Wedding Times

Choosing your wedding cake involves much more than simply sitting in front of a table full of samples that are just waiting to be tried (although that part’s fun too!) Getting the perfect wedding cake involves not only knowing some cake basics to know exactly what you want but also knowing a few tricks so that your guests want to it too, and then all the other details involved in making sure that you get your cake and eat it too! Here are the main things to keep in mind.

Know Your Cakes

Before you decide on the kind of cake you want, you need to familiarize yourself with some cake basics. Do you want butter-cream icing or fondant? What kind of actual cake do you want? This extends far beyond chocolate and vanilla. While it’s true that most of the beauty of a wedding cake lies on the outside, people will actually be eating this cake and so it’s important that it tastes good too.

Once you’ve decided on the type of cake and icing you want, you then need to look at every magazine and baker’s portfolio that you can, getting an idea of what you like. Perhaps you hate the thought of a tiered cake but love the idea of a simple heart-shaped cake. There truly is no set style of wedding cake so look at as many as possible to see just how many possibilities there really are!

Designing the Cake

As with every other aspect of your wedding, it’s important that you design your wedding cake so that it’s particularly special to your big day. The thought of using your wedding colors in the cake decoration is nice but don’t overdo it. If you have bold colors, such as dark green or a very stark red, instead of coloring the entire cake one of these colors, choose a white cake using the bold colors as accents. Not only will this look stunning but guests won’t be turned off at the thought of eating it!

Just as you don’t want to do it with color, you also don’t want to crowd the cake with embellishments. Items such as bows, pearls, ribbons and large bold stripes are excellent touches when they are used in moderation but putting too many of them on the cake will just make it look tacky.

It’s easy these days to get just about any cake topper that you could ask for and so be really creative when choosing yours. Instead of the traditional bride and groom, consider using something that is unique to your wedding, such as a fondant vine for a wedding held at a vineyard or two small beach chairs for a beach wedding.

Hire a Professional

Even if you’re an expert baker, you will have far too much going on to be worried about baking your own wedding cake. Hire a professional at least 4 to 6 months in advance and if you were set on making your own, choose one that will let you be as involved as possible. Get lots of references and make sure before you sign any contracts that transportation on the day of the wedding has been arranged and that you know all of the costs and details upfront.