Choosing Your Perfect Wedding Cake
Choosing your wedding cake seems like a simple task right. Well back in the day it was, with the choice of either fruitcake with white fondant or fruitcake with white fondant and flowers, this was a no brainer. But now days with a dizzying array of flavours, shapes, colours and icing styles to choose from, selecting the perfect cake can be a delicious but more difficult task. So where to start?
The Cake
Who knew there could be so many delicious sounding cake flavours right? But how to choose the right one for you? A good place to start is deciding if your cake is going to be served as your dessert or served with coffee after dinner?
If you are having it plated and served as dessert then one of the more interesting flavour combinations like passion fruit and rum with vanilla buttercream or lavender honey sponge could be a real hit. A two (or more) tiered cake of 2 different flavours can be served as an alternate drop dessert, and as the majority of it will be eaten on the day then it is fine to go with an option that might spoil easily.
If you are serving cake after dessert with coffee than perhaps a more traditional option such as fruitcake or chocolate cake is more suitable, as guest will only be wanting something simple after a full dinner.
If you plan to follow the tradition of freezing the top tier of your wedding cake to cut on your anniversary than fruitcake really is the way to go for this tier, as it will definitely keep the best.
The icing
The traditional fondant covered wedding cake is still a popular choice but are you wondering about the pros and cons of other icing choices? There are a few things to keep in mind when choosing your icing style.
Fondant icing is a sugar based icing rolled out and applied to your cake of choice to creates a smooth flawless appearance. A popular choice with cake designers it can be made into virtually any colour of the rainbow, and with lots of decorating techniques available there are endless possibilities of what can be created with this icing. If you are looking for that super smooth, perfect looking finish then you will want to go with fondant.
Marzipan icing is much the same as fondant however being an almond based icing instead of sugar it doesn’t have same the incredibly sweet flavour of the fondant.
While buttercream icing has been around forever it is a relatively new addition to the wedding cake scene. Buttercream has a much richer creamier flavour than fondant which many prefer and is applied like traditional icing directly onto the cake. Buttercream is fantastic for creating textured finishes and naked cakes or can be smoothed to create a flat finish but it will never give the same flawless finish of the fondant. The soft nature of the buttercream can create a few headaches for your cake designer, transport of the cake can be a challenge as any bump can ruin the finish and if you are in a hot climate unfortunately buttercream is not a great choice. In high temps the buttercream can melt and end up a real mess which is a wedding day disaster nobody needs!
The cake that’s not a cake
With new trends taking off all the time, today’s couples also have a choice of many cake alternative including cupcakes, donuts, brownies, cheese wheels and macaroons to name a few. Usually stacked in a tiered fashion to resemble the traditional wedding cake these can be a great alternative to deal with food allergies as well as being quite cost effective.
Keeping these few simple tips in mind when choosing your wedding cake and your sure to end up with a gorgeous and delicious wedding cake on your wedding day.