The shower cake was a success!

So as you know I'm doing wedding cakes for two weddings, one in August and one in September, and I've been practicing. So I needed to try out my first tiered cake this weekend because I was recruited by my mom to make a "mini-wedding cake" for the bridal shower she was hosting for a friend. The bride, Carolyn, is marrying a family friend, Tommy. My family and Tommy's family have been celebrating Thanksgiving together for 20 years as of this year (which I cannot believe).

So I decided to do the almond/raspberry/white chocolate cake for the shower. I started on Friday afternoon/evening by baking, torting, dirty icing, and doweling/stacking the layers, as pictured in these photos:

Notice the strips around the larger pans - to be discussed below.  

Noodle I bought these lovely cooling racks with the gift certificate you sent me! 

9" layer, torted, stacked, and dirty iced 

6" layer, torted, stacked, and dirty iced 

both layers stacked and doweled

So I did a 6" tier with two layers and a 9" tier with two layers. The 9" tier was baked off and then put onto a 12" decorative cake board as you can see in the above picture. The 6" tier was baked off and then put onto a 6" cake board as you can (barely) see in the picture just above the last where I'm holding the tiny 6" tier. 

I used "MagiCake" baking strips on the 9" layers and they really did make a difference. They're quite simple when you think about it - they're just strips of fabric that you soak in cold water and then wrap around the outside of your pan and secure with what are basically paper clips. In the oven, they keep the outside cool so that it bakes at the same rate as the inside and the layer comes out much more even on top and much more generally evenly baked. The outsides of the layers weren't as dry as they've otherwise been. I also used a simple syrup bath on each of the layers this time, just brushed on with a pastry brush after the layer was torted and stacked. That also made a huge difference in the texture and taste of the cake, and I wholly recommend it. 

To stack the cake, I placed three bamboo dowels in the bottom layer before placing the 6" layer on top, then I sharpened and drove 1 bamboo dowel through the top and bottom layers (including forcing it through the cake board supporting the 6" layer). It was very sturdy as a result. 

I refrigerated the cake overnight and then piped it yesterday. I used my shell tip in various ways as well as a straight tip to do the swags on the bottom layer. Please see below for the finished product:

I drove the cake down to McLean from Baltimore and then my mom put a really cute Cupid's Arrow she had made through the cake when I arrived for the shower (idea found on Pinterest). Everyone really enjoyed the cake and the taste was much better than the first time I made it, so I'm hoping it'll just continue to get better with time!