Project Wedding Cake 2015: Baking!

I'm happy to report that the cake is baked! I did the whole thing last weekend, and am happy to be over that hurdle. I had forgotten just how much time it takes to bake a 9-layer cake. The problem with not having a commercial kitchen is twofold: (1) I have only one pan of each size, so I have to at least have 3 rounds of baking, (2) a home oven is only so big, so it can only accommodate one large pan, or two smaller pans. If I had two ovens, or more pans, the process would have been faster, but alas.

I made the bottom 14" square and top 6" square tiers a vanilla buttermilk cake, and made the middle 10" square tier a chocolate cake. I actually had to do some math to get the proportions for the 14" square cake, as the recipe only went up to 12" square. Also, because making the batter for 3 layers of 14" square would NEVER have fit in my kitchenaid mixer, I did even more math to scale the recipe to make it one layer at a time.  It actually worked really well! Here are some pics:

Cake ingredients and pans ready to go!

The batter for one 14" layer... it filled my entire mixer!

The first layer is baked, and looks great!

All of the cake triple wrapped in plastic, set between cake boards, and stacked in the freezer

I had to do a lot of creative freezer organizing to get everything in there, but it worked out in the end. There's even room for ice cream, because priorities!!

I also did a lot of research on TSA regulations for carrying frozen foods on the plane. Apparently you can take frozen liquid (and ice/gel packs) as long as they are completely frozen at the time of going through security. They can't even melt a little bit. As for other food, if it's not liquid, it's permitted on board. But the caveat is, everything is of course subject to inspection AND the final decision is left at the discretion of the screening agent. So I'm feeling better about my odds of getting the frozen cake on board, but not 100% confident. I may need to take a cupcake or something as a bribe, just in case ;)

I think my true backup plan might be that if they don't allow me on the plane, I'll just go home and drive to Oakland with the cake. While that's not ideal, the 5-6 hours it will take to drive, is actually LESS time than it would take me to re-bake the entire thing, not to mention acquiring supplies and ingredients once I arrive, and the stress on top of it all!  Let's hope it doesn't come to that...