Sponge Wedding Cakes

by L.Jones
(Birmingham)

My friend and I want to make a wedding cake for a mutual friend. She and her husband to be do not like fruit cake, so they want sponge cakes. They would like buttercream, or similar, in the middle, but no jam. They also want it tiered.

Types and styles of wedding cake boxes

Simple wedding cake decorations

Ask the expert

Question continued...

I am trying to do some research to find out the best way to make such a cake. Does it have to be a special sort of sponge recipe to hold the weight of the icing? What is the best sort of icing to use? Will it need a cake stand, or is there any way of resting directly one on top of the other?

My friend also wants a castle on the top and we have found a Styrofoam castle decoration to use, so the top tier will need to hold this too. Do you have any suggestions please?
Thank you.

Answer:

It’s certainly possible to have a wedding cake made of sponge and many couples opt for this now. In fact, chocolate cake is one of the more popular choices for wedding cakes these days.

Your question really has two parts; the first about icing a sponge cake and the second about stacking it.

These are your two biggest hurdles after making sure the sponge cake turns out okay!

Icing a sponge wedding cake
So first off, icing the sponge wedding cake. Below is an instructional video for using royal icing with wedding cakes or birthday cakes. This type of icing can be bought ready made and can be rolled out. The video is really clear and also includes marzipan under the icing. There’s also a little bit of jam in there – a necessity for ensuring you’re able to manoeuvre the marzipan into position.

You could also use American style frosting which is a softer icing - if you touch it, you’ll leave a finger mark in it. This icing is a little more tricky as it’s like plastering a wall, so you need to practice lots to get a perfectly smooth finish. Personally I prefer royal icing as it’s more traditional and much easier to use!

Assembling the sponge wedding cake
To assemble your cake, you can stack in it two ways. You can use a tiered cake stand and have individual cakes on display or you can stack the cake on top of one another. The safest and simplest way is to hire a three tier cake stand and stack your cake on that. You then don’t have to worry about the cake collapsing.

If you really want to stack the cakes on top of one another, I’d strongly advise using wooden dowelling rods to support the weight. You use several of these, placed through the cake to support each layer. You will need to measure and cut each of the dowell rods, which will take a bit of planning. You would put them in after you’ve iced your cake and then cover the holes you’ve made with a little spare icing.

 

For more advice about your specific needs, speak to your local bakery, cake shop or cake hire shop - they’ll be able to give you lots of advice on how you should do it. And, if you’ve not done this before, I suggest you practice lots as it’s not an easy task!

Finally, the top layer should easily hold your Styrofoam castle. Styrofoam is very light, so I wouldn’t worry about this. You should just be able to position it on top of your cake.

Do send us a picture of your finished cake – I’d love to see it!