Have Your Wedding Cake and Eat It Too
December 19th, 2005 Posted in Wedding Planning and Ideas
Whether you’ve got a high end professional in line to whip up a delicate masterpiece, or a talented friend who can create icing flowers blindfolded, make sure that your wedding cake is ordered well in advance. As an important symbol at the reception, you want a cake that will be representative of your new life together. Rushing your baker is generally not the way to achieve this. Generally it’s a good idea to have your cake designed and finalized at minimum two months before your wedding date. Notice of four months, or even more, is often preferred, so check with your baker about the time lines that they usually work on.
Starting at least six months ahead of the ceremony, shop around for the right person to bake you wedding cake. Always choose your baker with a taste test. Even the prettiest cake is bound to fall flat if it tastes more like sawdust than sensational. Most professionals will be able to offer a sampling of the available cake types based on your initial suggestions, and be sure to take full advantage of this. Taste testing also allows you to try out cake and icing combinations that you wouldn’t previously have considered, so don’t be afraid to consider atypical, but delicious, recipes.
Other things to consider while choosing your cake are: the time of year of the ceremony. Living in Florida and having a summer wedding means lots of fun in the sun for everyone…except your cake. Mousse, soft icing and ice cream cakes can melt in a hurry, leaving you with a mess rather than a masterpiece. Again, your baker should be able to help you choose ingredients and a baking medium to suit your needs as long as you make a point of mentioning the ceremony specifics. Also watch out for guest allergies. Obviously if you have a large wedding, it may be impossible to keep track of everyone’s food allergies, but at the very least have a look at any special requirements of your head table and try to accommodate them. Having a nut-allergic mother-of-the-groom eating a walnut infused cake is a sure way to make a scene at the reception.
Oh, and those little plastic brides and grooms that used to adorn the top of wedding cakes? Not necessary. One of the easiest ways to customize your cake and make a personalized statement is to be creative with your cake toppers. The traditional plastic couple is perfectly acceptable, but so too are things such as: fresh flowers for spring wedding, holly and Christmas ornaments for December fetes, or palm trees and a surf board if you’ve run off to Maui to get married.
It’s your wedding, it’s your cake, and with the wide variety of styles, tastes and toppers available, having a cake that clear says "you" is only a little bit of planning away.
(image source)