"What if I made it for you?" I boldly asked my friend as she deliberated with her husband-to-be over whether they could justify spending nearly £250 on a cake to be served at their engagement party.
We've all seen the cool and kitsch vintage-style tiered cakes dominating our social feeds. From the heart-shaped pastel-hued masterpieces to the towering ruffled bakes, it's no wonder couples feel pressure to ensure every element of their wedding day caters to an Instagram-worthy aesthetic.
In 2023, the average price range for a four-tiered wedding cake was between £400 - £750, with many professional bakers charging upwards of £1000 for bespoke bakes.
If you're willing to DIY, however, the cost can be significantly lower, as I discovered when I used a £45 Vanilla Two Tier Naked Cake from Marks & Spencer to create my friend's dream engagement party cake on a budget.
How I made an engagement party cake on a budget
© Marks & SpencerThe two-tier M&S cake features six layers of fluffy Madeira sponge, generously filled and lightly masked with vanilla buttercream. The so-called 'naked' aspect means it's the ultimate blank canvas for any occasion.
I worked out that buying the ingredients to make six sponge cakes would cost me around £23, but given the amount of baking time, skill and patience required to produce multiple Great British Bake Off-worthy sponges, all equal in size, perfectly risen and flush around the edges, I felt investing in the supermarket version was more than worth it.
I also didn't have the multiple baking tins required to produce two different-sized cakes, nor did I have an electric mixer, kitchen scales or enough cooling racks required to make six sponges - all of which would have added a significant amount to the cost.
To ice, I used 500g of unsalted butter, 1kg of icing sugar and three egg whites to whip up a glossy, Swiss meringue buttercream used to pipe opulent swirls and romantic ruffles around the two-tier bake.
To decorate, I used maraschino cherries and a drop of violet food colouring (to whiten the yellow butter tones of the icing), meaning the total cost to decorate the cake was just £8.
I spent the days leading up to decorating the cake watching YouTube videos on how to pipe, and once I'd made the buttercream, I did a few trial runs with different piping nozzles on a spare piece of cardboard before I tackled the real thing.
A spinning cake stand was a necessity to pull off the seamless, uniformed ruffles around the edge. It was also helpful for ensuring the first layer of buttercream could be smoothed easily too.
While M&S recommends their two-tier cake serves 36 people, I can confidently say that with clever cutting, the cake could easily stretch to 45. When you're adding layers of buttercream too, the cake can be extremely rich - so a token slice is more than enough for your guests to feel satisfied.
In total, I spent £54 creating my friend's dream engagement cake, saving her hundreds from the original price she had been quoted for a vintage buttercream, two-tiered bake. While I did feel a little like Helen Mirren in Calendar Girls when her Marks & Spencer sponge wins the WI's competition, I'd definitely recommend using the M&S hack if you have an occasion coming up.
As the quote goes: "Well, I basically stuck to my mother's advice about cake baking. Line the bowl with butter. Always use a warm spoon. And if it's a special event, get it at Marks & Spencer's."
