Yes, you can make a wedding cake

By Natasha Pickowicz, The New York Times

Ever scroll through a friend’s wedding registry and feel uninspired by the cavalcade of appliances and trinkets? Consider going rogue and asking the couple if you can give them something major: a wedding cake.

With their vertiginous tiers, sculpted sugar roses and fondant as smooth as clay, professional wedding cakes are engineered to look good for long stretches of time — some even come with a sneaky Styrofoam layer — but they can fall short in flavor. A more personal homemade cake subverts expectations, and can feel less formal in the best possible way: big, exuberant and celebratory.

Toasted Sesame and Citrus Wedding Cake: Baking a tiered wedding cake may seem ambitious, but you can break it down into smaller, more manageable tasks over a few days. In this recipe, everything — the tender chiffon cake layers, the sturdy buttercream, the flavorful citrus compote, the sesame crunch — can be refrigerated for days or even frozen for weeks, to no ill effect.

On the big day, the cakes are frosted and transported unstacked to reduce any anxiety-inducing bumpy car rides, then assembled and decorated on site. Elegant, edible décor is added in the final moments.

Worried about teetering cakes? Lots of thin, stacked layers are more structurally sound than a few thick layers glued together with icing. So, here, citrus syrup-soaked cakes and creamy filling are tucked into plastic wrap-lined pans, ensuring straight sides and a flat base.

Nervous about drooping frosting the day of the wedding? These cakes freeze overnight and gently come to temperature on the big day, which helps keep the finish cool and in place. And, because there’s no butter in the batter — the cakes are leavened with billowing egg whites — the layers don’t get crumbly and dry as they thaw under the sturdy Swiss meringue buttercream.

While more labor intensive than its American cousin (butter and powdered sugar whipped together), a Swiss meringue buttercream is ideal for enrobing tiered cakes because of its heft and stability.

To make it, egg whites and sugar are whisked in a double boiler until emulsified, thick and hot; the mixture briefly cools before receiving a generous amount of butter. It’s then whip-whip-whipped until a silky buttercream emerges. Like the cakes, the buttercream (and the citrus compote) can be frozen and thawed at your convenience. Thaw them in the refrigerator the night before you’ll use them, then set them out at room temperature for an additional hour to let them become spreadable. (It doesn’t hurt to re-whip, either, for an optimally buoyant, glossy texture.) The crunch can be pulled directly from the freezer and scattered onto the cake layers.

Chocolate Whiskey Cake With Coffee Caramel: If you’re not up for that big of a project, you can still offer to make something smaller — but still special — for the wedding.

Inspired by the Victorian-era tradition of groom’s cakes, this tender cocoa and olive oil cake is baked and served right out of its pan. Still popular in the American South, groom’s cakes — typically with a more robust flavor profile, like chocolate and aged spirits — are a cheeky addition to more classical wedding dessert spreads, a chance to get weirder, boozier and more playful.

Instead of thin, alternating layers of cake, buttercream and jam, this sheet cake is soaked with a whiskey- and coffee-spiked milk, then topped with a glossy boiled caramel glaze and a final dusting of cocoa powder.

Like any homemade gift, a DIY wedding cake is emotionally rich, allowing the effort, the care and the creativity of its maker to come through. Imperfections are inevitable, but they’re also kind of the point.

Sure, ordering a toaster oven is faster — but memories of a homemade wedding cake will outlast any appliance.

Toasted Sesame and Citrus Wedding Cake

Everyone loves receiving a homemade gift, but how about a showstopping, two-tiered, citrus-festooned, sesame-laced wedding cake? With a little planning (and an organized freezer), it’s so much easier than you think. Thin, even layers of vanilla sponge cake, soaked with a vivid citrus syrup, are draped like lasagna sheets into pans, along with swaths of nutty sesame buttercream, charred citrus compote and a granola-adjacent sesame crunch. The cake rests while you do, then is removed from the pans, coated in buttercream, packed up and assembled the day of the wedding. There’s no finer — or more delicious — way to allow the effort, care and creativity of its maker to come through. And don’t forget to save and freeze the excess cake scraps for ice cream sandwiches, trifles or snacking.

By Natasha Pickowicz

Yield: About 60 servings

Total time: 18 hours

Ingredients

For the Vanilla Chiffon Cake:

• 12 large cold eggs
• 1 cup/240 grams neutral oil, like grapeseed
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 4 cups/800 grams granulated sugar
• 3 1/2 cups/480 grams all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal) or 1 teaspoon fine sea salt

For the Sesame Crunch:

• Nonstick cooking spray
• 4 large egg whites
• 1/2 packed cup/120 grams light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal) or 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1 3/4 cups/226 grams toasted white sesame seeds
• For the Charred Citrus Compote:
• 2 large navel oranges
• 3 lemons or Meyer lemons
• 1 1/2 cups/300 grams granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon citric acid, plus more to taste (optional; see Tip)

For the Charred Citrus Soak:

1/2 cup/120 grams fresh lemon juice

1/3 cup/70 grams granulated sugar

For the Toasted Sesame Buttercream:

12 large egg whites

3 cups/600 grams granulated sugar

1 cup/150 grams powdered sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal) or 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt, plus more if needed

2 pounds/912 grams unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons, at room temperature

1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil

1 cup/240 grams tahini

To Decorate:

• Assortment of fresh citrus, such as small tangerines, lemons and kumquats, washed and scrubbed
• Fresh food-safe greenery, such as bay leaves or olive branches

Preparation

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line the bottoms of 3 half-sheet pans (13-by-18-by-1-inch) with sheets of parchment.

2. Carefully crack eggs into a bowl without breaking the yolks. Pluck out yolks one at a time with clean fingertips, transferring to a large bowl. Transfer the egg whites to the bowl of a stand mixer; set aside. To yolks, add 1 cup/240 grams water, the oil, vanilla and 3 cups/600 grams granulated sugar; whisk until smooth.

3. In a very large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder and salt. Pour yolk mixture into dry ingredients and gently stir to combine. (Small lumps are OK.)

4. Using the whisk attachment, beat egg whites in the stand mixer on medium-high speed until a soft peak forms, about 2 minutes. With the mixer running, stream in remaining 1 cup/200 grams granulated sugar and continue whisking until a glossy, floppy meringue forms, another 3 to 4 minutes.

5. Scrape one-third of the meringue into yolk mixture and gently fold with a spatula until mixture is loosened. Add remaining meringue and fold until batter feels billowy and some white streaks remain. Divide batter evenly among prepared pans. Smooth the surfaces evenly with an offset spatula and transfer to the oven, working in batches if needed.