Like every woman with a wedding in her future, Margaret Lastick had visions of a fabulous cake. This one was going to be tall and white and tiered, and elaborately decked out with swags of fondant and cascading sugar flowers.
A lot of brides have this dream. Except that Lastick, a professional pastry chef in Oak Park, wasn’t getting married. This cake was going to be for her youngest son Merrell and his bride, Sylvia, and Lastick had been given carte blanche to make the perfect confection.
Now, Lastick has layered a lot of wedding cakes in the 14 years she has run her specialty cake business.
There were the simple cakes, with very smooth frosted sides, a bead border, fresh flowers and a hint of color in the frosting. Then there was the 7-foot confection for the bride in Waterloo, Iowa, who wanted “the biggest cake she had ever seen.” The result included more than 500 handmade sugar flowers, 5,000 sugar lilies of the valley, a bottom layer made of ten 12-inch cakes and columns between four cake layers. (“That cake never fell, but the bride was very, very stressed,” Lastick said.)
But in many ways, the biggest job–and certainly the most personal–for Lastick was this cake, made for her son’s November wedding in Chicago.
The five-layer, 3-foot tall masterpiece of pastry and art was constructed of chocolate cake layers separated with swirls of raspberry ganache and frosted with a cover of white fondant. The bottom layer, 22 inches across, was swagged with a drape and bow made of fondant. The top layers were showered with lifelike sugar flowers meant to represent a bridal bouquet: roses in shades of peach and white, stephanotis and green ivy.
Lastick didn’t stop there. She and her staff also fashioned a groom’s cake, made of white cake with white chocolate mousse stuffed with fresh strawberries. The top of the cake held a “book” of fairy tales and a small castle, both made entirely of fondant.
Dinner at the reception for 80 people was followed by three desserts, also from Lastick’s kitchen. And finally, each guest took home a box holding a 4-inch replica of the wedding cake. Altogether, about 25 pounds each of butter and sugar went into sweetening the festivities.
“Everyone was happy, even though this was overkill, but everyone expected it,” she said.
What made this wedding even more unusual was that her daughter-in-law, Sylvia, turned all the cake planning over to Lastick.
“She asked me, ‘Am I giving you too much freedom if I tell you to do whatever you want?'” Lastick said with a laugh, acknowledging that this is exactly what she wanted. Lastick was going to make the cake no matter what. “This was a given,” she says.
Still, most people come to her shop, Le Royale Icing, with some idea of what they want. Tall or wide, smooth sides or swirled with Victorian touches, flowers, bows, columns and beading, all are a part of the romance of the day.
“The dress and the cake are the two items that tell the guests why they are there,” Lastick said.
Lastick wanted all the sugar artistry to represent the fantasy that comes with the wedding day.
“Fantasy is a good way to describe the whole cake,” said newly married Sylvia Lastick. “I didn’t see it until moments before the ceremony, and it was beautiful. I have this thing for bows; it’s very girly. And to know that those were sugar flowers. I thought that they were real, at first.”
Realizing the hours of labor that went into planning and making the cake helped Sylvia realize, she said, “that my mother-in-law loves me very much.”
“There is a lot at stake at a wedding,” Margaret Lastick said. “When people plan for the day from which they are going to be together forever, that alone stirs up a lot of emotions. It is a life change. It is also joining two families.”
For someone who makes wedding cakes for a living, that joining would not be complete without a foundation of fondant and butter cream laced together with a tangle of sugar flowers.
“It was beautiful,” Margaret Lastick said with a dreamy sigh. Remembering, just like a bride.
TRY DOING IT YOURSELF
It takes a lot of confidence to make a wedding cake, whether you are doing it yourself or letting a close friend or family member do it for you.
Check the schedules at craft and cookware stores and for continuing education classes, such as those offered by Wilton Industries in Woodridge; they often include cakemaking and decorating classes.
But if you or a friend have an artistic way with icing, wedding books and cake cookbooks offer decorating ideas.
Some titles to look for: “Colette’s Wedding Cake,” by Colette Peters; “Sweet Celebrations: The Art of Decorating Beautiful Cakes,” by Kate Manchester and Sylvia J. Weinstock; “The Wedding Cake Book,” by Dede Wilson; and “Martha Stewart Weddings.” Wilton Industries also publishes many books on cake decorating. One book that goes into helpful detail about cakemaking is “The Cake Bible” by Rose Levy Beranbaum.
Here are some technique suggestions from “Martha Stewart Weddings”:
Make sure all the layers are the same height and are even. Uneven layers result in an uneven, crooked cake. If the cake has risen higher in the center, trim off the unevenness with a sharp serrated bread knife.
Make all the layers of the cake in advance. Wrap extremely well in single layers, using plastic wrap. Depending on the recipe, the cake layers may be refrigerated for up to one week or frozen for up to two months. When ready to frost the cake, thaw all layers in their wrapping. If the layers are slightly cold, the icing will set better.
Frost the cake the day before the wedding and refrigerate it so the icing will be thoroughly chilled.
Decorate the cake with flowers, spun sugar, etc., as close to serving time as possible. Consider the colorful addition of fresh, unsprayed or organic roses or edible flowers, such as pansies. They are simple but beautiful.
Flowers should be kept in water up until the time the cake is to be decorated.
To move the cake from one location to another, carry the layers separately, on large trays, and assemble the cake where it is going to be served.
Always take a repair kit to the place where the cake is to be served to fix any marred frosting and decoration.
Finally, because the occasion is so special and the cake such an important element, it would be best to practice making the cake ahead of time. That way, such details as time requirements, transportation issues, decorating ideas and perfecting the recipe can be worked out before the big day.
AN ELEGANT WEDDING CAKE REQUIRES REALISTIC PLANNING
Not all wedding cakes have to be masterpieces of fondant and sugar flowers. Even Margaret Lastick agrees: “Whatever budget you are working with, you can still do something elegant. There are no rules, no right or wrong, just your dream of making this a very memorable event.”
With that in mind, be realistic about your expectations for the wedding cake. Is it important for the cake to be a showpiece, prominently on display at the reception? Or is it enough to have a pretty cake that will make a terrific dessert? Will the cake be the only sugary finale to the meal, or will there be other desserts or a sweet table.
“Some of our customers say, ‘This is the last thing our guests are going to eat, so the cake really matters,'” says Deborah Rivera, co-owner of Ambrosia Euro-American Patisserie in Barrington. “Most of our customers say the wedding cake is the dessert.”
Here are some of the issues to think about while planning the reception.
Determine how important the cake is in the wedding plans and how much of the overall budget can be devoted to it. Professional pastry chefs determine the cost based on the number of people served. Prices can range from $3 to $15 per slice, depending on the baker, the quality of the ingredients (e.g., butter vs. shortening) and time spent making the cake.
Will everyone expect to get a piece of cake? If other desserts are offered, guests often share a slice of cake or forgo it altogether. At some weddings, though, the cake is not eaten at the reception, but slices are sent home in a box with each guest.
How about a smaller cake for display? Pastry chef Judy Contino of Bittersweet bakery in Lake View says that one way to keep the cost down is to have a small cake on view for the toast ceremony, when slices are cut for the bride and groom. Additional, undecorated cakes are served from the kitchen. This way, a large number of guests can be fed without commissioning one giant, decorated wedding cake.
Look for hidden costs: Will the caterer charge a fee for slicing and serving the cake? If so, you might want to commission two members of the wedding party to do the honors (just be sure they have been instructed how to properly slice large cakes). Is there a charge for cake delivery, or can you pick it up yourself?
Other ways to reduce costs
If the services of a specialty cakemaker are beyond your budget, consider the following options, from “Priceless Weddings For Under $5,000,” by local food writer Kathleen Kennedy (Three Rivers Press, $14):
Check with your baker: Bakers who aren’t wedding cake specialists usually cost less.
Ask at your favorite restaurant if its pastry chef would consider baking your cake.
Investigate prices at a local culinary school near you. If students are baking and decorating cakes as part of their curriculum, the per-person charge may be greatly reduced.
Keep the cake simple: Avoid labor-intensive decorations and skip having multiple tiers with fancy pillars.
FESTIVE LAYER CAKE WITH RASPBERRIES AND BUTTERCREAM
Preparation time: 1 1/2 hours
Cooking time: 35 minutes
Cooling time: 2 hours, 20 minutes
Yield: 16-20 servings
This recipe, from Margaret Lastick of Le Royale Icing in Oak Park, makes a beautiful cake for any special occasion. Consider it for a small, intimate wedding reception, a bridal or baby shower, or birthday party. Decorate the cake as you wish, with swirls of buttercream, fresh raspberries or edible flowers.
Cake:
3 cups sifted cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 1/4cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Buttercream:
2/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon corn syrup
3 egg whites, room temperature
3 sticks (1 1/2 cups) unsalted butter, softened
Filling:
1 1/2 cups raspberry preserves or spread
2 pints fresh raspberries
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. For cake, sift together flour, baking powder and salt into small bowl; set aside.
2. Cream butter and sugar in bowl of electric mixer, scraping sides of bowl down occasionally, until light and fluffy, about 10 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition, until well incorporated. Add dry ingredients and milk alternately in three stages. Beat in vanilla. Divide batter between two greased 9-inch cake pans; smooth tops. Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Cool in pans on wire rack 10 minutes. Remove from pans; cool completely on wire rack before frosting, about 2 hours.
3. For buttercream, combine sugar, water and corn syrup in small saucepan. Heat to boil, stirring occasionally to dissolve sugar. Continue to boil until syrup reaches 240 degrees as measured on candy thermometer.
4. Beat egg whites in bowl of electric mixer until soft peaks form. Continue beating, gradually pouring in hot syrup. Continue beating on high speed until meringue has cooled, about 10 minutes. Reduce speed to medium; rapidly beat in butter in chunks until incorporated. Scrape down sides of bowl. Continue beating on high speed until buttercream looks white and fluffy, about 7 minutes.
5. Split cake layers in half horizontally using sharp serrated knife. Trim off tops of layers if necessary to make level. Place one layer on serving platter or cake stand. Spread with thin layer raspberry preserves. Spread thin layer of buttercream on top. Add raspberries, pushing slightly into buttercream. Spread thin layer of buttercream on top of raspberries. Add second cake layer; fill and frost with buttercream. Add third cake layer; spread with thin layer raspberry preserves followed by thin layer buttercream. Place fourth cake layer on top. Frost sides and top of cake with buttercream. Decorate as desired. Cover; store in refrigerator. Bring to room temperature before serving.
Nutrition information per serving (based on 20):
Calories ………… 430 Fat ………… 24 g Saturated fat … 15 g
% calories from fat .. 49 Cholesterol … 85 mg Sodium …….. 165 mg
Carbohydrate ……. 53 g Protein ……. 3.5 g Fiber ………. 2.2 g
