Bridal Club Magazine

The Cake

The cake should reflect your tastes, personalities, and above all, the themes of your celebration. Traditionally the wedding cake dates back to medieval times when guests brought along small cakes, which were then stacked on top of each other. The bride and groom then attempted to kiss over the tower of cake, with success believed to bring luck, the taller the pile, the more prosperous the bride and groom.

Today the wedding reception is seen to represent the couple's first meal together, which family and friends are invited to share. Of course such a momentous occasion calls for a truly glamorous dessert. Making a decision on what to choose can be the tricky part. A good idea is to collect any pictures in magazines or online that appeal to you. Keeping a record of these can be useful starting points for when you make an appointment with your cake decorator. Remember also to bring along any fabric swatches, colour samples, copy of your invitation, information about your flowers and even a picture of your dress may be helpful. All this information helps your decorator design or adapt a cake to suit your themes, particular tastes and personal style. Remember your cake should reflect your wedding.

You should book your decorator at least three months in advance, especially for the spring and summer seasons. Many people book up to twelve months in advance, so start your search early. It is essential to see examples of work done by any decorator you may be considering. You will notice prices and style vary between decorators and so you should choose a decorator whose style is in keeping with your own, and whom you believe has the skill and expertise to create something special and individual for you. Ask questions and remember, you get what you pay for!

While the traditional fruitcake is sought after by some brides, it is becoming increasingly common to choose a cake flavour that can double as a dessert. If you are serving it as dessert remember to check plateage costs at your venue. Flavour choices will vary between decorators but mud cake in its various forms and with a variety of flavours is a popular choice today. The qualities and texture of chocolate lends it well to the extensive work that needs to be performed to create something special. Today the cake is rarely covered in the old fashioned marzipan, often replaced by icing, chocolate, white chocolate, or a delicious white chocolate fondant. Your cake decorator will advise on what will give you the best flavour and appearance that you desire. When choosing your cake design and flavour consider logistical issues. For example a cake covered with ganache, chocolate panels, and curls is a questionable choice for a garden wedding in summer, and a croquembouche will fast become a gluggy mess of melted toffee in areas of high humidity. You may decide on tiers of cup cakes or mini domes instead.

In the past it has been popular to preserve the top tier of your cake for your first anniversary or the christening of your first child. With trends turning away from fruitcake, no cake will be a culinary delight after such a long period of storage, so this practice is becoming less common. A nice idea is to preserve the hand made decorations. Carefully stored these will keep, and it is a small, inexpensive matter to recreate your top tier on a fresh cake.

Prices can vary dramatically between decorators but are dictated by the complexity of your design and the size of your cake, which will in turn be dictated by the number of guests you are expecting and the serving size. Quite often a large complex floral arrangement can have a greater impact on the cost of your cake than the number of servings. A good decorator will help you balance factors of size, serving quantity, design and budget. Finally remember to ask about delivery! It is essential that the cake arrives at your venue, looking as it should, unharmed and within a suitable time frame (most wedding cakes are unsuitable for refrigeration). Be sure to check whether delivery will incur an additional charge.