Wedding Cake "Prep"

 Lots of pans filled with LOTS of batter.

 Waiting for the precious babies to cool down.

 Putting a little bit of icing on the board underneath the cake helps it stick.

 The bottom layer mounded with icing. Half that icing gets scraped off, but I find it easier to be generous in the beginning and take off as I go.

 See. Slathered on, and not beautiful. It perfectly fine.

 See how I ended up with space in between the icing and the layers, I should have used more. 

 This cake was heavy so supports were mandatory. Each layer had four supports, and on top of those supports I put another cardboard base to start the next level.

 Notice how you can see the cardboard. I just gobbed on more icing and it vanished. Poof.

The final product before decoration. 

Wilton Almond Cake: Makes 7/12-8 cups of batter

Ingredients:

1. 1 1/2 cups butter softened
2. 2 1/2 cups sugar
3. 5 eggs 
4. 1 tsp vanilla
5. 3/4 almond extract
6. 3 cups flour
7. 3/4 tsp baking powder
8. 1/4 tsp salt
9. 1 cup whole milk

Note: I made this recipe 4 times. 

Icing

1. 1 cup softened butter
2. 1 tsp vanilla
3. 4 cups powdered sugar
4. 2 tbsp milk

Note: I had to make this recipe 5 times in order to cover the whole cake. 

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
2. In a stand mixer cream together the butter and sugar.
3. Add in the vanilla and almond extract; beat well.
4. Add one egg at a time and mix until fully incorporated. If you don't you lose volume.
5. Add in salt and baking powder. 
6. Add in half the flour; keep the mixer on a low speed. Add the milk until fully incorporated and then add the second half of the flour.
7. Grease pans WELL. My base pan sizes were 12". I used a full recipes worth of batter to fill each of the two individual pans. Bake for 55-60 minutes. 
8. I used half a recipe for each of my 10" pans. Bake for 55-60 minutes.
9. I used 2 1/2 cups batter for each 8" pan and 1 1/2 cups batter for the 6" pans. I baked these four pans together for 40 min each.