April Wedding Cake
2 tiered Hazelnut white chocolate & black forest cake
This is a wedding cake, i made for my good friends, who had their wedding in april 2026. We agreed on a two tiered cake, so bride and groom could each choose their favorite flavor combos.
I asked bride and groom to give me their favorite flavor ideas and components, so i could create a cake design for each one.
In the process i tested several cake sponge recipes and filling options with the components they wanted in the cake. So after a few trial and errors, i came up with the following flavor profiles:
1st /Base tier: Bride
Hazelnut white chocolate cake with blackberry fruitlayer
Hazelnut cake layers: The bride wanted hazelnuts all over (her) cake. So i opted for hazelnut in the cake layers which beneficially makes them more moist and is crucial for multi tiered cakes, that have to keep fresh for a long time.
White chocolate ganache: To fill the cakes, i wanted a cream based filling that was not too heavy something other than buttercream. So, i opted for a whipped stabilized white chocolate vanilla ganache that can withstand the heavy weight of all the layers and the additional tier on top.
Hazelnut praline: To bring out the hazelnut, i designed a hazelnut praline layer that consists of roasted hazelnuts and salted caramel that get blended into a smooth paste. In pâtisserie this is called a praline.
Blackberry jam: As a fruit component, the bride wanted a sweet and tangy blackberry flavor, so i opted for a blackberry vanilla and lemon blackberry jam that accompanies the rich hazelnut and white chocolate flavor.
Swiss meringue buttercream: a super light and stable buttercream that is not too sweet, but just enough to hold everything together. You can get the recipe here on my blog: SMBC
2 tier / Top layer: Groom
Black Forest chocolate cherry & vanilla cake
Chocolate cake: The groom wanted a flavor that resembled his origin heritage: The Black Forest region in southern Germany. Naturally his favorite cake is the black forest cake and so that’s his cake flavor of choice. A classic black forest cake is made of light and airy chiffon cakes with whipped cream. In a two tiered cake, it is hard to handle such light chiffon cakes, because they hardly can stand the pressure of the weight of buttercream. Because of that, i created a super moist, yet fluffy chocolate cake, that better suits these requirements.
Vanilla ganache filling: Just whipped cream doesn’t do the job here either, so to make my life easier i use the vanilla whipped ganache from above, which suits the flavors perfectly.
Cherry layer: the cherrie on top, or with this one: Inside the cake as a cherry layer. I kept this layer traditional: Preserved cherries that get thickened with cornstarch. Super refreshing and not sweetened.
Swiss meringue buttercreme: Like the first tier, SMBC acts as the stabilizer, so we cover the whole thing in light and silky buttercream for an even finish.
In this article you will find:
My time table on which i operated to achieve smooth sailing with baking such a huge and challenging cake like this
Recipes for:
Hazelnut cake layers
Hazelnut praline
Stabilized white chocolate vanilla ganache filling
Blackberry jam
Thickened cherries
Stabilized white chocolate mascarpone filling
all the other recipes are already on my blog, so you can find them here:
Time Table:
To prepare this cake, i calculated 5 days (you could add even more time) to make sure i am not overwhelmed with all the tasks.
Day 1: All the cake layers. This day could easily be split into two days (which i recommend when you are only baking with one home oven). Because there are 7 cakes to bake, this can take a very long time, so do yourself a favor and start a week ahead with this step.
Day 2: Fruit and nut fillings. Prepare the blackberry jam and hazelnut praline. They sit well in the fridge and do not need any further attention, they can be grabbed when filling the cake. Meanwhile they can sit around in the fridge.
Day 3: Ganache fillings and buttercreme. The ganache fillings need a few steps and a lot of cooling time, so they have to be prepared in advance. There’s no rushing cooling time! It is a whipped ganache filling, meaning the whipping can be made on the day of assembeling the cake. This way, the fillings stays firm and fresh but with reduced labor on the day of!
Day 4: Cake assembly. Now’s the time to assemble. Everything is prepared and can be put out of their cooling situations to build this thing up. In my few years of experience, i find it best to be stacking the cakes on a seperate day as the final decoration, because a huge cake like this really needs it’s time to properly set and cool down. They even need cooling time in between the layers, to keep them overall stable, so you really do not want to rush this step.
Day 5: Final coat and stacking. At this point the cakes are stacked and crumb coated, now it’s time for the final coat and decoration. I reheat the swiss meringue buttercreme or make a fresh batch on the spot, so it’s properly smooth and silky for the final coat. I stack the two tiers after finally coat the seperate layers. I found this method to be the most precise with the final end product.
Of course i need to secure the base layer with extra plastic straws, before i stack the 3 tier on top. This is crucial for the cakes to not fall apart at the end. But i will list all my stuff in the last few steps .. so now -
lets start baking!
First things first: Let’s start with all the cake layers. They are best to prepare in advance, because they freeze super well and you can forget about them as soon as they are stored away in the freezer.
