Wedding cakes play an important role in the wedding party. In fact, some brides plan their entire wedding around the style of their cake. While traditional tiered white pastels covered with bride and groom figures continue to dominate, colorful pastels depicting quirky themes and paintings of personal significance have become deeply ingrained in our pop cultural psyche. They are the subjects of reality shows like TLC. Cake Boss and Food Network’s Ace of cakes. What style of cake should you choose? What should I know? After all, you want that special day to last in sensory memories of both sight and taste. With this guide you can make your wedding cake a visual wonder and a culinary delight!
Style
The style of the wedding cake will relate to your choice for the type of wedding you are having and the overall tone you are taking, be it formal, informal, contemporary, traditional, indoor or outdoor. When you have established the style, you can make all this information available to your cake designer and provide a photo or idea of the decoration with colors and materials, themes and motifs.
Themed wedding cakes It may not only reflect reception, but it may be based on your honeymoon location. For example, the wedding cake topper might include a Hawaiian motif like a palm tree on a sandbar, or a couple surfing or climbing mountains. That way the typical bride and groom on top can be changed with a bit of subtle humor into a traditional tiered wedding cake by replacing the topper with Kermit and Miss Piggy, or any of their playful alter-egos.
You may want to tie in with the architectural theme of the reception space and have an Art Deco style with zigzag, or classic columns and arches, or contemporary simplicity with rectangles, angles and folds that mimic a Frank Gehry music room. If you and your fiancé (or fiancee) are musicians, you may want to share your love of music by inviting your guests for a sweet Baby Grand or Rock-and-Roll guitar. Marry a Swede? You may want to eat the country, that is, symbolically, on a sheet cake with a blue and yellow flag design that describes the geographic shape of the country. Did you and your future spouse meet at the Star Trek convention or share a love for Halloween?
Then you see how the ideas grow and how the wedding cake themes are endless, personal and precious for each couple and their circle of friends and family.
Traditional wedding cakes They are of the stepped circular type, but can be updated as a fancy stack of diminishing squares. Another current trend is to embellish tiered cakes with cascading asymmetrical arrangements of vibrant and colorful fresh flowers. Cake Boss’s floral wedding cakes are leaders in this trend. Your baker should coordinate with your florist to mix and match the proper flowers.
Another addition is to wrap wide ribbons around the base of each tier of the cake. Satin or grosgrain ribbon is typical or the baker can create fake frosting ribbons.
Imitating a pattern or motif from the wedding dress is another great trend that helps coordinate the wedding as a whole. The cake designer can duplicate the dress’s embroidery or lace pattern, or copy the bride’s unique necklace. For a more fun look, you can simply put some jewels on the cake, like crystals or fake pearls to reflect the bride’s jewelry. Meanwhile, the traditional wedding cake still abounds with flowers, garlands, and swirls of frosting.
Taste
Who doesn’t remember a richly iced piece of wedding cake that was simply delicious? Even though your choice of cake and frosting may not please everyone, you can make sure your choices are yours as well, then do your best to pick a crowd pleaser!
- Pastel White or Yellow. The most traditional wedding cake flavor is white or yellow cake. To take it up a notch, you can add filling between layers, and here you have a variety of options, such as custard, milk chocolate, buttercream, raspberry, strawberry jam, and apricot jam.
- Chocolate cake. Many wedding guests love chocolate cake and brides eventually serve it more often, although it may be hidden under the traditional white frosting. Better yet, many brides opt for the decadent “double-double” treat: chocolate cake, chocolate filling, chocolate frosting, and chocolate topper.
- Marbled cake. A marble cake can be your answer to trying to please everyone, and each cut piece can make a beautiful display on your plate. Another method to please people is to alternate layers or tiers with chocolate cake and white cake.
- Lemon cake. For a change, a refreshing lemon cake can fit in with the overall style of your wedding, especially since it can have the color of lemons as part of your color scheme. Yellow may be more appropriate for a spring or summer wedding.
- Carrot cake. A fall or winter wedding can be the opportunity for a carrot cake. Please note that the traditional cream cheese frosting found on carrot cake will be cream colored rather than pure white.
- Fruit cake. In the UK, the traditional wedding cake is a rich fruit cake. It was the cake of choice for the 2011 wedding of Prince William and Kate. It is not a thick sponge cake, but the traditional English version is nonetheless packed with chopped dried fruit and walnuts and smeared with brandy. It is usually covered with Royal Icing which seals in the freshness of the cake.
- Royal icing. Due to the smooth and beautiful appearance of Royal Icing, it is often used to decorate wedding cakes and to create delicate decorations on the cake, such as a monogram. As it does not taste as pleasant as marzipan or traditional soft icings, it is not recommended for icing cakes, unless cake stands are used. This is because after Royal Icing dries and hardens, it tends to crack easily.
- Fondant. This is rolled into thin sheets and placed in cakes for a very smooth finish. Fondant makes an excellent base for decorations and is chosen more for its appearance than taste, so you may want a more delicious layer of frosting underneath.
- Marzipan. An almond paste, marzipan is also rolled into thin sheets and glazed to glaze cakes, primarily wedding cakes. This use is particularly common in England, in large fruit cakes. Persipan is a similar product, but less expensive, in which the almonds are replaced by apricot or peach seeds. There are German, French and Spanish variations of marzipan.
Measures for cutting cakes
Depending on the size of your reception, wedding cakes can cost from hundreds to thousands of dollars. One way to have a display stopper on a budget is to order a smaller tiered cake to display and cut, while having a cake in the kitchen where it can be cut and then served. A brave alternative is to have a cupcake wedding. Displayed on a tiered stand, the cupcakes can be offered in various flavors with a variety of decorations. Of course, a small tiered cake can be displayed and cut in a ceremony. So, don’t let your budget limit the role your wedding cake can play in your wedding. It will be unique for your special day. Whether traditional or themed, your wedding cake will look wonderful and taste delicious that will be a memory for a lifetime.
(c) 2012 Elizabeth McMillian