Cake week part two

Well, Tuesday was pretty busy, so I just baked the last layer of the groom's cake. Then, last night I got started on building and icing the bride's cake. I started out by making the filling - strawberry cream cheese filling. Yum!



Then, I set that in the fridge and made a batch of buttercream icing. The cake is supposed to be a tan color, so I tinted the icing.



I always start by putting a smear of icing on the cake board, to keep it from slipping.



Then I take the layers out of the fridge, and one by one put them on the cake board, pipe an icing border...



and fill in with the filling...



and repeat...



until you have a filled and stacked cake!



Then I do what's called the "crumb coat," where I put a thin layer of icing on the cake to trap in loose crumbs. It makes it so much easier to go back a put a smooth, pretty coat on later! I learned my lesson with this, though: make your crumb coat the same color as the final coat, because you don't want a different color peeking out!



Two more tiers the same way, and you have one refrigerator full of cake!