How To How to Choose Your Perfect Wedding Cake

How To How to Choose Your Perfect Wedding Cake

How To How to Choose Your Perfect Wedding Cake (Plus Wedding Cake Idea Photos Below)

By: Georgina Clatworthy

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How to Choose Your Perfect Cake

Your wedding cake is an important element to your wedding celebrations. Many couples use their wedding cake as the focal point of their reception, so it will need to look fabulous & taste fantastic. Here is some guidance on choosing your perfect wedding cake.

Find your cake style

Traditionally wedding cakes are multi-tiered & covered in white icing. This remains a popular choice today; however the designs & icings get ever more creative & elaborate. Take a look through magazines & online to get an idea of the style that appeals to you most. You may choose a traditional tiered cake with pillars or without, a stunning display of cupcakes, a luxurious chocolate cake or something more novel.

Seek out the talent

When you have an idea of the shape you want your cake to take, start looking for someone to create it for you. As ever recommendations from friends & family is a good place to start or ask your venue if they can recommend someone. Bridal fayres offers you the chance to see cakes in ‘the flesh’ & even have a taste. When you start looking for a cake designer, look for one that specializes in your particular choice of cake, some may be able create fabulous traditional cakes but not a novel cake with intricate decoration.

Choose the flavors

Fruit is the traditional choice for wedding cakes & although still popular, flavored sponge cakes are increasing in popularity. You can choose to have various flavors applied to the plain sponge mix such as lemon or honey. If your have chosen a tiered cake you can have a different flavor for each tier. This is particularly good advice if some of your guests have special dietary requirements. If you choose a sandwich style cake you can also go to town on the fillings such as fruit combinations, cream cheese or chocolate.

Decide on the decoration

The decoration is probably the bit you have given most thought to & will co-ordinate with the rest of your chosen wedding scheme. Traditionally the wedding cake was iced to match the brides dress. Fresh flowers are still a popular choice & you can ask you florist to create to some small arrangements for you cake. Edible flowers can look very impressive & a good designer can make flowers that you will have trouble tell apart from the real thing. A good designer will be able to guide you & come up with a stunning design for your cake, try & furnish them with as much detail as possible about your dress, color schemes & venue.

Top it off

They may have been out of favor in recent years, but cake toppers are making a comeback. The traditional cake topper was a plastic version of the bride & groom, but modern toppers are far more sophisticated. Whimsical toppers, fondant characters of the bride & groom & even elaborate crowns are just some of the options available. Other toppers will match your theme such as snowflakes, or you may go for glamour & have your monogram made up to sit on top of your cake. CLICK HERE FOR CAKE TOPPER IDEAS

Check it for size

You may design a fabulous cake but will it be big enough to feed all your guests? Once the third course is over, hopefully all your guests will be full so you don’t need to serve up large portions. Your cake designer will be able to tell you how big your cake needs to be ensuring sufficient for all & on the portion size. As a general rule a 10″ cake will serve around 70 guests. A square cake is a more economical choice as there is no wastage when cutting, unlike with a round cake. If your budget is tight, have a decorated cake on display at the reception & smaller plain cakes or cutting cakes, in the kitchen for your guests.

Think about presentation

As you will have spent all that effort in designing your beautiful cake it would be a shame to let it down by bad presentation. Place it on a table on it’s own & perhaps add some flower petals or candles to showcase it perfectly. Place it somewhere it can be seen by your guests & not tucked away in a corner.

Save some for later!

Traditionally the top tier of the cake was saved for the christening of your first child. However this only works if the cake is made from fruit & hasn’t been cut into. After the wedding wraps it well & store in an air-tight container. When you come to use it strip away all the icing & ‘feed’ it with brandy to moisten it, and then re-ice. It is worth remembering that after a long period of time your cake may not taste as good as it did on your wedding day & so you may decide to enjoy it on your wedding day & forgo tradition.

CLICK HERE FOR CAKE TOPPER IDEAS

Enjoy Some Wedding Cake Idea Photos Below:

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Who Says, Buttercream Wedding Cakes Can't Be Artistic??

Who Says, Buttercream Wedding Cakes Can't Be Artistic??

SEARCH FOR A WEDDING CAKE DESIGNER IN YOUR AREA - CLICK HERE

Icing A Wedding Cake With Buttercream Icing

by: Lorelie Carevy

Icing a wedding cake with buttercream icing may seem intimidating at first. my sage advice to you is, don't be afraid of the cake." With practice and some wedding cake decorating tips from me you will dominate the cake and become an expert at frosting in no time.

You will need: a turntable, a spatula designed for spreading icing, cardboard rounds, plastic wrap, a frim cake, a good icing recipe and patience.

My first most important tip is always use a very cold cake. In fact I reccommend freezing the layers prior to filling and frosting them.

My second tip is to use a soft (but not too soft) buttercream recipe. My favorite is an Italian Meringue. It is light and fluffy and not too sweet.

After your cake layers have cooled, you will wrap them in plastic wrap and freeze for at least a few hours, overnight is even better.

(Note) You can cut one cake to make two layers if you bake them in the higher sided pans, which you can get at your local craft store. Wilton is a good brand. If you choose to do this, then cut the cakes after they have cooled, but before they are put into the freezer.

You will need cardboard rounds, precut to each cake size that you are planning on using. Two for each cake to slide under the cakes as you work with them and to serve as a base for each finished cake.

Filling the cakes: For a practice cake, I recommend filling the cakes with plain buttercream icing. No fancy mousses just yet! The cold cakes will solidify the buttery mixture quickly so that the layers will not slide around while frosting the cake.

The first layer of frosting that you put on your cake is called a crumb coat. A crumb coat is a thin layer of icing that is used to seal in the crumbs. This makes it much easier to frost without getting those yucky crumbs mixed in.

The crumb coat doesn't have to look good because you will be covering it with a thick layer at the end with a final coat. Once you crumb coat your cake, you need to return it to the fridge or freezer to firm it up a bit.

Now for your final coat: Place the filled and crumb coated cake onto the turntable and plop a large amount of frosting onto the top of the cake. Now spread from the center out with your spatula, being careful not to press too hard. I always use a back and forth motion while turning the table.

You should end up with some icing further out than the edges of the cake. It should be fairly thick, you will be scraping the excess off later. Now work some of that icing down the sides of the cake gently while turning the table. Don't try to make it look great yet. The idea here is to get the buttercream thick on the entire cake and then scrape it down to perfection later.

Now keep adding it to the sides as needed until the whole cake is covered. You are now ready to scrape some of the excess frosting off. Angle the spatula vertically, and using the edge of it, as you turn the table slowly. Some of the icing will form a ledge that is slightly higher than the top of the cake.

Once you get the sides looking pretty good, start working the top edges. Angle the spatula horizontally and start at the opposite side bring the spatula towards you as you turn the table. Be gentle and don't scrape away too much or it will make a divet.

Keep in mind that you will be putting a border around the edges and decorations on top or possibly a another cake on top, so if it is not absolutley perfect you will be able to cover some mistakes or uneveness.

The final step is to heat up the spatula with hot water and then go over the sides one more time and the top once to really make it smooth. You will need a long wide spatula for this.

You can store your cakes in the refrigerator uncovered once they are frosted. Just make sure that there are no dominating odors, because the buttercream will absord some of that.

Practice makes perfect!!!! as my mother used to annoyingly say to me while I practiced my notes and chords on the instrument of my choice, the organ, believe it or not!!!

The same applies to cake decorating!

SEARCH FOR A WEDDING CAKE DESIGNER IN YOUR AREA - CLICK HERE