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Dozen Flours

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August 23, 2009

My First Wedding Cake

Yesterday I delivered my very first wedding cake! I made it for my friend and colleague Courtney, who was hosting a big reception at her home for her friends and family. She and her new husband Ralph were married in Tuscany, Italy last month and the reception was a way for them to celebrate with everyone that wasn't able to attend the ceremony abroad.
Since the wedding took place in Tuscany, Courtney continued the whole Italian theme in her reception and especially in the cake which was filled with a cannolli cream. She served traditional wood fired pizza, salads, a great assortment of Italian cheeses and cured meats, and had the vino flowing! I was honored to be included in such a glorious event. Congratulations Courtney and Ralph!

Here's are a few bits of trivia about this cake:

The cake was a traditional white cake flavored with lemon zest and vanilla. It was filled with a thin layer of lemon curd, followed by a thick layer of simple sweet vanilla cannolli cream. The cake was frosted in a traditional Italian meringue buttercream also flavored with vanilla.

I used 18 lemons to make the cake and the lemon curd. The bottom tier is 16 inches round, followed by a 10 inch square, and topped with a 6 inch square. Each tier is two layers of cake with one layer of filling.

I made 36 cups of batter! The 16x2 inch cake required 14 cups of batter for each layer. I didn't have a 10 or 6 inch square cake pan so I baked two half-sheet pan (12x18x2) and cut the 10 and 6 inch layers from them. I had a bit of cake left over (not a huge amount, but enough to share with my friends and family).

According to most sources, a cake of this size would yield about 130 servings, but small 1 by 2 inch slices. The top tier served 6, the middle, 40, and 80 for the bottom tier. I wanted to make sure everyone could get cake and a good sized piece at that. The top tier was going to be saved for the bride and groom to enjoy later. I used 7 dozen eggs to make the cake and the buttercream. The cake required 40 egg whites alone and the butter cream took another 40! The lemon curd only used 4 of the remaining egg yolks plus another 4 whole eggs. That's a lot of unused egg yolks!

I used about 10 and a half pounds of butter to make the cake, lemon curd, and the butter cream. Each cake layer required a pound and a half of butter and the buttercream made great use of the other 7 pounds. The rest of the butter was used to butter the pans and make the lemon curd. To make the cannolli cream, I used 8 pounds of whole milk ricotta cheese and two vanilla beans.

Sugar... yeah, there was sugar in this cake. And a lot of it. 17 pounds of it! 8 pounds of sugar went into the cake, 4 pounds went into the buttercream, 1 went into the lemon curd, half a pound went into the simple syrup, and 4 went into the cannolli cream. Although the cannolli was almost all powdered sugar.


50 comments:

  1. That's great and wow...a LOT of eggs!!! Nice work!

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  2. What a gorgeous cake. The filling, cake and buttercream all sound amazing! I cna't believe you used so many pounds of sugar, butter and 7 dozen eggs- oh my!

    How much did the final cake weigh?

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  3. Congratulations on your first wedding cake! Very impressive! :)

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  4. I am in awe of your energy and ability. Simply cracking that many eggs would exhaust me. Very nicely done.

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  5. It came out lovely, Julia! LOL, I wanna be you when I grow! Seriously!

    Can't wait to see other photos.
    ~ingrid

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  6. Beautiful! How exciting! Your first wedding cake... congratulations!!

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  7. Oh. My. God. I know you told me a lot of butter, but you didn't tell me about the cannoli cream ~*sigh*~ Oh I would be in Heaven! You did an absolutely amazing job- a million times better than my first one was! Can you mail me some scraps..?

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  8. My goodness! That would of cost a fortune to make. It looks wonderful and I'm sure it tasted fantastic :)

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  9. this is amazing..... sound delicious! congrats!

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  10. Absolutely beautiful!

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  11. WOW you always impress the heck out of me, this is no exception!! Fantastic!

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  12. That is AMAZING for a first timer! I love all the info on the ingredients. Sure wish I could have tasted it!

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  13. It looks and sounds DELICIOUS! Picture perfect!

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  14. Wow, wow, wow! I can't even comprehend trying to plan out that whole cake. Amazing! 17 pounds of sugar....I love it! ;)

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  15. That cake looks fabulous!! You did a great job.

    I love cannoli cream. It is so delicious. Is there a way you can post a scaled down recipe of this cake that serves 8-10 people in a 9in pan? I think this is something my boyfriend would enjoy, he loves his cannolis!

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  16. Looks beautiful and the flavors sound delish! I'm so curious, how do you mix something like this? In batches?

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  17. Wow it turned out beautiful! Great job! Cant wait to see other pictures.

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  18. that cake looks simply amazing!! i aspire to make cakes this beautiful!

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  19. so much cheese and sugar. so much happiness. very nicely done, julia, i'm super impressed!

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  20. Beautiful! It sounds as delicious as it looks. What a talent you possess!

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  21. Congratulations on your first wedding cake! Very pretty and sounds delicious, which is the most important part!

    To combat the inequity in egg whites I often use, I normally buy organic egg whites at fresh and easy, which still whip up nicely into an swiss meringue buttercream and are also pasteurized!

    If you have any tips on placing the flowers, I'd love to hear them!

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  22. Congratulations! That looks absolutely beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!

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  23. Great job! It's beautiful! I aspire to be just like you. I'm taking my first cake decorating course next month!

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  24. WOW!!! The cake is beautiful! Congratulations on a huge success!! Those stats are scaring me! And are we going to see loads of ice cream in the next few weeks, or did you throw the yolks away? :P

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  25. you're off to a great start!

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  26. Beautiful cake. Sounds delicious. Can you post the recipe?

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  27. The cake looks gorgeous and sounds delicious! Lucky friend.

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  28. Hi Everyone -- thank you for your thoughtful and heartfelt comments. You are all so very sweet!

    Monica - I'm going to guess it was about 40 lbs. It was definitely one very heavy cake.

    Bill - I only slept about 11 hours between Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights. I was one tired girl but was very motivated! And cracking all those eggs did take some time but I was able to crack and separate the yolk in my hand pretty fast. I got into a rhythm!

    Janet - you know I would if I could!

    Fallon and Cidalia - I will be posting the recipe for a normal sized cake very soon. I'm trying to hold out on the other photos that are coming.

    Sarah - well, funny you should ask but I woke up in a panic two weeks ago when I realized exactly how much I'd be relying on my stand mixer. So I decided to bite the bullet and invest in a new mixer! I ended up buying a new 6 QT Cayenne Red KitchenAide stand mixer - it almost doubled the amount of batter I could make (from 8 to 14 cups) and twice the power. I love my new mixer so much I named her Stella. *swoon!*

    Jenny Wenny - about placing flowers? Well, I like to place things in odd groups, starting with one focal flower. Try to avoid symmetry too. This was my first time putting flowers on a cake too!

    Erin - well, you'll be by passing my piping skills before you know it. I've never taken a course but plan to!

    Avanika - nope, sorry. All those yellowy yolks kind of grossed me out so they went right into the trash. I thought about making some choux paste or something but I just couldn't fathom making something else. I did use 4 of the egg yolks for the lemon curd. :)

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  29. LOL...I love all the stats on what you used in the cake. Puts it all into perspective!
    You did a beautiful job

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  30. Amazing! That is such a beautiful cake. Out of curiosity, how long did it take you to make?

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  31. Beautiful and impressive, and it sounds delicious. I'm definitely bookmarking this for reference!!

    Smart move on the new red KA ;)

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  32. Oh my gosh, those stats are amazing. And the cake is beautiful!! Congratulations on your first wedding cake. :)

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  33. That cake is awesome! Vanilla and lemon are a couple of my absolute favorite flavors.

    If your old mixer is looking for a new home let me know, my poor old hand mixer barely made it through the last snickerdoodle bundt cake.

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  34. Congratulations on your first! It's a winner. Wow. I doubt I would even try............

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  35. Beautiful!! Good for you! I have always wanted to try to make a cake like that but am too chicken to attempt it!

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  36. beautiful... simply beautiful! Im crossing my fingers that you'll share all the recipes. YUM!

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  37. Healthy foods call for a lot of such ingredients! *wink*

    Great job and I bet it tasted FANTASTIC!

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  38. Oh and I definitely need your cannoli cream recipe!

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  39. Beautiful cake! Great job!

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  40. Well done, it's gorgeous.. I believe you are in a whole other league now. If you need souschef, let me know.

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  41. I love it. Thanks for posting all the info...very helpful!

    Great job :)

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  42. i just stumbled across your blog. love it!

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  43. that cake is AWESOME! i'm impressed.
    not only is your cake beautiful it sounds DELICIOUS.

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  44. What a gorgeous cake!!!!

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  45. You did a great job, what an accomplishment!!!

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  46. What a gorgeous cake!!!!

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