Should I bake my good friends wedding cake with little experience in such endeavors?
It seems like from the comments that problems arise in the setting up of the cake, and in transportation. Maybe you could make a series of small cakes. It seems like they might transport better, and you don’t have to worry about leaning layers or stacking or anything. I just went to a wedding where the bride was vegan. She had like 6 cakes made from a vegan bakery, all in different flavors. (Penaut butter cup!) They were delicious and it was fun sampling all the different flavors. But then again, your friend said she wanted cute, not flavor… hehe. But I was just thinking cute might be more manageable in smaller cakes. 🙂 Then you could maybe have different themes or something, who knows…
It isn’t crazy. My Dad (and, collaboratively, my 6 and 8 y/o cousins) made my sister’s wedding cake last year. As long as she is expecting this to be a labor of love, something that expresses your affection for her and is representative of your years of friendship rather than three years at the Culinary Institute of America, you’re good. If, on the other hand, what she wants is that gorgeous cake that was on the cover of that bridal magazine last May, this might be a request to decline.
It can be done. I’ve done it–twice, even. But between the bridesmaid factor and the six-hour transport factor, you’re just begging for a catastrophic meltdown of some kind. I’d consider carefully before committing to being both the baker and a bridesmaid. If you’re bound and determined to do it, I’d advise a few things: Think about alternate ways of displaying the cake. When I made my mother’s cake, I wasn’t confident enough to actually stack the layers on top of one another. Instead, I made three graduated-height pedestals out of floral foam, tossed a cloth over the whole thing, and displayed the cake(s) that way. It looked great, and was much less hassle than stacking layers (as I learned when I made the second wedding cake). Also, look into gumpaste decorations. Like fondant, it lends itself very well to making things ahead of time. The only caveat is that the results are rather brittle, so you have to take that into account when transporting your cake. Oh,
