4 Top Tips for Choosing Your Wedding Cake
IMAGE: Jessy Papasavva Photography
Choosing your wedding cake is one of the most enjoyable parts of planning a wedding. It can be as elaborate or simple as you like with multiple cake flavours or not, you choose. Who doesn’t like cake?
Here are 4 top tips to consider when Choosing a Cake:
1. Match you cake to the style of your wedding
Matching your cake to the style of your wedding will add to the cohesive look of your day. You can draw inspiration for your cake from your wedding dress, your wedding venue, your flowers or the overall style/theme that you have chosen.
If you are having a rustic theme you may wish to have a naked/semi-naked cake or rustic buttercream cake decoration whereas with a glamourous style, it’s all about making the cake show stopping with and various elements such as intricate design, ruffles and cascading handmade sugar flowers.
2. Ensure that your cake designer can create your vision
Recommendations are great; however, you will need to ensure that those recommendations align with your cake vision and your style of wedding. Make sure that the cake designer you choose specialises in the type of cake you want such as gluten or dairy free, rustic, contemporary, or elegant, understands your requirements and are capable of creating your vision. It is advisable to view their portfolio to get a feel of their style.
Organise a cake tasting session before making your final decision. Some cake designers will send cake samples in various flavours by post and will then invite you to meet with them in person or by video call for a cake consultation.
A Wedding Designer/Stylist can assist you in choosing a cake whose aesthetics fit with your design. Find out more about working with a wedding stylist here.
IMAGE: Kate Izak Photography
3. Give yourself plenty of time to find the right cake maker.
Once you have decided on a wedding cake designer, book your cake. You would ideally be giving a cake maker 3 to 6 months’ notice to bake the cake. Fruit cakes take time to mature, elements of your cake may take a while to create and may have to be specially ordered or may take some time to handmake. The longer the time a cake designer has, the better results they can achieve.
4. Consider Your Budget
The cost of your cake will be determined by the complexity of the design and the number of servings needed. Intricate designs and hand-crafted sugar flowers will take a large amount of time to create and will be reflected in the price of the cake.
If having a tiered cake, you could have tiers that are false making the cake look much bigger than it is. The false tiers are polystyrene, decorated to look like real cake but are in fact known as dummy cake tiers and would be less costly than if they were real cake.
How you serve your cake will also affect the size you need and therefore your budget. Cake can be placed in cake boxes for guests to take home or as dessert at the wedding. If you are serving dessert portions at your wedding you will need larger portions than if you were to serve coffee portions where multiple slices are served on one plate, placed in the middle of a table accompanying other desserts.