Product Description

Make the cake?

Yes, you can.

If you love to bake and are willing to plan ahead, you can make a spectacular wedding cake--and you don't have to be a pastry chef to do it! Let prominent wedding cake expert Dede Wilson guide you through every layer of the process--from choosing among flavors and styles to baking, assembling, and decorating your way to a beautiful and delicious cake. This accessible cookbook not only gets you ready for the big event, it helps you lend a truly personal touch to the celebration.

"If you want to make your own wedding cake, Dede Wilson is the perfect guide. She helps you bake with confidence every step of the way to a delicious personalized result."
--Donna Ferrari, BRIDE'S magazine

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #29208 in Books
• Published on: 2005-03-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 176 pages

From the Inside Flap
"I do not believe in cakes that are made for beauty and ceremony only. I believe they should be eaten—and enjoyed! In fact, the majority of the time my cakes are used as the dessert, as opposed to a symbolic addition."
—Dede Wilson

Let them eat cake—in fact, let them eat your cake. Whether you're the bride, the groom, or a loving friend or family member who wants to make that special day unforgettable, public television cooking show host Dede Wilson knows that you—yes, you—can bake, frost, assemble, and decorate a spectacular, delicious, and totally unique wedding cake that won't put your budget over the edge—even if you've never mastered anything more complicated than a birthday cake or two. In Wedding Cakes You Can Make, this top-tier expert reveals that all it takes to make that big-day cake is a love of baking and a willingness to plan properly and work patiently.

Whether you're feeding 20 or 150 people, preparation begins long before you preheat the oven. In this easy-to-follow, hands-on guide, Wilson takes you through the entire process, from the drawing board to the presentation table, sharing time-tested techniques that help you turn that cake of your dreams into a delectable reality.

She helps you get started by having you write a wish list that can be honed into a framework for the ideal cake. Then it's time to make the cake happen by working through all the practical elements that come into play, such as setting your budget (and sticking to it); choosing the essential flavors (if chocolate is the bride's passion, don't leave it out!); considering the wedding date (if it's October, think about fall colors); accommodating the number of guests (small guest list equals modest-sized cake); keeping in tune with the wedding's style or mood (beach-casual vs. black tie-formal); and getting organized (time to borrow that decorating turntable).

When it comes to execution, Wilson encourages you to use the highest-quality ingredients and equipment specific to the task, and to gain a foundation by making a six-inch sample cake—an integral step that, much like dating, allows you to try the cake on for size before making the final commitment. She shares her own favorite flavor combinations as well as those most frequently requested by bridal couples. For each of the 16 cakes, Wilson provides essential details—a timeline, thorough recipe directions, and tips. Recipes range from the lighthearted Raspberries and Cream Cake to the contemporary Nutella Cake and the sophisticated Gilded Mocha Cake. Color photographs of all the finished cakes and dozens of how-to photos give you the inspiration and know-how to bake your own special wedding cake.

As Wilson says, wedding cake flavor and design choices are infinite. In Wedding Cakes You Can Make, she helps you create your own special slice of what is possible.

From the Back Cover
Make the cake?

Yes, you can.

If you love to bake and are willing to plan ahead, you can make a spectacular wedding cake—and you don't have to be a pastry chef to do it! Let prominent wedding cake expert Dede Wilson guide you through every layer of the process—from choosing among flavors and styles to baking, assembling, and decorating your way to a beautiful and delicious cake. This accessible cookbook not only gets you ready for the big event, it helps you lend a truly personal touch to the celebration.

"If you want to make your own wedding cake, Dede Wilson is the perfect guide. She helps you bake with confidence every step of the way to a delicious personalized result."
—Donna Ferrari, BRIDE'S magazine

About the Author
Dede Wilson is a leading baking expert who has taught wedding cake classes at Rhode Island School of Design, California Culinary Academy, Sur La Table, and elsewhere. She hosts the public television food show Seasonings with Dede Wilson, and has made numerous appearances on The View, Today, and on Live! with Regis and Kelly. She is a contributing editor, spokesperson, and writer for Bon Appétit and is the author of a number of cookbooks, including The Wedding Cake Book (Wiley) and The Baker's Field Guide series.

Customer Reviews

Great Book!
This book is worth every penny. The author has such a great sense of humor, and a realistic approach to anyone wanting to make their own wedding cake.

very informative book on the nuts and bolts of making wedding cakes
A lot of what goes into a successful wedding cake isn't exactly exciting or sexy. Things like buying the right cardboard rounds, putting dowels in your tiers so they are strong, laying down foam in your car to help transport and mixing your batter and buttercreams correctly. Dede explains the ins and outs of every step of cake making in a way that is very clear and concise. I have other books that claim to be more definitive (and weigh in at many more pages) but don't go into the detail that she does.

My only gripe is that the styling on some of the cakes is a little off. The tower of cupcakes photo shows three tiers that are off-kilter (not intentionally, I'm pretty sure) and there is another cake with sloppy basketweave piping. Lastly, I wish she would have given a chapter to working with fondant. It's too popular of a look to, um, overlook.

Maybe in your next book, Dede? :-)

made my own wedding cake! 2 of them even!
my husband and i got this book for our wedding. we both picked out a recipe that we wanted to make, i chose the Marzipan and Orange Essensia Cake, and he chose the raspberries and cream cake. we followed her advice and made the buttercream and moistening syrups ahead of time, which helped out a lot. we also chose to do the first layer of both cakes instead of doing tiered cakes, just to simplify things a little. i recommend following everything she says exactly as shes says it, i chose to do a few things a little differently and paid for it (instead of placing the just baked cakes on racks, i placed them directly onto solid cookie sheets, which made them bottoms a little gooey and they stuck to the sheet), but even with that mistake, they both came out wonderfully, everyone at the wedding was amazed that i had made my own wedding cakes and though they turned out wonderfully! it was fun going around and asking everyone which they liked best too! it turned out i liked the one i picked best and my husband liked the one he picked out best too:)
the pictures in this book are just lovely and although we decided to decorate our cakes our own way, she gives really great ideas about decorating too. you really can make your own wedding cake with this book!