Just like when you have a professional make your cake for you, enlisting some relative help also needs a plan. You can go to many books of weddings cakes for more intricate guidelines or just look at pictures in magazines. Try to find something simple, but also something that you think would be perfect for your wedding's theme.
When you think that you're found what you like, try to determine how many tiers it has and what decorations you want to add. With these things in mind, you can begin to plan out the building of your wedding cake.
Making plans
Looking at the picture of the cake that you'd like, try to break it down in your mind. Figure out the number of tiers it has (perhaps you need more or less) so that you can determine how many baking pans you will need. After that, you will want to see how many tubes of icing or jars of frosting you will need to complete the decorations. A lot of the time, you may find that ordering a traditional cake is the same expense.
If you're determined to make your cake, the best suggestion is to make a trial one. Even if it's just one layer, you want to try out your plan to see if the one that you have chosen can be recreated.
Bake a layer of the cake (any old cake mix will do, but you may want to go with the name brands for your wedding) and set it aside to cool. You want to make sure that the cake is completely cooled before putting any icing on it because warm cake will cause the icing to melt.
Apply the icing with a pastry spatula like you might apply spackle on a wall. Take your time to smooth out all the areas. Pretend like this is the real cake and see what it looks like. If you're impressed (and of course, after you're tasted it), then go ahead and get the ingredients to make an entire cake.
Your wedding cake will be best if you make it the day before so that everything has time to settle and no one has to rush around to bake on the day of. Set aside a special room or area so that it will remained untouched and out of the way. You may even want someone to transport it to its final location first thing in the morning to avoid any rushing about.
