The Perfect Wedding Cake

The Perfect Wedding Cake

Your wedding cake may be the centerpiece for your entire wedding, so you’ll most likely be putting a lot of thought into choosing just the right one. Even if you intend to stick with a basic tiered cake, you’ll still be faced with many choices regarding flavors and decorations. When shopping for the right cake, be sure to choose a baker who is willing to work with you and understands what you want.

Before Shopping For Your Wedding Cake

Before you start tasting samples and designing an elaborate blueprint for your cake there are a few things you’ll need to think about first. No matter how simple you’re wedding’s theme is, you’ll want your cake to match the rest of that color scheme or any other type of theme you’ve chosen. As one of your biggest visual highlights, your wedding cake will play a key role in tying your theme together.

Know your budget before negotiating with your baker. You should have your guest list established beforehand to give yourself an idea on how many servings you’ll need. Cake size, type of icing, and number of hand-made decorations will all play a part in your final cost so it’s important to have an amount you’re willing to spend in mind before allowing your bank account to be seduced by designer decorations and fancy frostings.

Do Your Research

Before deciding on any particular bakery, read reviews and get referrals. Don’t hesitate to ask every question you have, such as what kind of delivery method your baker uses and is there an extra fee for that service. Educate yourself on the different icing options such as fondant, butter cream, and sugar icings. Taste everything, get samples, and bring a trusted friend or family member along to give second opinions. Once you’ve settled on a baker, make sure they understand your timeline and any other expectations you may have.  Fondant looks pretty, but it does not taste that great.

Go with a Professional

Don't let your aunt, or other family member or friend make your cake.  With 21 years experience in the wedding business, the cakes I have seen fall, lean or crack, have been made by a family member or friend.  Don't take that chance.  A tiered cake needs to be properly dowelled and this needs to be done by a professional so that your cake does not fall, lean or crack.

Unconventional Cakes

Not all wedding cakes have to be a standard, white, tiered cake from your local bridal shop. Some other ideas you may want to consider are tiered cupcake trays with delicious little mini cakes decorated to suit your theme. Perhaps you’d rather go with a smaller wedding cake for each table which will double as your centerpiece.  Ask your bakery about these options as well.

The Cake Topper

There are so many choices out there.  You can search online for wedding toppers and find one that suits your needs.  A lot of bakeries no longer carry toppers in their shop for this reason.  When you meet with the bakery they will need to know what your topper looks like, how heavy it is, what size the base of it is etc.  Some bakeries will let you leave the topper with them and they will put it on when they deliver the cake.  Others will just want to see it in case they need to do anything special to the top layer to support it.  Then they will have you take it with you so that they are not responsible for it.  Accidents can happen, things can get lost.  If you do not leave it with the bakery, make sure you do not forget to take it to the reception hall.  Some halls will let you drop off items like that the day before and they will place it on the cake table so that when the bakery delivers your cake they can put it on for you, or you can put it on when you arrive.

Cutting of the Cake

Tradition has it that you save your top layer for your first anniversary.  How it tastes a year later when you pull it out of the freezer is up for debate.  Ask your bakery, a lot of them will give you a free 6" or 8" anniversary cake free on your first anniversary, if you bought your wedding cake from them.