Hello all,
Last week I introduced Beth of Cakes by Beth into my Dream Team of wonderful wedding suppliers. This week she is here to share some of her expert advice on choosing your wedding cake, with key design tips and thoughts on flavours.
Over to Beth……
? ? ? ? ?
Choosing your wedding cake
When the sky is pretty much the limit with wedding cake designs, it can be really difficult to know where to start. Unless you have seen a design where you have thought “That’s the one for me!”, I think the best way to clear the wood so you can see the trees is to make a list. I love a good list, I find it really helps with so many things.
Firstly, what kind of feel will your wedding have?
The main influences for this can be: the theme of your wedding, such as colour scheme or your design choice for your wedding stationery; the venue you have chosen; or the structure of the day. For instance, if you are getting married in a stately home with tall ceilings and grand architecture, plus a formal sit down meal, the feel of your day will be very formal and so you would want a tall, grand and formal cake to go with this. If your reception has a more outdoorsy focus, with a marquee, barbeque and English meadow style flowers, you may want a simpler, more softly styled cake, or maybe several smaller cakes instead of one large one.
I also think it really helps to focus on the elements that you definitely don’t want. A lot of people immediately say “fruit cake!” at this point. I think this is a shame as a good fruit cake is amazing, but it’s just a bit too old skool for some people and brings back memories of dry cake with hard royal icing on the outside, which I’m sure we’ve all experienced at some point. Some examples of things that couples have listed to me as “I definitely don’t want” range from “a standard three tier white cake” to “square tiers” to “round tiers” to “Understated, it has to be bling.” So as you can see, everyone is different and it’s just a case of finding and refining a design until you are completely happy.
As a starting point, here are some design tips that you might find useful:
- Round cakes have a softer appearance than square, which are generally seen as more traditional and formal. I think square cakes can also be more edgy and daring, it just depends on how you decorate them. A round cake can generally take a lot more decoration without looking over the top. Square cakes are definitely better left simple but with bold statements decorations.
- Using other shapes of tiers can create a really interesting and dramatic effect, such as ovals, hexagons and spheres. Be careful that you don’t have too much going on though as your wedding cake could end up looking like a stack of birthday presents!
- One way to add interest to your cake without lots of decorations is to vary the heights of your tiers. I don’t like to use lots of different heights as it can look like you haven’t measured your cakes properly but by adding, say, a double height tier in the centre, you can serve extra guests and have a more elegant, column style cake, graceful and modern.
- White or ivory decorations on a white or ivory cake, such as flowers and piping work, create a lot of texture and interest without looking over the top. I love this technique as the cake looks really traditional but with a modern twist. White on ivory or ivory on white work best to make the details stand out in a subtle way.
- What you are wearing on your wedding day can be a great source of inspiration for your cake design, from the fabric of your dress and details on your shoes to your jewellery and hair accessories. Pretty much everything can be recreated in an edible form or incorporated as part of a pattern and creates a really romantic feeling cake.
- You can bring your colour theme into the design with more than just ribbon. You can highlight your colour palette in sugar flowers, graphic printed designs or delicate patterns on your cake. Or how about an entire tier of your cake in that colour, but then with white decorations to keep the feel of a wedding? This look can be a lot more subtle than you might expect.
- This is just my personal opinion but I don’t like everything to be exactly the same. This is from the colour, size and layout of sugar flowers to decorations on cupcakes and cookies. I use subtle variations in colour, height, size and layout, sticking to the same key elements but mixing it up a little. This softens the look and gives your guests something more interesting to look at and talk about.
A quick note on flavour
Pretty much, you name it, you can have it and although by far the most popular flavour of cake ordered from me is vanilla sponge with raspberry jam, a lot of couples are looking for exciting flavours to surprise guests and reflect what they love as a couple. There is still a definite trend for heavier cakes in the winter and lighter cakes in the summer, so where people may not be choosing fruit cake as often as they used to, carrot and chocolate sponges are big hits for weddings in the colder months, whereas more zingy, citrus flavours match a warm summer wedding perfectly.
The one limitation that I set for wedding cake flavours is the use of perishable dairy products. Cream cheese frosting and fresh cream are great for use on cupcakes and mini desserts, which are made and eaten on the same day, but for iced wedding cakes, which have be left to firm up and may require several days of decoration time, before sitting out at your venue for many hours, you need a more stable buttercream filling. I have heard some horror stories about melting mousses and collapsing cakes so as much as I would recommend having any flavour of cake you like, I also truly believe that for the basis of your cake, classic is classic for a reason!
I hope you found this useful. I could write a book about choosing your wedding cake so I have tried here to highlight some helpful starting points and some key questions that I often get asked.
? ? ? ? ?
Wow, I am really impressed by all of this fabulous advice by Beth, she obviously knows her stuff and there are some very valid points here. I think it’s safe to say that while the sky is the limit with your cake, choosing one that’s right for you, and getting something that reflects your personality whilst also tasting yummy can be achieved you just have to work with the right people who ‘get’ your vision.
Beth will be back soon with more fab advice on choosing your wedding cake. To find out more about this lovely cake-maker you can visit her website Cakes By Beth or email Beth directly at enquiries@cakesbybeth.co.uk
Michelle x
