With this cake I thee wed
No wedding is complete without a cake. But what sort of cake? A simple enough question, you might think….but think again! Wedding cakes have become amazingly creative and imaginative of late and the sheer choice of styles, favours, fillings, shapes and finished can be overwhelming. In this post we open your mind to some of the stunning and delicious possibilities you can discuss with you cake creator.
Keeping with tradition
The classic wedding cake is a fruitcake. There’s a good reason for this – the bride and groom can keep some of it in a safe place for 365 days and enjoy it on their first wedding anniversary.
The cake will either be square or round with at least three tiers. It will be covered in marzipan and white fondant icing with white detailing piped onto the cake and probably some flowers and ribbons for extra decoration.
Why three tiers? The large bottom tier is shared out at the wedding. The smaller middle tier is to share with those who couldn’t make the big day. The top tier is saved for the couple to enjoy a year later.
Give it a modern or contemporary twist
If you want to create something more individual there are many possible variations – they’re all variations on the traditional theme but give you plenty of room to express your own personal style and really wow guests with something that’s a bit more adventurous. Let us give you some food for thought….
No end of finishes - take your pick
The most traditional, and popular, finish is fondant icing. The main reason for this is that it is so practical and versatile. It’s created from a combination of sugar, corn syrup, gelatine and glycerine. This mix is rolled out into sheets and then wrapped around each tier of the cake to produce a smooth and clean finish.
Photo by David Holifield on Unsplash
Royal icing a mix of egg whites and sifted icing sugar that is whipped into a thick paste then piped onto the cake when soft. As it dries it provides a hard finish. This icing is used to create beading, latticework, flowers and other creations that must hold their shape and stay firm – you wouldn’t ice the whole cake in it, just the decorative bits.
Another popular and very tempting finish is American buttercream. It’s soft and easy to cut which makes it perfect for decorations such as a basket weave, swirls, fleur-de-lis, rosettes and swags. It has a smooth and creamy texture but is not exdessively sweet. Genuine buttercream, as the name suggests, is made with real butter, so cakes iced with buttercream will need to be kept in a cool place and won’t keep for long after the big day.
Italian and Swiss buttercream are two other very popular options for cakes. Both start out the same way as meringue and require a lot of skill to prepare.
Cream cheese buttercream is created when you add cream cheese to your buttercream. This type of finish is idea for finishing carrot cakes, red velvet cakes or lemon cakes perfectly.
A naked cake finish (also known as a bare cake, exposed, pound or tomboy cake) is just the humble sponge cake with no covering of icing
Photo by Melissa Walker Horn on Unsplash
Crumb coat finish, sometimes referred to as dirty iced, is very like a naked finish. It’s a wedding cake covered by a very thin layer of icing to hold in the crumbs - so thin that the sponge underneath is starting to show through..
Ganache is usually made by mixing equal parts chocolate and cream. As you’d expect this is a chocoholic’s dream!
Drip style cakes, as the name suggests, are cakes are adorned with rivulets of overflowing frosting. First they are covered in fondant, dirty iced or left naked and then finished with a layer of dripping chocolate, caramel or a sweet, coloured ganache trickling down the sides. A very dramatic finish guaranteed to get everyone’s mouth watering!
Marzipan is a paste made of ground almonds, sugar and egg whites. It can be rolled into sheets and moulded into shapes and then painted with food colouring or covered in icing.
Whipped Cream finish is exactly that – whipped cream. It gives your cake a wonderful texture. However, it is quite delicate so bakers often use special stabilisers or powdered sugar in the whipped cream so it’s safe to display the cake during the reception.
Hand-finished cakes may be painted, embellished with script, or covered in gold leaf or metallic finishes – the options are as varied as your imagination!
Wedding cake shapes
Most wedding cakes are round or square, but the possibilities don’t stop there. You could go for mini, spherical, hexagonal, octagonal, a cake in the shape of a petals, a stack of hearts, a pile of cushions, a fairy tale castle, a peacock, an open book, a bouquet of flowers…
Take it to a new level
The classic wedding cake has three tiers but there are no rules – you can do some amazing things on just one level or you can go up as many as you like.
If you go for two of more tiers they don’t have to be stacked directly on top of each other – you could separate the tiers by supporting them on tiers.
Another option is to go for a double height cake (sometimes referred to as double barrel). This is where two identical cakes are stacked directly on top of each other, then iced as one tall layer.
Small is beautiful
You could go for a collection of individually-sized mini cakes, one for each guest. One of the great things about this ideas is that they can be made in a variety of flavours, colours and styles. This can, however, be quite costly. A more budget-conscious option is to have a collection of cupcakes.
Let’s get decorative
Even the simplest shape of cake can be totally transformed by the choice of decorative treatments that are added to it. There are literally thousands of ways to add personal creative touches and style accents. We’ve listed some of the most popular here but not gone into detail – they are just ideas that you can discuss with your cake designer.
• Ribbons & bows
• Hand-piping
• Candy-covered
• Dots
• Spatula painted
• Flowerfetti
• Sugar flowers
• Fresh flowers
• Fresh fruit
• Hand-painted & calligraphy designs
• Metallic finishes like gold leaf & rose gold designs
Flavours and fillings to die for
You can settle for the traditional fruit cake – or go for something a little out of the ordinary (or a lot!). Coffee, white chocolate and nut flavours are very popular but there are many totally moreish citrus, fruit and floral flavours to tempt the tastebuds.
One idea is to go for a seasonal slant - light, dainty flavours for a spring or summer wedding and rich, heavy cakes for an autumn and winter wedding. Maybe you and your other half have your own very different favourite flavours? No problem – have two tiers, with his and hers flavours.
You could even go the savoury route and have a cheese stack. You can buy a ready-made cake of cheeses (some towering as high as eight tiers) or make your own combo of Cheddar, Stilton, Brie, Wensleydale, Double Gloucester or soft goat’s cheese (to name but a few).
Extra helpings
The team at Clevedon Hall love discussing cake (almost as much as eating it!) so if you have any questions of this nature don’t be shy about asking us – we’re hungry to help!