have 3-4 layers (in my bakery)

So let’s say you have 20 guests at your party. Here are some examples of cake suggestions I would offer.

Wedding (Smaller Slices are served at weddings)
- A 2 Tier Cake with a 6-inch layer and a 4-inch layer (serves 20)
- A three-layer 6-inch cake (serves 21)
Other Celebrations
- a 10-inch two-layer Cake (serves 21)
- an 8-inch three-layer Cake (serves 21)
- a 2 tier cake with a 6-inch layer and an 8-inch layer (serves 22)

The more people the more options available. Especially with tiered cakes. You Can mix and match the height of the layers for more drama or an eclectic vibe.

Once the basic choices are selected. I can create a customized quote for any additional design elements (cake toppers, fresh fruit, sugar flowers, etc.) I am also happy to sketch up some scaled drawings if you need some help visualizing different cake sizes.

Baked Goods | Cake | Wedding | Weddings

Buttercream Dreams: Choose the Right Frosting to Avoid Disaster

By Julia on

It’s probably no surprise at this point if you’ve been following along with this series, but I am not a huge fan of Frosting. I find many frostings are overly sweet (even though I have an enormous sweet tooth). When it comes to Frosting, 9/10 I make American Buttercream. The flavor of butter really helps balance out the sweetness of the Confectioner’s Sugar (aka Powdered Sugar).

American Buttercream

American Buttercream is a very simple Frosting to make. It is primarily 2 parts Sugar to 1 part Butter (by weight). (I’m also a huge fan of weighing ingredients when possible. You get more consistent results, and once practiced, it is faster than measuring). Other than the Confectioner’s Sugar and butter, the only other additions are Cream or Milk and any additional flavorings. (I use Salted Butter, you should add a little Salt if you aren’t using Salted Butter. The Salt balances out the sweetness).

You can color the Buttercream, you can flavor it to suit your needs, and one of its best qualities is that it crusts. A crusting icing is excellent, IMO, because if you inadvertently touch it a little bit, it remains undisturbed.

The limitation of American Buttercream is it is not fond of the heat. The melting point of the Butter is 90-95°F and softens above 65°F. If you have an outdoor wedding, this can be quite concerning. The Cake may melt before the Cake is cut! (CAKE-TASTROPHE).

Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Swiss Meringue Buttercream is a bit more challenging to make, but the extra effort creates more structure in the frosting. Swiss Meringue uses heated Egg Whites mixed and beaten with Sugar and then the Butter, Color, and Flavorings are added.

This is a silky frosting. It doesn’t crust and feels light and flavorful on the tongue. The Egg Whites can seem intimidating, but don’t let them get in your way! I adore the slight sheen to this icing.

Italian Meringue Buttercream

Italian Meringue Buttercream is the most advanced of the buttercreams. It is a boiled sugar syrup gently streamed and whipped into room temperature Egg Whites. I think what intimidates most bakers is making the sugar syrup. And to that, I recommend getting an instant-read thermometer. It takes the guesswork out. Plus, you can use it for more than candy making. (steaks, roasts, etc). I don’t recommend the candy thermometers that you clip on the edge. They are harder to read and I find that they are less accurate. (I make a lot of marshmallows and my instant-read thermometer is my BFF!!).

Once the correct sugar syrup is achieved the next more unnerving part of making Italian Meringue Buttercream is that it seems like it is falling while you are very slowly adding the butter to the Meringue mixture. You have to believe in it and persevere.

The benefit of Italian Meringue, beyond its lovely texture and lighter flavor, is it the sugar syrup creates a stronger structure for the frosting. This also makes it a bit more stable for warmer temperatures.

Other Types of Buttercream

There are of course other types of buttercream. I am simply highlighting the most common types. French, German, and Korean Glossy (also known as GG Glossy) are the other Buttercreams I am familiar with.

French Buttercream

French Buttercream is made the same way as Italian Meringue Buttercream, except it’s made with egg yolks instead of whites. It’s naturally more yellow-hued and has a more custard-like flavor. It tastes similar to Pastry Cream.

German Buttercream

German buttercream is custard-based. It starts the same as when you make pastry cream (Whole Eggs, Cornstarch, Sugar cooked until thickened, then warm cream is added). Once it is made, the custard is beaten into butter. It is very buttery and doesn’t hold up well in the heat. It is even softer than American Buttercream.

Korean Buttercream

The other names for Korean Buttercream are GLossy Buttercream or G.G. Glossy Buttercream. (G.G. More from G.G. Cakraft developed this style. Korean Buttercream is made exactly like Italian Meringue Buttercream, except it uses chilled butter. This gives it its shiny (glossy) finish. It withstands heat really well. It is excellent for piping beautiful designs and making buttercream flowers.

Flavors

Of course, you can add any liquid flavorings (extracts, emulsions, etc.). For example, the “Wedding Cake” flavor includes 1teaspoon of Vanilla and 1/2 tsp of almond extract. You can also include up to 1 Cup (8-oz) of Chocolate (melted and cooled), Lemon Curd, or Seedless Preserves. These examples are for a recipe of approximately 16-Ounces of Confectioner’s Sugar and 8-Ounces of Butter.

Baked Goods | Cake | Wedding | Weddings

Budget and Style: How to Choose Cake or Cupcakes for Your Wedding

By Julia on 19 May, 2021

For the last hundred years, the cake has been the focal point for wedding desserts. That is until the early ’00s and the cupcake trend washed over the nation! Many people were opting for the convenience and cost-conscious and simply adorable cupcakes in lieu of towering pieces of art.

A DIY Bride Chooses Cupcakes

The first wedding cake I ever made, was my own. I planned my wedding from Germany for a lovely, snowy hometown affair in Michigan. My husband stayed for a couple of days before the wedding with my sister, so I planned on using her kitchen to bake. I didn’t want to make things overly complicated, and we only invited about 65 people to our wedding. (He’s from Virginia, so all of his people would be traveling if they came).

I originally researched some local bakeries and flailed trying to figure out the pricing. Planning from overseas, with an ALL-IN budget of $7K (wedding, reception, rehearsal, honeymoon, and our flight to-and-from Germany). We had to be very prudent as to where we allocated our funds. I am also a bit of a cake snob. In my experience at that point in my life, I didn’t particularly like any cakes from grocery stores or other places. I honestly felt that box cakes tasted better. (I still have that opinion about box cakes vs. grocery store bakeries). So when I saw the prices of wedding cakes, I saved my money and knew I needed to do it on my own. I also knew I would be infusing my love into the cake which was hugely important to me. (The average price for wedding cakes is $3-$8 per slice!!!) I knew I couldn’t afford at that time to spend $200+ on a wedding cake.

So, I baked adorable marble cupcakes. (I am definitely a chocolate bride!!) And to go with my Rain Forrest theme, I made them striped! (Ocelots live in South America, and I imagine them enjoying the Rain Forrest). They were fun, personal, and perfect for our event.

I did still want a small wedding cake to go on the top tier of the cupcake tower. So we had a tiny German Chocolate Cake. I piped some grass in Green Buttercream and placed safari animals after my cake toppers were smashed by the customs officers. The cake was SO good!!! It is the one thing at my wedding I wish I would have had more of. There were really only 5 tiny slices. We shared one. Then we served cake to my husband’s parents and my best friend’s parents. I make German Chocolate Cake every year in honor of my great gram for her birthday, and now I can’t wait until August!!! Yum, Yum!!

Traditional Cakes and New Trends

I don’t think we’ll ever see traditional cakes fade from weddings. There are infinite varieties and styles from elaborate to rustic. I am seeing fewer cupcake weddings, or simply some cupcakes to accompany a smaller tiered cake. I am also seeing lots of other non-traditional options which are wildly fun! (Donuts, Savory items, Cookies, etc!)

Brides on a Budget

You don’t have to sacrifice style for budget in the cake vs. cupcake decision. It really comes down to your taste, preferences, and your budget.

For brides on a budget, shop around. I have as close to transparent pricing as I can, given that I make custom cakes. My base pricing for a birthday cake, is the same price as for a wedding cake, or a celebration cake. What this means for you- I don’t have “wedding” price hikes. An 8″ cake frosted in blush pink is the same amount of effort and ingredients as a white cake. (Actually, if I’m coloring the icing it is the tiniest smidgen more complex). I charge by time.

Additionally, while my cakes are all sold by the cake size, it is a proportional cost to the actual amount of cake. (Unlike Pizza. When you buy Pizza, it’s a much better deal the more Pizza you buy (per square inch of pizza)). I use actual butter for my cakes and buttercream (vs. shortening) and unless I have a specific request for something, I use natural extracts for all my flavorings.

Cupcakes may or may not end up being more cost effective. It will depend on how simple you would like either design. If both are the simplest design, at my bakery, the total cost is about the same. (One cupcake is ≈ one slice of cake) Same ingredients and frosting each cupcake.

For Example, a 6-Inch cake serves 8 people for $34. A Dozen Cupcakes is $42

In the example above, the cake is $4.25 per slice and the cupcakes are $3.50 each. Where you can save on a cake instead of cupcakes, is smaller slices. I include the wedding servings versus party servings on my Price Chart. Wedding cake slices are typically smaller than party cakes. So for a 6-inch cake, I recommend that it serves $14 for a wedding. Which actually SAVES you money compared to cupcakes. $2.43 per slice!

The examples above are for simple cakes. Cake/Cupcake + frosting. Additional design elements would increase both prices. (eg. sugar flowers, Piped flowers, fillings, fruit, sculpted toppers etc).