WHAT TO CONSIDER WHEN CHOOSING A WEDDING CAKE THAT LOOKS TOO GOOD TO EAT BUT TASTES EVERY BIT AS DELICIOUS
Your wedding day is special in so many ways, but eating cake has to be one of the highlights! Choosing your perfect wedding cake will be one of the more satisfying tasks to tick off in your wedding to-dos. A two-part process, you will want to consider what flavour and what style of cake you want to have. Here’s some food for thought when it comes to making the best choice of wedding cake for your day of celebration…
SAVOUR THE FLAVOUR
When it comes to wedding cake taste, you want to choose a flavour that will appeal to you and your groom but also all your wedding guests. If you are tied to tradition, then fruitcake will be your flavour of choice with a fondant icing. If you prefer something different, there are plenty of choices. Consider a vanilla sponge with strawberry jam filling and buttercream frosting; rich velvety chocolate cake with ganache and white chocolate frosting; mocha cake with a coffee frosting – the combinations are endless!
STYLE TO SUIT YOU
Wedding cake creativity is now a fully-fledged art form all its own, with many couples choosing a unique confection to reflect their taste and style while tying it into the overall wedding theme.
A Brief History Of Wedding Cake
The Romans get the credit for creating the original tradition of wedding cake, which was in fact a rustic scone that the groom would break over the head of his new bride to bring their union luck and fertility. The newlyweds would then eat a few crumbs to show their first united effort as a couple, before their guests would consume the rest. Fast forward several centuries to the 1600s, where the bride and groom dined on a ‘bride pies’, a savoury concoction of questionable and somewhat ghastly ingredients, some of which were meant to have aphrodisiacal qualities. Not long after came the emergence of the sweeter side of bride cakes maid from sweetened bread, aromatic spices and rich currants. Eventually the sweet cakes transformed into plum cakes, which are known as fruit cakes today. It wasn’t until the 18th century that wedding cakes were covered in sugar icing – apparently the whiter the cake, the finer and dearer the sugar used. Decorations and adornments to cakes weren’t added until some years later. By the 19th century, the simple, single white-iced plum cake graduated into larger, more elaborate creations with
some showcasing coloured icing. Queen Victoria is linked to the tiered wedding cake becoming fashionable, having been a fan of extravagant show and taste.
CLASSIC
A classic wedding cake is shaped round in three graduated white tiers. There can be
more or less tiers to suit any preference and budget.
MODERN
The creative scope for modern wedding cakes is plenty, but popular choices include the following
ICING
Cakes that stand out with a difference have creative icing to make them look truly singular, from wirled colour frosting and gold flecked buttercream to scored icing with dripping chocolate down the sides.
SHAPE
Modern cakes have the edge when it comes to shape: some are square while others are double height and column like, transforming traditional tiered cakes into something different.
NAKED
More and more popular are tiered wedding cakes with no outside frosting, only showing the filling between layers. Another version is the crumbed coat or dirty iced cake, which has a barely there skim of icing on the outside, showing the sponge cake beneath.
TO TOP IT OFF
Creativity abounds when it comes to topping off the wedding cake. From the traditional image of a bride and groom as the crowning glory of the multi-tiered confection, to flowers either intricately made from sculpted icing or fresh cut blooms, it’s the final touch given to a wedding cake that gives it its unique flourish. Tying the wedding theme into a cake creation makes it completely unique and memorable, whether it reflects a couples favourite football team, or the many places they have visited on holiday.
No matter what the final choice of flavour and style combination is, a wedding cake should look as good as it tastes
Popular Cake Flavours
• VANILLA WITH STRAWBERRY JAM
• VANILLA WITH BLACKBERRY JAM
• LEMON
• CHOCOLATE
• STICKY TOFFEE
• RASPBERRY AND WHITE CHOCOLATE
• CARROT
• COFFEE & WALNUT
