Choosing your Wedding Cake
Who doesn't love a yummy wedding cake? Your guests certainly do!
So how do you get a cake that is:
Delicious?
Beautiful (ie. attractive to photograph)?
Reasonably priced?
Like most other wedding-related items, early preparation is the key. Some of you might already have a vision of that perfect cake, or you might not have quite decided yet. That's OK. There's plenty of free inspiration that can be found both in print and online (eg. Instagram, Pinterest).
START EARLY!
This is really important, especially of you have a particular baker (ie. cake maker) in mind. Making a wedding cake is not just a matter of opening a packet of Betty Crocker cake mix and adding a few eggs; it can take days / weeks /months to plan and prepare (think the more intricate the design, the more work it takes to make the components). You will need to sit down with your baker and talk through all the aspects, and then they will design the perfect cake for you. Some non-food items / embellishments may need to be specially ordered, some items can be prepared in advance (like those delicate sugar flowers), whilst the main cake will have to be made within a day or two of the wedding so that it is fresh and delicious. One baker has quoted between 20-57 hours of actual work to create one cake.
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
Like everything, there can be a great variation in the cost of a wedding cake. This depends on the intricacy, the number of tiers, the size and type of cake, and the baker you choose. Prices would average somewhere between $300-700.
If your budget does not stretch so far, you could consider:
A simpler design
Fewer tiers
Smaller size (ie. smaller pieces per guest)
FLAVOURS
As the couple, you get to choose what you want your special cake to be. These days, you get a much greater choice than just fruit or chocolate. In fact, possibilities are endless! What about a vanilla bean, red velvet, buttercream, meringue, or even a cake made entirely out of donuts? Should you consider guests with allergies / intolerances? To an extent, maybe. But you are designing a cake for upwards of 100 people, so it's gonna be hard to consider everybody. It's going to be difficult to cater for the gluten intolerant guest unfortunately.
SOMETHING YOU MIGHT NOT HAVE THOUGHT OF
In all of the excitement of designing your beautiful cake, you may have forgotten one really important aspect. Where and when will you be having your wedding? Most cakes don't do well sitting in full sun for hours, especially if they are / have:
Dark / black components
Sugar flowers
Heavy (weighty) embellishments
Chocolate
Icing
And don't forget about all those insects that might enjoy your cake before your guests get to!
THE FINAL WORD
Hopefully this blog post will help you with the all-important cake decision. If you like the information on here, be sure to check out the rest of our website. If you fill in the Contact Form, we will email you a PDF copy of our Guide for organising your perfect wedding day, which not only contains all the information from this blog, but it also has lots of little tidbits to help with other parts of your wedding planning.
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