The Wedding Cake Book

I just made a wedding cake for my cousin's wedding and this book was clearly the best as far as giving practical advice, explaining how to fix problems (for example, what to do if you are making Italian meringue frosting and the egg whites are whipped before the sugar syrup is up to temperature or vise versa so each recipe comes out perfectly!), and including such a wonderful array of gourmet recipes including how to make marzipan (which is so easy! using just corn syrup and almond paste which can be shaped like clay for edible decorations and then I hand tinted/painted mine using paste icing color) and chocolate plastic (simply white chocolate and corn syrup which can be molded or cut out with cookie cutters). The book has lovely photographs with the recipes and directions immediately following each photo, or, if you're like me, you can pick and choose what ideas you like and augment to your heart's content! I had fun making a pound cake with raspberry mousse filling, Italian meringue buttercream frosting (so smooth and not as sweet as the usual confectioners sugar frostings and it tastes like whipped cream), and decorations out of marzipan and chocolate plastic in the shapes of grapes, acorns, leaves, and roses for the woodland theme wedding. The advantage of marzipan is that it can make very large decorations with little fear that it will collapse. I adore this book and have Dede Wilson's other book as well and hope she'll put out more!

I am not a professional wedding cake baker. I work in the food industry though, and have baked wedding cakes and groom cakes (from this book) from family and friends. The family friend who made our wedding cake, used a recipe straight from this book as well- and went out to buy her own copy of the book afterwards. She has baked cakes professionally for quite a few years. Dede wrote the book well, with detailed descriptions of how to go about making the cakes and the frostings described. I think an amateur could easily use this cookbook to create a cake that they would love -- and I think that 'experts' can learn something from the book, as well. Too many wedding cakes today could just as easily be made of frosting and styrofoam for all the flavor (or personality) which they have. White, shortening-based frosting towers of mediocrity seem to dominate the cakes used at weddings -- if that's what you're looking for, don't bother to look at this book.If you want something which *might* be unusual (there are some cakes which could satisfy the more 'basic' wedding cake desires some might have) -- if what you want is a cake with actual flavor, not out of a box, and with potentially even, some personality to reflect the interests/backgrounds of the bride and groom -- this is a good place to look. The Chocolate Raspberry Truffle recipe is divine, and simple. I've given the recipe out many times! I've used several recipes from this cookbook, for special occasions and also just to see what they tasted like. To be honest, one of the things that attracted me to the book is that it focuses on the multiple uses that the cakes could have -- and the fact that for someone who *is not* into frosting details, it isn't intimidating. If you want to create an elaborate frosted cake, you can easily do so (some are elaborate) -- but you can also create a more simple and elegant version if you want to. The cakes and frostings have enough personality to be able to stand without the fancy frostings, if you don't want an elaborate design. The information about ingredients and where to get them etc. is also good - the author does talk about pesticide concerns with flowers etc., if people pay attention to what's written in her introduction/ingredient area and in the index as well. I would recommend, though, that for people who aren't used to making things like divinity etc., it would be a good idea to have someone in the kitchen helping you the first time or two that you attempt the Italian Buttercream frosting. It helps to coordinate so that the various steps are ready at the same time, and makes it easier to make when you're first figuring out how it works. Also one detail not mentioned -- the syrup-based frostings used, may need to be adjusted for altitude, if you try to make them based on temperature. Your boiling temperature etc. will change with altitude, so unless you're comfortable using the old-fashioned "hard ball" "soft ball" etc. stages, you'll wan

DeDe Wilson, a self-taught pastry chef from western Massachusetts, has done amateur bakers an enormous favor with the publication of "The Wedding Cake Book." Not only does she make the awe-inspiring task of making a wedding cake easier than you might imagine by breaking it down into manageable steps, but the recipes actually WORK and work beautifully. As Wilson says in the book, "A wedding cake should not only be beautiful, but delicious." Sounds like good sense, of course, but it really is amazing how many weddings you can go to where the wedding cakes are either sort of blah and unmemorable or they're just downright unattractive because of dryness, Crisco-like frosting, or a discord of flavors.In "The Wedding Cakes Book," Wilson gives you the benefit of her experience of more than a decade. She knows which flavors go together beautifully (white chocolate and apricot, anyone?) and gives you not only "the usual suspects" of flavor combinations, but some deliciously unusual ones as well. She takes carrot cake to a sublime level by giving you a recipe for Honey Maple Carrot Cake with Pecans and Raisins (perfect for that crunchy granola bride who's wearing flip-flops, a wreath of daisies in her hair, and a cotton gauze dress). For an autumn wedding, what could be prettier or more appropriate than a Pumpkin Cake with Crystallized Ginger, Walnuts, and Dried Cranberries? The Gianduja Truffle Cake is a dream of a dessert which incorporates both bittersweet chocolate and gianduja paste, a hazelnut/chocolate confection that's typically Italian and utterly delicious. For the second-time or ultra-sophisticated bride who wants something utterly different, Wilson provides a recipe for a handsome and savory Smoked Salmon Cheesecake Wedding Cake. I could go on and on, for all the cakes here are splendid to look at and really, truly not difficult to make as much as demanding of your time.Even those who haven't foolishly offered to provide a wedding cake for someone they love will get a kick out of the sumptuous photographs, the clear, clear, clear directions, and the fact that almost every single recipe can be made as just a regular cake as well (hint: just make one tier of the many tiers involved and you're in business!). Highly recommended!

Last Spring, I naively volunteered to bake the wedding cake for a colleague's wedding. Little did I know what I was getting into, but without The Wedding Cake Book, the finished product would not have been possible. I baked a three-tier carrot cake, with buttercream frosting. It served 140 people, to rave reviews. Everything, and I repeat EVERYTHING I needed to know about wedding cake consruction was covered clearly in this book. I am an afficionado of carrot cakes, and the recipe provided for this one was simply delicious. People at the wedding loved the cake, and several have asked both for the recipe and for the source. Many times, books simply hype their products. This one is an exception to that maxim. Not only is it good reading, but also it is correctly informative and supportive. One note on previous reviews of this book: the cream cheese salmon cake is not a put-off, as some reviewers described it. Rather, it is an elegant way to introduce something unusual to the wedding table. I truly appreciated Dede Wilson's efforts in this book, as did the bride and groom who cut this carrot cake on their wedding day!

Dede Wilson's clear instructions and love of fine ingredients inspired me to take her advice and try my hand at a few "practice" cakes. I took the Chocolate Raspberry Truffle cake to a potluck dinner, and it was the hit of the party! I enjoyed the White Chocolate Apricot cake so much, I'm making another one. Because Wilson includes individual recipes for the sizes of all the tiers, from 6" up to 14" in some cases, the reader can make a smaller cake for any type of function. I believe this book IS for the typical bride, if the typical bride is someone who loves the best ingredients combined in a pleasing manner and presented beautifully. I've tried samples of wedding cake from six local professional bakers, and the cakes I've made from this book top them all! Brides, please keep in mind that some wedding cake bakers use mixes; armed with Wilson's book, a bride is sure to serve the best on her wedding day, or any other day that calls for a cake.