Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

Hi there,

I am making a three tiered wedding cake (12″, 9″, 6″) to be covered in a “rustic effect” Royal icing. I have no idea how to guesstimate the quantity I’ll need though! I am planning on stacking the cakes before I ice them so there won’t be visible joins between the tiers (no ribbons round the bottom of the tiers to hide imperfections!), so won’t need icing for most of the top of the bottom two tiers. So two questions:

– how would I go about guesstimating how much to make? I thought it might be a rough approximation of quantity to use the buttercream download on this site, but I’m obviously not filling the cakes with Royal icing so don’t know how much to deduct to take that into account, if that makes sense.

– would you ice it all as one or ice the tiers separately, from the point of view of the caterers being able to separate the tiers easily to cut it?? My main concern being if I ice them separately, then stack them, that the finish might not look very good around the bottom of the tiers.

Many thanks!

Hi clover2411

Royal icing can be purchased already made from online cake supply stores like Squires Kitchen, Cake Stuff and the Cake decorating company. Each tub should have specific information of how much would be required for different sized cakes and for the different applications. All the above companies are extremely helpful, just email them and ask how much you would need to buy. However, if you are making the icing from scratch ie with egg white please let me know and I’ll work out the amounts you will approximately need,
As far as icing is concerned, each tier would need to be iced separately, left to dry before stacking. To get a nice finish at the bottom of each tier, fill a medium parchment paper piping bag with royal icing and cut of the tip big enough to allow the icing to flow in a steady stream. Have ready a damp artists paint brush which you will need. Pipe the royal icing at the bottom of each tier one at a time and use the damp brush to wipe off the excess. Repeat for each tier. This will join the tiers together invisably.

Thanks for your reply, madeitwithlove, that’s really helpful. I was planning on buying Meriwhite rather than a mix, just because it seems more cost-effective and also if I overbuy, I can use the icing sugar for other things (I only use Royal icing at Christmas usually!). I’ll try my luck with one of those companies and see if they can help estimate. And thanks for your answer re: joining the tiers together – can you tell I’ve not done something this ambitious before!

If you have any problems just come back and post again. Royal icing can be a little daunting if you’ve not done it before but a rustic pattern is a good way to learn how it behaves. Years ago I only ever used royal icing to decorate cakes with. A teaspoon of glycerine would keep the icing from going brittle so we didn’t break our teeth!
Who would have thought that it would make such a massive come back in an age of roll out icing and ganache. Shout if you need help 🙂 x

Hi madeitwithlove,

I contacted the above companies and got very polite replies from them, but basically they couldn’t comment on how much icing I might need. If you could have a stab at it, I would be really grateful!

Many thanks,
Gillian

I’ll certainly give it a go for you Gillian ….. and it’s just a rustic design you want, so no flat icing? Something similar to what we used to do years ago for Christmas cake snow scene? I’ll try and find my papers amongst my work boxes. We’re in the middle of moving house, everything is such a jumble! I’ll try and post it for you tomorrow morning.

Thank you very much! No flat icing, just something similar to this buttercream design: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/d1/4c/ae/d14cae01fee7ab0c7f239be82814b1d4–diy-wedding-cake-buttercream-wedding-cake.jpg

Hi Gillian

My apologies for not getting back sooner.
I use Delia Smith’s royal icing recipe for an 8″ round cake as follows:
3 large eggs whites, 500gm icing sugar and 1 teaspoon of glycerine

Use these factors to multiply each ingredient for the amounts to make:
12″ cake multiply each ingredient by 2.25
9″ cake multiply each ingredient by 1.25
6″ cake multiply each ingredient by 0.56 ( or 56% of) personally I would just use the 8″ recipe rather than fiddle about with small percentages.

The glycerine makes a softer royal icing which is nicer to eat but it can be omitted if you prefer a brittle icing.
If you are using merriwhites or egg white powder follow the instructions required per egg and use same factors. Please make up the smallest first to make sure you are happy with the consistency. You could also use the ready made royal icing powder which should say the amount of coverage the whole pack will give.

Hope this helps, and again my apologies for late reply.

Thanks so much, it’s useful to have those multiples!