About Anne Welch Expertise I can answer all questions relating to baking theory and science, troubleshooting, ingredient questions, presentation, technique, and most importantly, cake and pastry decoration.
Experience I am a professional pastry chef with 16 years of experience. I have done practically everything in the industry, but specialize in wedding and occasion cakes.
Education/Credentials Certificate of Merit, Culinary Arts, Lake Washington Technical College, Kirkland, WA
Certificate of Merit, Commercial Baking, Lake Washington Technical College, Kirkland, WA
Certificate of Merit, Refined Pastry Arts, Lake Washington Technical College, Kirkland, WA
Awards and Honors Best in Show, Seattle Carrot cake Bake-off, 1993
Best Display, Redmond Trade Show, 1993
Question Dear Anne, I volunteered to bake and decorate the wedding cake for our son's wedding in July. I am comfortable baking the dark fruit cake, and sort of comfortable about the decorating ...What I am not sure is how far ahead can I decorate the tiers and assemble before the wedding (ie: a week or more or less?) also I plan to use almond paste to encase the cakes on their disk..should that be left to dry ? if so for how long? and do you have any great recipes for icings that hold their shape for the decorations? Thank You in advance, Kathie
Answer Let me see if I have this right.....
You are baking dark fruitcakes for your son's wedding in July. You are going to cover each cake in marzipan, and then stack them on top of each other like a traditional wedding cake, right?
You can certainly bake your fruitcakes ahead of time......fruitcakes are one kind of cake that gets better as it ages.
I always decorate my wedding cakes the day before the wedding. I don't do fruitcake though, and I don't use marzipan much, because people don't really request it out here. If you want to decorate your fruitcakes in advance, that's fine.....just make sure you have a safe place to store them so they don't get ruined. As far as letting your marzipan dry....no, you don't need to do that.
Dried out marzipan doesn't taste all that great. You roll it out and cover your cake....the fresher the better as far as I'm concerned.
What kind of decorations are you planning on doing? Depending on your plan, it may or may not be a good idea to decorate each tier before you stack it. I always like to stack my cakes FIRST, then decorate. That way, you don't have to worry about sticking your fingers in the decorations while you stack the cakes.
Have you thought about supports? I know dark fruitcakes are dense and heavy, so you may not need any supports in the lower tiers if the cake isn't going to be that tall. But it all depends on the cake.....you may need to use
supports (ie. straws, or wooden dowels) in the lower tiers to prevent the cake from sinking as it sits. Especially in warm weather.
Regarding icings.......I would imagine if you are decorating over marzipan you would want to use royal icing. After you pipe it on, it dries hard and you can touch it without ruining it. That may be a REAL good idea if you want to decorate way in advance.
Here is a good website that has a lot of info on different icings: http://www.baking911.com/decorating101.htm
