Introduction: Portal Wedding Cake
This is my first ever wedding cake, made for my best friends who are portal mad!
Step 1: Top Tier
As guests at this wedding were fussy, i made a basic sponge mixture for the cupcakes, and the main cake on the top tier as follows:
Top Tier - Weighed Companion Cube
1 - Mix 12oz of unsalted softened butter with 12oz of caster sugar. Beat together until all the butter is creamed together with the sugar. For best results use a electric hand mixer.
2 - Sift 12 oz of self raising flour into a separate bowl.
3 - Add one egg to the butter and sugar mixture, and a spoonful of the sifted flour, and mix until fully incorporated.
4 - Do this until you have added a total of 6 standard size eggs to the cake mix. Now add the rest of the flour, mixing well.
5 - one the whole mixture looks tasty and creamy, add 2 teaspoons of vanilla essence, and mix one final last time.
6 - Grease and line square 9" cake tin
7 - put cake into preheated oven at 175C for 1hour - 1h 30mins.
8- check cake is cooked by inserting a metal skewer into the center of the cake - if it comes away clean, then cake is done, if not leave for a few minutes longer.
9 - When cake is done, leave to cool for 30 mins in tin, then turn out to cool on a wire cooling rack.
Top Tier - Weighed Companion Cube
1 - Mix 12oz of unsalted softened butter with 12oz of caster sugar. Beat together until all the butter is creamed together with the sugar. For best results use a electric hand mixer.
2 - Sift 12 oz of self raising flour into a separate bowl.
3 - Add one egg to the butter and sugar mixture, and a spoonful of the sifted flour, and mix until fully incorporated.
4 - Do this until you have added a total of 6 standard size eggs to the cake mix. Now add the rest of the flour, mixing well.
5 - one the whole mixture looks tasty and creamy, add 2 teaspoons of vanilla essence, and mix one final last time.
6 - Grease and line square 9" cake tin
7 - put cake into preheated oven at 175C for 1hour - 1h 30mins.
8- check cake is cooked by inserting a metal skewer into the center of the cake - if it comes away clean, then cake is done, if not leave for a few minutes longer.
9 - When cake is done, leave to cool for 30 mins in tin, then turn out to cool on a wire cooling rack.
Step 2: Cup Cakes
Whilst your square cake is cooking make the cup cakes. It is basically the same recipe as making the larger cake with a slight difference at the end -
1 - Mix 12oz of unsalted softened butter with 12oz of caster sugar. Beat together until all the butter is creamed together with the sugar. For best results use a electric hand mixer.
2 - Sift 12 oz of self raising flour into a separate bowl.
3 - Add one egg to the butter and sugar mixture, and a spoonful of the sifted flour, and mix until fully incorporated.
4 - Do this until you have added a total of 6 standard size eggs to the cake mix. Now add the rest of the flour, mixing well.
5 - one the whole mixture looks tasty and creamy, add 2 teaspoons of vanilla essence, and mix one final last time.
6 - Put the 2 teaspoons of cake mixture into regular cup cake / fairy cake cases, (i used silver ones from a craft store).
7 - Put into oven, in an bun tin. This should make anything between 36 - 48 cupcakes.
8 - leave in preheated oven at 170C for 20 minutes.
9 - when done remove from tin, and put onto a wire cooling rack.
Step 3: Cupcake Icing
Once the cupcakes are cool you need to ice them to make them look pretty - you can use any color, but i have chosen a light blue and an orange color to match the portal theme.
This makes enough icing to cover half the cupcakes you have made.
1 - 9oz of soften butter, beat with a hand mixer until no lumps are present
2 - sift in a separate bowl 18 oz of icing sugar.
3 - add slowly to the butter, mixing consistently
4 - add a teaspoon of vanilla essence, and 2 tablespoons of fresh milk, to ensure a stiff but not solid consistency. Add more or less milk if needed.
5 - select food coloring or gel and add slowly until the desired color is made.
6 - Place butter icing in to a icing bag fitted with a star shaped tip.
7- use gentle pressure to swirl the icing onto the cup cake starting at an edge, and then finish at the center.
8 - once half the cup cakes are finished, dust lightly with edible glitter, and put into a fridge to allow the icing to harden.
9 - repeat all steps above to make the second color and to ice the other half of the cupcakes.
Step 4: Icing the Top Tier
1 - Make butter icing as per previous step, but do not add color, and this time using a pallet knife spread over the sides and top of the cake, place this in a fridge to set whilst we make our icing colors.
2 - roll out approx 500g of white royal icing, (i brought some pre made in a packet from my local supermarket). Add a few drops of black food gel, and Kneed.
3 - Once you have made a dark grey color, roll out into an even square. Using a light dusting of icing sugar to prevent the icing from sticking to the rolling pin, or surface.
4 - Take cake from fridge, and drape icing over the cake, first smoothing the top, and then work down the sides, using the flat of your hand to smooth out the icing.
5 - Cut away and discard the excess (i usually use a pizza cutter)
6 - mix a lighter gray icing as above using 300grams of royal icing and a few less drops of black, kneed until the correct color is made.
7 - use the pizza cutter or a sharp knife to make the triangular corner parts of the cube. As per my pic. I used a confectioners glue to stick the detail to the cube, or you could dampen the icing slightly to stick the pieces to the cake.
8 - Add the small rectangles, and the half circle details.
9 - use premade pink icing, or make your own with a few drops of red / pink gel to about 150grams of white royal icing. Take a heart cookie cutter, and cut out the heart for each side of the cube (you will need 5 in total)
10 - cut 4 of the hearts in half, and attach to the cake. The whole heart goes on top.
Step 5: Finishing Touches
The companion cube is now finished. However i went that little bit further and added portals to my cake with playmobile figures disappearing then reappearing through the cake. If you also wish to do these, finish with these last few steps -
1 - use plain white icing and make 2 oval shapes. Paint the edge of one with blue food colouring with a small paint brush, and the other with orange colouring. Sprinke a little glitter on the wet paint.
2 - fix one portal on top of the cake, and one on the side
3 - use a figurine of your choice, playmobile ones work pretty well, and push one gently into the side of the cake, so only the legs can be seen. Do the same on the top, but ensure that the figurine is visable from the 'waist' up.
4 - add any other characters, fix into place with confectioners glue.
5 - leave glue and icing to set into place, DO NOT put in the fridge, the icing will sweat and all your work will be ruined, and do not put in an air tight box. wrap loosely in tin foil and set aside until needed.
1 - use plain white icing and make 2 oval shapes. Paint the edge of one with blue food colouring with a small paint brush, and the other with orange colouring. Sprinke a little glitter on the wet paint.
2 - fix one portal on top of the cake, and one on the side
3 - use a figurine of your choice, playmobile ones work pretty well, and push one gently into the side of the cake, so only the legs can be seen. Do the same on the top, but ensure that the figurine is visable from the 'waist' up.
4 - add any other characters, fix into place with confectioners glue.
5 - leave glue and icing to set into place, DO NOT put in the fridge, the icing will sweat and all your work will be ruined, and do not put in an air tight box. wrap loosely in tin foil and set aside until needed.
Step 6: On the Day
Set up your cake stand - I brought mine from Amazon for a really reasonable price. Arrange cupcakes on the lower tiers mixing the two colored cupcakes up together. Then set the top tier on the top of your tower.
Stand back and admire - oh and enjoy!