Mrs Iles: Wedding cakes made easy!

At our church we like weddings. We like them a lot! So when I heard that a couple that had just started coming were planning on getting married I got all excited and offered to make the cake.
Huge mistake... It led to dreams about cake and many hours on pinterest to research different methods and recipes.
The day finally came to start making the cake, there was 80 guests attending the wedding so I knew it wouldn't be the hugest cake ever but the bride only wanted 2 tiers which made it a tad awkward.
I made a yellow cake batter like this. Not sure how much I made in total because I ended up making 3 different lots.
I made 3 layers for each tier, you'll see in the photos later.
I then froze the layers which were wrapped individually in cling film or shrink wrap depending where you're from. I then sat down and had a rest, it's not often you make 6 cakes in one day...
When I was ready to fill and ice the cakes I prepared the cake board for the top tier like so:

It's a quite watery mix of icing. I wasn't too bothered about getting it all the way to the edges, it was just to stick the cake to the board. I used a thin cake board for this - 3mm I think.
And for the bottom tier I used a board that was 4" bigger than the cake and brushed it with water and laid rolled royal icing onto it. I also stuck ribbon round the edge to complete the look.
Then I started layering the cake. The top tier had a caramel filling which I made by boiling a can of condensed milk for 2 hours. I used 2 cans for an 8" 3 layer cake.

I then frosted the entire thing to make it smooth and so the icing would stick easier. I used the following recipe -
2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
10 large egg whites
2 pounds (8 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons, softened
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 pound best-quality white chocolate, melted and cooled

Put sugar and egg whites in the heatproof bowl of an electric mixer, and set over a pan of simmering water. Whisk constantly until sugar is dissolved and mixture registers 140 degrees on an instant-read thermometer.

Transfer bowl to an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment; beat on medium-high speed until fluffy and cooled, about 10 minutes. Continue beating until stiff peaks form.

Reduce speed to medium-low; add butter by the tablespoon, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla and white chocolate. (Any leftover frosting can be refrigerated in an airtight container up to 3 days or frozen up to 1 month.)

I made it the day before because it takes a long time - about an hour!

I then rolled out my icing. I used 1.5kg for this tier. I measured the sides and the top of the cake before I started rolling and knew I had to get roughly a 50cm square. I watched a lot of videos on how to ice a cake. Check youtube and you'll find a million and one of them!

I then started work on the bottom tier. I used the same watery icing mix to stick the cake to the board then I wrapped the edges of the iced board in cling film so it wouldn't get wrecked when I spilt frosting on strawberry filling on it. I think you can see what I mean in this photo -

Then I did exactly the same. Built up the layers (this one was strawberry and buttercream) and frosted it.

Then iced it. I used 2kgs of icing for this one. Even though it was the bottom tier I only needed to roll the icing out 10cms bigger.

Then I stuck a jumbo straw in it (bought from Asda), marked it off at the icing line and cut 9 the same size. I pushed them into the cake -

These will act as supports for the top tier, I know lopsided cakes are trendy now but I don't think it's the look the bride was going for.

Then I very carefully placed the top tier on the bottom and squared it up. I smoothed the whole thing over with a fondant smoother and decorated it with ribbon to match the wedding colours.

I added the cake topper and voila!