03.03Selecting Your Wedding Cake
Helping You Plan The Perfect Wedding
The designs of the wedding cake can reflect the style of the wedding as much as the couple’s taste. In planning its appearance, you might take inspiration from the details of your wedding (seashells, ferns, or autumn leaves); the flowers of your bouquet or centerpieces; or your monogram. Of course, the inside is as important as the outside, so choose your favorite flavors and fillings.
A multi tiered cake with intricate icing and decorative details typically conveys formality. A silver footed cake stand or a table covered with a luxurious cloth is a fitting way to display it. But a cake can be as whimsical as the day will allow. Buttercream icing, in particular, lends itself to a more casual presentation. Fresh edible flowers can be strewn over the tiers for a lovely, natural effect. A less formal creation might rest on a round cake board with the exposed edge wrapped in ribbon. Even a sheet cake, specially decorated, has its own charm. Look through the pictures of cakes and see what appeals to you most.
Working With a Baker
Once you have some ideas for the style of the cake you want, it’s time to look for a baker. Your caterer may handle the preparation of the wedding cake in addition to the menu, or he may recommend talented bakers to do the task; your wedding coordinator, banquet-hall manager, and florist can often suggest some names as well. You may need to book a well-known baker a year in advance, but the typical lead time is three to six months.
Most bakers calculate the price on a per-slice basis. Several factors influence the pricing, including the ingredients, what part of the country you are marrying in (you’ll pay more in big cities), and the complexity of the design. Handmade flourishes, such as marzipan roses and crystallized-sugar flowers, are labor-intensive and may be priced individually. You can save money by ordering a smaller cake for displaying and a sheet cake in the same flavor for serving.
Flavors
Wedding-cake layers are often basic white or yellow cake, but they don’t have to be. If you love chocolate, lemon, carrot, or spice cake – or any other flavor – request that instead.
Fillings
Choose a filling – such as lemon curd, whipped cream, or chocolate ganache – to complement your cake layers.
Icings
Buttercream: a buttery, soft icing or filling that can be blending with anything from apricot puree to burnt caramel and spread over a cake or piped in patterns. Buttercream is never bright white – it has a creamy color that can be tinted any shade. Because buttercream melts easily, a cake that’s iced or filled with it must be kept refrigerated in warm weather. The cake should be removed from the refrigerator and brought to room temperature just prior to cutting and serving it.
Fondant: an ultra-smooth, pure-white sugar icing that is rolled out and draped over cake tiers. Its matte finish is an ideal canvas for appliqués; it even helps preserve the cake.
Ganache: a rich frosting or filling made from nothing more than chocolate and heavy cream. Ganache doesn’t hold up well in humid weather.
Meringue: a mix of egg whites, sugar, and a touch of cream of tartar that produces a fluffy but stable frosting. It also lends itself to sculptural piped decorations, such as flowers or airy peaks.
Mousseline: an icing or filling enriched with whipped cream for a light, smooth texture. You could have mousseline buttercream, for instance, flavored with chocolate or fruit.
Royal icing: easy to make with confectioners’ sugar and egg whites (or meringue powder). Royal icing is light and airy and may be flavored with any extract. It dries hard and is best for piping delicate, long-lasting details.
Decorations
Piping: The simplest technique of cake decorating, in which icing is squeezed through a narrow opening, can produce an astonishing array of details – ruffles, swags, swirls, bows, petals, leaves, shells, dots, zigzags – depending on the tips you use. Buttercream, royal icing, and meringue all perform well with this method.
Fresh berries: Choose fruits that are in season; strawberries, blueberries, and currants hold up beautifully. Fruits work best if left whole, since slicing will cause their juices to run, adding unwanted color to the icing.
Gum paste (or pastillage): a sugary dough that dries very hard. The perfect medium for very precise details, such as tiny flowers or the “stitching” on icing ribbons.
Marzipan: a paste made of ground almonds and sugar, used for delicious embellishments such as flowers and fruit.
Real flowers: Edible flowers, such as violets, pansies, and roses, must be grown pesticide-free. Nontoxic flowers may decorate a cake but must be removed before serving. Toxic flowers shouldn’t be used on or near the cake.
thanks for this.
But i need to get the picture on this filling of cakes. and picture of wedding cakes, birthday cakes etc.
And if there’s a way i can join become a member of your site, I will appreciate it very much.
thank you
yours
Nj
June 18th, 2008 at 11:55 am
well done.plz would you kindly send me the latest cake designs coz am having my wedding on 6th of december
June 19th, 2008 at 6:16 am
Hi
I would like to subscribe to your news letter and cake designs if you have any i love the designs i saw
June 22nd, 2008 at 1:23 pm
I really would like to see pictures and deigns of real cakes. My wedding is in 6mnths time and i have no creative ideas for my 3 dummy cake since i have chosen to have an ice -cream cake. My favourite.
And i also a design for the cake i shall cut with my fiance’. Pictures pls!!!
June 27th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
hie
you are very great
June 29th, 2008 at 11:05 am
I am proud of you to see your website were I was learning a lot of idea
thanks very much. I want more idea for cooking cake for wedding and idea for decoration for cake, because that is my talent.
send me more ideas please. I here at Namibia in Africa side.
Thanks
From Martha Thimotheus
Windhoek
Namibia
July 1st, 2008 at 3:38 am
i would like you to send me fondant recipe and a picture of procedures in making fondant to my mail address
July 1st, 2008 at 6:49 am
This is just what i’ve been looking out for. You are doing gret. Please keep in touch with me.
July 1st, 2008 at 11:24 am
please if you could show some of your cakes. I’m having my wedding on the 13th of September and would like to have a nice tasty cake.
By the way thanks for this #1 website and keep it up.
Vinaka
Tahine
July 2nd, 2008 at 8:02 pm
Oh, you are doing a great job, please my daughter is celebrating her first birthday, can i get some birthday picture from you.
Thanks
July 3rd, 2008 at 4:22 am
i really love most of your designs . they are simple and exquisit and i hope they would be delicious too.
thanks
July 3rd, 2008 at 8:30 am
thanx so much this what i havebeen looking for, can i have some more pictures for i am looking for my wedding cake design
July 4th, 2008 at 5:30 am
u are doing great . i want to join as a member if possible and also receive updates on decoration tips.
would love to have picture too.
Neena
Abuja
Nigeria
July 7th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
you are doing a nice job keep it up,pls send a fondat making recipe for me thruogh my email box
July 10th, 2008 at 6:43 am
Good day
I would like to ask about sponsoring my wedding, my wedding will be on the 14 of December 2008 in Port Elizabeth. I am seeking for help that you sponsor my wedding by your wedding delicious wedding cake.
For sponsoring me I will make sure that I pass your business card to my friends, colleagues and family and on my wedding program I will right all those who had sponsored my wedding.
May the good Lord bless you as you decide to assist me.
Your help and assistance is highly appreciated.
Kind regards
July 10th, 2008 at 7:53 am
I want to find out where in South africa can you buy wedding cake “bride & groom” figurines for on top of the cake. We are looking for the fun ones but they only seem to be available overseas…. I have to ask don’t people get married in SA.
I have looked in every shop I can think of but haven’t had any luck. My wedding is in September 2008.
July 26th, 2008 at 3:22 am
iam in Tanzania,i would like to thank you very much for educating me and made my life better,i have now more customers visiting my cake shop.Can you please send me recipe for the foundant frosting?Keepit up!
July 28th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
you are doing a nice job keep it up,pls send a fondat making recipe for me thruogh my email box.
I also want you to kindly send me the latest cake designs
July 30th, 2008 at 8:13 am
Pls i would like u 2 send me your designs. i’ve been trying2 chckbut could’t locate it. thanks.
August 1st, 2008 at 3:04 am
Pls i need to get the picture on this filling of cakes. and picture of wedding cakes, birthday cakes etc.I also need recipees of cakes, pasteries and doughnut. I also need pictures and recipees of fundant cakes.
And if there’s a way i can join and become a member of your site, I will appreciate it very much.
thank you
yours,
chi. n
August 2nd, 2008 at 3:26 pm
it was a pleasure to know more about cakes and your site have really eye opened me. please continue and God bless you. If you can send me more pictures of different cakes l would really appreciate.
thank you,
S. P
August 4th, 2008 at 4:47 am
Very good work,pls keepit up!May you please post some photos of the cakes or mail them to my address.I would also wish to become a member of yor site.Thank and well done!
August 6th, 2008 at 5:01 am
i am really inspired by ur site as i am a professional cake maker.kindly send pics of ur latest 3-4tier stacked or pillar wedding cakes.u are God sent.keep it up.
August 13th, 2008 at 7:16 am
hi i would like the best and easiest method of making fondant for all types of cakes especially wedding cakes.thanks
August 23rd, 2008 at 4:26 pm