cake design ideas

Designing the Cake: Tips For the Bride From a Baker.

By Renee Shelton

Some brides have known for years exactly the kind of dress they want to wear on their special day. For flowers, some brides prefer all white, all roses, or an eclectic mix of vibrant colors and fragrances. And other brides concentrate on finding just the right music to play, breaking down the wedding into tasteful little arias.

When it comes to cakes, though, it's usually the hardest to decide on. It's the last part of the wedding when the couple shares a fun and sweet 'beginning slice' of their marriage together. The cake cutting is the traditional culmination of a beautiful union for the bride and groom.

When a baker sits down with a client, it is always best that descriptions, ideas and desires on the part of the bride be as specific as possible. If you are having trouble narrowing down your list of ideas, or need some ideas for cakes, here are some ideas and tips that brides can use and keep in mind when choosing a cake.

Through years of creating cakes, I have gathered a list that any bride needs to consider for the planning of her wedding cake.

The considerations to keep in mind for designing your cake are: baker, ideas, flavor, decoration, special considerations, groom's cake and budget.


Choose Your Baker

First of all, choose a baker (the person who'll be making your cake) you feel comfortable with. Budgets can always be factored into the final decisions. Look at all the work they have done. Ask to be sure those pictures are specifically the work of the baker doing your cake or the bakery in general. This will give you an accurate representation of the product they will put out.

This is your cake on your day, and you need to have a baker, or bakery if many cake designers are on hand, that you feel at ease constructing your cake - from your ideas.

Gather Your Design Ideas

Your ideas are paramount in the designing of the cake. After all, this is your day. Where to get some ideas? There are countless images on the internet of bakers highlighting their work. Magazines showcasing famous designer's cakes are fun to flip through. Clip or download as many that catch your eye and try to narrow down reasons why: do stacked cakes strike your eye? or square or shaped? a certain monogram style? satin, glittery embossed or metallic lamé ribbon?

Other design ideas for your cake include the borders of your invitations or the lace-work in your dress. Both of these make the cake unique to your wedding. One of the most memorable for me as a cake designer was when a bride brought in antique hand cross-stitched linens. These were then photocopied and the design was incorporated in the border design of the cake. Note: as much as cooks love stories behind treasured recipes, bakers love stories behind unique designs for wedding cakes, and so will guests.

Also keep in mind what colors your wedding theme has, and the flowers or colors you will be using. These can be used to highlight your cake tiers or incorporated into the final design. For example, your bridesmaids dresses may be lavender in color. Your cake therefore may have a splash of lavender color in accents, candied lavender flowers in sprigs on each tier, fresh lavender in a floral topper, or the cake can be scented with a light lavender syrup.

At your favorite fabric store, take a look at the ribbon selection. These can be used as borders, topper bows, wind up tiers of the cake, or used as a complement to your cake at the cake table. Take each idea, and write it down, sketch it or cut it out, snip a favorite swatch, and place them all an idea book or folder for you to take with you to your visit with your baker.

Think About Flavor

The interior flavor can be just about anything you want. If you are a chocolate lover, a flavor choice could be using dark, milk and white chocolate mousse all layered between dark chocolate cake layers. Use one mousse on each layer so your cut piece will show three different colors each slice, or use all three for a delicious marbled effect.

If fruit suits your fancy, fresh jams and marmalades can be smoothed on cake layers before topping with a fruit mousse or whipped cream filling. The cake itself can be flavored with orange or lemon zest, accented with poppy seeds, or left plain and scented with a Grand Marnier or Cointreau syrup. While coffee and vanilla are simple flavors, they are wonderful paired with chocolate.

Other flavors and unique fillings include crème brulée, cheesecake, dulce de leche, bittersweet ganache, Bailey's or other liqueur mousse, and caramel. As you can see, the sky is the limit for flavors. Let your imagination be your guide here.

Designs Appropriate With Fillings or Venue

The outside design may in some cases be limited. For example, a fruit mousse filling must be refrigerated. If you desire an intricate royal icing design on rolled fondant, note that royal icing cannot be refrigerated and your fillings must be altered to reflect that.

The outside design is probably the most important, visually, so your baker will help instruct what is best, such as no whipped cream cakes on hot days at the park.

Dietary Considerations for You or Your Guests

If you or your groom are a diabetic, you may choose to have only the top layer sugar-free or have a separate small cake created with the exact design as the actual wedding cake for the ceremonial 'couple's cutting and sharing of the cake'. Or if you know that a guest or two has a dietary restriction or an allergy, you may want to create special desserts for them in lieu of the cake so they can partake in the eating of dessert with everyone else.

Always try to have a tasting of these specially created cakes to be sure the final product is what you want. And, note that some very particular recipes may be labor intensive, and the baker may charge accordingly.

If the entire cake will be for a special diet, such as vegan, there are bakeries and pastry shops that specialize in this area, so check them out first. They will usually be experts in the field, with bakers having tons of experience creating great tasting, and well-tested, recipes.

Also, keep in mind any inedible decorations used on the cake, if any, and notify the person(s) or staff serving the cake so that any inedible decorations can be removed before serving. For example, some metallic dusts are gorgeous to use but are in fact aluminum or bronze powder used for decoration only and should not be consumed, while pure silver and gold leaf are completely edible. Your baker will know the difference.

Groom's Cake

A groom's cake? you ask. Well, yes. These have gone by the wayside in some years, but are still popular. A wedding cake is usually the bride's choosing, while a groom's cake is where creativity can come in for the groom. They can reflect hobbies, passions, an alma mater or even state of birth for the groom. While the wedding cake can be formal, the groom's cake can be fun and whimsical, and some cases just plain funny and a reflection on the groom. What is the groom's hobby or favorite sport? This can influence the shape, such as resemble a football, be guitar-shaped, even look like a cowboy hat.

Budget Considerations

Budget is listed last here, but it is an important factor, and for most, the most important. Knowing your budget will help guide you in your final decisions. But, don't think of budgets as limitations. Of course, the more elaborately decorated the cake is, the more it will cost, usually.

Here are some alternatives and things to think about when a cake budget is a major factor in a larger wedding. If you see a seven-tiered cake in a magazine that truly strikes your eye but might break your budget, consider having your baker create a smaller scale two- or three-tiered cake with sheet cakes made up with the same filling and outside frosting. This also solves the problem for larger weddings. Here you can have an elaborate two- or three-tiered cake created for display, and for you and your groom to cut and share, while having simple sheet cakes made up as dessert for the guests. Doing this can cut down on price while still serving an elegant and elaborate (and less labor intensive) creation for your guests.

Another option is to create an elaborate single 9-inch cake for display cutting, and create gorgeously decorated cupcakes for the rest of the party.

Final Notes

All of the above are things I have suggested to brides who venture to say, "I don't even know where to start" when we sit down together and they have no ideas gathered as yet. With these tips, creating a wedding cake from start to finish can be a fun and enjoyable part of the wedding planning.

Some brides have asked to keep any sketches that I draw up for them at our meetings, which I gladly give, since this can be an important part of the bride's wedding scrapbook.

Finally, from a baker or pastry chef's viewpoint, there are some cakes that are memorable to us, that we keep sketches and notes on to reflect back on and smile. Those include cake sketches from a grandparent's wedding, replications from a unique invitation, a swatch from a bride's wedding lace, unique colors from a wedding party, a vibrant cake picture from a magazine, a favorite bible passage inscribed on the cake or incorporated into the border, or even a design from a Tiffany's box that enclosed a cherished engagement ring.

These can all be challenging to us, to be sure, but make our jobs unique in that we make a dream come true for the bride through the cake itself.

Keep challenging us, brides and grooms! And have fun collecting ideas for your cake.

 

 

This article was first published on pastrysampler.com on August 29, 2009. It was updated on October 4, 2020.

 

Sources:

Image by andreas160578 from Pixabay. Image by Shutterbug75 from Pixabay.

 

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