A Beautiful, Showstopping Wedding Cake Tutorial | NYT Cooking

Natasha Pickowicz is here to show us how to make her showstopping, two-tiered, citrus-festooned, sesame-laced wedding cake! With a little planning (and an organized freezer), making a wedding cake at home is easier than you might think. Layers of vanilla bean sponge, soaked in a citrus syrup, are paired with a nutty sesame buttercream, charred citrus compote and a granola-adjacent sesame crunch. Everything then gets coated in buttercream, packed up and assembled the day of the wedding. Cheers!

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All the food that’s fit to eat (yes, it’s an official New York Times production).

[merinawww]

What a delightful person. I am always impressed when someone clearly has professional pastry chef level of skill but still relates to and can easily speak to non-professional home bakers. Thank you for introducing us to Natasha!

[niza]

Please feature her more! I love how she demonstrates and teaches. She describes each step, each work as it is and that's what's important when teaching. :)

[StanleyDo]

Her way of building cakes is genius. Nothing is more stressful than splitting a round cake into multiple layers. It seems like it would bake way more evenly in a sheet pan too. So many times I’ve had chiffon bake unevenly in a round.

[QuyenNguyen-rxdw]

Homemade cake is always better than wedding cakes. I've never had a wedding cake I was thrilled about. Also, guests don't care about how pretty a cake is. Give me a delicious sheet cake over a fondant wedding cake any day! Great video!

[Liza-sffz]

God, I love this so much. Natasha's spirit is so infectious! My favourite part is when she says 'ok, we're in the home stretch' and it's really just the 15 minute mark of a 35 minute video!

[ethanroberts]

A helpful tip if you do want a smooth final coating of Swiss buttercream is after whisking it back together, use the flat edge beater attachment on the lowest speed for 5-10 mins. This will keep the air in the buttercream, but completely smooth it out leaving you with a professional looking finish!

[creak]

I watch cooking videos all the time - this was one of the BEST in terms of highly informative instructions and a great, reassuring energy. Every step and technique was so thought through, and no ingredients (even the peels!) went to waste. Bravo!

[alexandraholbrook]

What a wonderful recipe and tutorial! I just spent the afternoon reading Natasha’s new cookbook “More Than Cake” in which she offers the same thoughtful, calming, and insightful teaching style (and lots of great tips) paired with well written, vibrant recipes for fresh spins on all sorts of delights. One of my favorite baking books of the year! I am feeling so inspired to make this gorgeous cake! Thank you and would love to see more videos from Natasha.

[KindaTurkish]

Okay, I LOVE Natasha. Please more Natasha videos!!!

[Farah-qgyv]

Made this for my sister’s birthday🧡a true showstopper!🥰

[carolineholden]

I've never done this kind of thing before but I was so inspired and I made it!!! It was DELISH!!!! Lots of work but so worth it.

[claudebuddiez]

This queen is so good at talking about dessert and making you excited about them. Her hazelnut semifreddo vid from Munchies is really making me wonder why she doesn't do more things like this! She needs to be featured more on YT!

[barbiec]

What a fabulous teacher! I feel like I could actually make a wedding cake now. A killer wedding cake. Thank you.

[anacurto]

This is just beautiful, and she's super chill all the way, which I could never do. I think I'd fuck this up just by trying to make everything perfect and symmetrical.
That thing with the streaky batter had me in hives. I kept reassuring myself: she knows what she's doing, it's fine. 😂

[TheArmachillo]

She speaks like she's in love with the science and beauty of food and I could hear her talk for hours

[katyionis]

One of my favorite NYT cooking videos ever! So many tips that we can use in this recipe and carry with us to baking in general. And the flavor creativity!! Would love to see more of Natasha.

[KhanhTran-kqmw]

I made this cake recently, and my family absolutely loved it! Thank you for this excellent recipe ❤❤❤!! Looking forward to more delicious cakes from you!!

[maggiecu]

This gorgeous cake actually feels like something I can tackle at home and I hate baking. What a great explanation from Natasha and her creative combination of textures and flavors is unlike anything I've ever seen before. More Natasha desserts please!

[JasminW]

A beautiful and unique cake and she’s such a lovely person. Explained everything so well and her personality made it so easy and fun to watch the video. I want more videos with her 💛

[LY]

Gorgeous! Delightful presentation. I love this renaissance of making fancier pastries for your friends and family.