Wedding Cake 101
6th August 2020 – Advice
Written by Amy Brown
Designing your wedding cake can be one of the most exciting parts of planning your wedding! It’s an opportunity to get creative and tie many of the details from your big day into an edible work of art!
It’s best to have a vague idea on your requirements prior to searching for a suitable cake designer. Think about colours, portion sizes and of course your budget. Pinterest is a brilliant place to seek inspiration and we’ve even created our own album of favourites right here: Wedding cake inspiration board.
THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN LOOKING FOR A CAKE DESIGNER
Style: Before you reach out to a designer, be sure to have a look at their gallery of work. You need to be confident that their style works with your vision. Some designers prefer to create cakes in a particular ‘signature’ style, whereas some will be able to work with different styles tailored to your requirements.
Budget: Consider whether your budget works within the designer’s price range, remember that you are commissioning a bespoke item rather than a mass-produced item, and pricing reflects a labour price as well as costs.
Taste: Be sure to sample the cake before booking – the cake should taste as amazing as it looks!
Professionalism: It’s vital that the cake designer is a registered food business with a food hygiene rating set by the FSA and should have Public Liability Insurance in order to supply your wedding cake at Hylands Estate.
DESIGNING YOUR WEDDING CAKE
Some great places to start looking for inspiration would be your floral designs, consider using sugar flowers to match your fresh or silk flowers. Look for unique patterns from your bridal dress or bridesmaid dresses and incorporate this into the cake design. Why not add personal touches like monograms or symbols that represent special memories?
Your décor theme is likely to influence your cake design, buttercream and semi-naked cakes work well with a rustic theme, and iced cakes can be designed to suit just about every theme imaginable! You’ll be pleased to know that the Grand Pavilion is air-conditioned, so no need to worry about your wedding cake melting in the summer sun!
Your cake designer will be able to use your inspiration to create a truly unique wedding cake that embodies your wedding theme and personalities!
COST SAVING IDEAS
Now you could of course purchase a simple cake from a store and decorate it yourself, that will absolutely save you money, but if you’re looking for a show-stopper on a lower budget then ask your cake designer about using dummy tiers. There’s no rule that says you must feed your entire wedding party a slice of cake! Why not have one or two tiers of real cake and use dummies to create extra height? No one will be any the wiser …. thank me later!
LET IT SHINE
Don’t forget to consider how you’ll display your masterpiece! If you’ve gone to maximum effort to design your wedding cake, be sure to pay some attention to its location and back drop in the reception. You could add decoration to the cake table by using linen to soften the appearance of the table, sprinkle petals or place votives with LED candles, fairy-lights or crystals. Talk to your décor team to see if they can assist you with other props and set-ups!
At Hylands we recommend displaying your cake to one side of your top table or in the centre of your dancefloor.
FANCY FLAVOURS
Be sure to include your favourite cake flavours to add personality to your wedding cake, no one will talk about the vanilla cake they had at your wedding but they’re sure to remember something more unique! Why not rename the cake flavours to something that’s personal to you and have a menu printed and displayed?
WORDS FROM THE WISE
“Hello I’m Sam, the founder of Crumbs To Creations based in Essex. I love traditional wedding cake styles of sugar flowers, royal icing pipework & I am a magpie for luxury decorations such as edible gold or silver leaf.
“My best piece of advice would be to let your cake maker be creative! Tell them elements of your big day such as the flowers in your bouquet, stationery, colour scheme & venue to use as inspiration then allow them to give you a well balanced design suggestion.
“Secondly, and most importantly (because I am a feeder) don’t forget to eat your cake on the day! Ask your caterer to save you some to share as Mr & Mrs at the end of the night because you will probably be too busy enjoying your reception to eat it!”
Crumbs to Creations
www.crumbstocreations.co.uk
So have fun, get creative and most of all, enjoy the cake tasting!
If you’d like to start your wedding journey with us, contact the team today:
01245 605500 | hylands@chelmsford.gov.uk
