Tips on Making Your Own Wedding Cake

If you are a great baker and love the idea of making things for your wedding, you might wonder if it would be a good idea to make your own wedding cake. It is not an undertaking for the novice, but certainly a good baker could pull it off. These are some tips on making your own wedding cake.

Tip number one: keep it simple. Forget about handmade sugar orchids, airbrushed scenes, or tiny marzipan figurines. Instead choose fool-proof decorations like non-toxic fresh flowers, ribbons, and fancy cake toppers. Unless you have a lot of experience working with fondant, you will find buttercream frosting to be a better choice, since it does not have to look “perfect”. A buttercream frosted cake decorated with ribbons around each tier and a crystal cake topper to complement your crystal bridal jewelry will look fantastic, and will be nearly impossible to mess up.

Limit your DIY cake to three tiers so that weight does not become an issue. Be aware that even a three layer cake can end up weighing as much as fifty pounds, so you will need to have a sound plan for transporting it to the reception. To make sure that your tiers do not slide over or look lopsided, use a cake leveler to give each layer a totally flat top and bottom. Avoid using anything tricky like columns between the tiers. Another cute idea is to make several smaller cakes to display on beautiful cake stands instead of one large tiered cake. It is easier to manage, and also looks quite charming. You can choose stands to fit in with the theme of your wedding. If your style is woodsy and natural, use tree stumps for the stands. If your wedding will be all about the glitz and glamor of Swarovski crystal bridal jewelry, use silver or cut crystal stands. It is easier to manage, and also looks quite charming.

Deciding to make your own cake requires a lot of planning and time – it should definitely not be a spur of the moment decision. You should definitely make a practice cake many months before your wedding. Keep notes on exactly which ingredients you used, how long you baked the tiers, cooled them before frosting, and so on. That way, if the cake turns out well, you will be able to replicate it for your wedding, and if it does not, you will have some idea on what to change for your next practice cake. And if you start well in advance, you will also have the option of bailing on the whole DIY cake thing and hiring a baker if your practice cake turns out to be a disaster!

Snowy White Winter Wedding Cakes

If you are planning a winter wedding, this is the perfect time to design your wedding cake. Winter is a wonderful season in which to embrace a classic all-white cake which is reminiscent of a frosty winter day. Get inspired by these ideas for snowy white winter wedding cakes.

A fantastic way to make an all-white wedding cake interesting is with the use of texture. It will ensure that your confection, while understated, is not the least bit boring. One fantastic idea is to cover a streamlined fondant cake with little sugar “pearls” in a variety of sizes. Start with more petite edible pearls near the top of the cake, and scatter larger diameter pearls towards the base. Dust with an opalescent powder to make the decorations shimmer just like the genuine pearls in your pearl bridal jewelry. It is a very elegant cake for any winter wedding reception.

Snowflake motifs are always appropriate for wintertime. A beautiful approach to this classic theme is to have the baker use a stamp design to press a snowflake shape around the tiers of the cake. It will give your dessert a unique arts and crafts feeling, even while making use of a familiar motif. For a more contemporary snowflake cake, the baker can make silver snowflakes from sugar and scatter them down the sides of a white fondant cake. It will remind everyone of softly falling snow.

Winter is cold, but it can also be quite cozy. It would be fantastic to design a wedding cake based on the cozy side of the season. One incredible idea is a an all-white or ivory cake frosted in an intricate cable knit pattern. It will look like a warm fisherman’s sweater! How charming would that be for a wedding in a ski lodge or a New England country inn? Or take a simple cake and add a whimsical sweater inspired detail like a pair of edible pom poms. It would be adorable for an informal winter wedding.

Gorgeous Fall Wedding Cakes

The design of your wedding cake should complement the overall style of your wedding. The rustic style is very popular for fall weddings. If you see yourself getting married in a barn wearing handcrafted bridal jewelry and carrying a casual bouquet of fall flowers, your cake should be equally rustic and full of country charm. A beautiful idea is a cake decorated with sunflowers. The cake itself would be lovely frosted in a cream colored buttercream frosting applied with a rough texture. Tie dark brown raffia around the base of each tier, and accent with several miniature sunflowers placed in clusters on each layer.

Another lovely idea for a fall wedding cake is a falling leaf theme. It can be done in a variety of ways, from an elegant monochromatic design to a colorful flurry of leaves to a minimalist metallic leaf pattern. Choose the style that best suits your wedding colors and theme. For instance, for a formal ballroom wedding, it would be very autumn chic to have a tall cake decorated with gilded gold leaves. Brides who prefer a more playful cake can opt for lots of different colors and shapes of sugar leaves scattered all over the cake in a random pattern. Real preserved leaves can be strewn about the cake table to continue the theme. A single color leaf made to resemble fiery red sugar maple leaves would be absolutely beautiful for any style of autumn wedding.

Your wedding cake can also be an opportunity to indulge your whimsical side. A very playful idea is to decorate the sides of the cake layers with flat cut out silhouettes made to look like your favorite forest animals. It would be just delightful to see a collection of woodland creatures like squirrels, foxes, and deer around the cake tiers. If you like, forest foliage and acorn shapes can also be added to the cake. Do it all in soft woodsy shades of pine green, mushroom, and brick red. This type of cake would be a natural choice for the bride who enjoys unique things which are handcrafted especially for her, such as one-of-a-kind letterpress invitations and custom bridal jewelry.

With nature being such a popular autumn theme, another fantastic option for a fall wedding cake is one made to look like tree bark. There are several approaches to this concept. The first is to frost a cake with dark chocolate icing that has been dragged with a tool to look like the bark of a tree. Decorate it with foresty accents, such as marzipan mushrooms and fern leaves made of gum paste. Another very cool tree inspired cake design is to frost the cake with a white chocolate ganache. When dusted with cocoa powder, it will look like the bark of a white birch tree. What a unique take on the white wedding cake!

Modern Square Wedding Cakes

A stacked tier wedding cake is fantastic for modern weddings. The general form still says “wedding cake”, while the geometric form sets it apart from more traditional confections. Square wedding cakes are often fairly minimalistic in design, allowing the shape of the cake to be clearly seen. Smooth fondant is a good match for these elegant and sleek cakes. The most simple square cake might be decorated with nothing more than a satin ribbon around the base of each tier. Top it with a single exquisite sugar flower such as a black and white anemone for the perfect finishing touch.

Modern square wedding cakes can be ideal for formal weddings with clean lines. For an evening wedding, a three tier cake covered in white fondant will look spectacular with a band of mirror backed crystals or rhinestones at the base of each tier. This is a fabulous cake for the bride who loves crystal bridal jewelry. Add a little more bridal jewelry to your wedding cake with a single initial crystal monogram cake topper. The result will be very sleek, but not at all plain.

Geometric patterns look fantastic on square wedding cakes. A grand brocade design is very elegant. Create it in a high contrast color combination, such as black and white or espresso and aqua for maximum impact. If brocade feels too stuffy for you, consider a fresh stripe, or a delicate lattice design. A cake with this much personality may not even need a topper at all.

Chocolate is another excellent option for a square confection. You can opt for a smooth brown fondant for a very clean look, or use a rich chocolate frosting for a lush effect. The fondant cake would be beautiful decorated with clusters of sugar flowers on each tier. Choose colors which will pop against the dark frosting, such as red, yellow, or fuchsia. The creamy chocolate frosting cake lends itself to fruit decorations. Fresh ripe strawberries would be perfect for a summer wedding. In the autumn, marzipan fruit in fall colors would be a great decoration for a chocolate cake. When the cake is chocolate, it is hard to go wrong!

All About The Wedding Reception

Food, cake, and we’re off! That’s the mentality of most new husbands towards their wedding reception. For brides however, the wedding reception is totally different, and it starts with the wedding reception planning. Would you have ever imagined how much planning you would have to do for your wedding? Your wedding reception takes up quite a bit of that planning. Read more for a few wedding reception planning tips.

Tables! Tables for your reception have to be the right ones, or nothing will look right. Tables have different features and are ideal for different reason and will have to be considered for what you want out of your reception. Popular among the shapes of tables are round ones maybe three feet in diameter or even a very long banquet style table where all the wedding guests sit close together.

Some of your wedding guests may have some kind of food allergies. This most definitely should be taken into consideration. Also are the guests who will not eaten certain food because of other reasons.

For more readings on wedding receptions please visit:

• The Right Tables For Your Reception
• Wedding Reception Centerpiece Ideas
• Dealing With Food Allergies at Your Reception
• Choosing A Wedding Cake

Wedding Cakes Inspired by Nature

One of the most special parts of any wedding reception is the cake. Always a showpiece, your cake is the perfect opportunity to express something about yourself or your wedding theme. What could be more lovely for a cake than decorations which mimic the beauty of the great outdoors? These are some wonderful ideas for gorgeous wedding cakes inspired by nature.

Cascades of flowers, either fresh or sugar, are gorgeous when you want to create a more natural design for your wedding cake. The blossoms can be dainty and simple, such as pink rosebuds, or dramatic and elegant, as in handcrafted sugar orchids. Very colorful blossoms are a fantastic way to bring some bright color into your wedding reception in a way that is “safe”. Think multi-colored cascades of pinks, purples, and fuchsias or a sophisticated palette of greens and browns. This is a wonderful way to brighten up your reception while getting your inspiration from nature.

Butterflies are a gorgeous idea for a wedding cake decoration. Their fluttery grace and inherent beauty make them the ideal accent for a bridal cake. You can opt for an understated design with a few yellow butterflies perched daintily on each tier, or go wild with an over-the-top flurry of butterflies in every hue of the rainbow covering the cake. Take your color palette from the rest of your wedding, everything from the flowers to the tablecloths to special handmade wedding jewelry can inform the hues you choose for your butterfly cake. This design works equally well for a wedding with a butterfly theme or one with a special color palette but no particular signature motif.

Forests and trees can also be a wonderful place to get inspired for your wedding cake. Deeper colors in a natural palette work best. This is a good motif for an earthy wedding where the bride wears a non-traditional gown and unique handmade wedding jewelry. A deep rich chocolate cake dragged with a utensil to create a “tree bark” effect would be marvelous for a woodland reception. You can decorate it with fresh flowers in deep colors like purple, or whimsical decorations such as marzipan mushrooms and even tiny fairies. A different approach to a forest inspired cake would be to have the baker handpaint a graceful tree growing up the tiers of the cake. This is an elegant take on the woodsy theme.

Delicious and Gorgeous Chocolate Wedding Cakes

Everyone loves chocolate! Instead of the traditional white wedding cake, it can be really great to choose a rich, yummy chocolate cake instead. These days, you don’t have to hide a flavored cake under plain white icing, either; not only can you have a chocolate cake, but go ahead and frost it with chocolate icing, too. These are some fantastic ideas for delicious and gorgeous chocolate wedding cakes.

A chocolate wedding cake can be the perfect centerpiece for a grand wedding reception. Let’s say you were planning an opulent reception in an ornate ballroom in a luxury hotel. Begin by designing a cake which is very tall; five or more tiers would be good – you want your wedding cake to make a statement. Place it upon a silver cake stand and decorate it with fresh red roses between each tier. Top the cake with a small antique silver vase filled with red roses. Then decorate the sides of each tiers with a hand applied scroll pattern in crystals. The sparkling detail will really pop against the dark chocolate frosting, and is a fabulous complement to the bride’s Swarovski crystal bracelets, earrings, and bridal necklace.

There are some great modern cake designs which can be created for a chocolate wedding cake. Take three narrow layers and stack high before covering with a smooth-as-glass brown fondant. Adorn each tier of the wedding cake with circles in varying sizes done in white, lime green, and tangerine for a mod cake that will steal the show at the reception. Or opt for a modern elegant cake and decorate a fondant covered chocolate cake with an all-over damask motif in a contrasting color like sky blue. So sophisticated and definitely delicious.

Chocolate works great for a country wedding cake. A low cake with two or three wide tiers would look wonderful decorated with fresh strawberries for a summer reception. Another gorgeous idea is to decorate the cake with chocolate cosmos and pink wax flowers. Whichever decorations you choose, your guests are sure to love the sweet ending to your wedding reception!

2010 Wedding Cake Trends

Do you know what the most stylish wedding cakes will look like this year? Are cupcakes still in? Is fondant still king? Here is everything you need to know about 2010 wedding cake trends.

A new simplicity is ruling the bakeries this year. Overly ornate and precious cakes are taking a backseat to those which are simple, elegant, and above all, delicious. After seasons as the hot wedding trend, brides are finally cooling towards cupcakes, and instead opting for a real wedding cake, usually with three tiers. Very elaborate frosting made to mimic the wedding gown and bridal jewelry is less popular than frosting which looks like…well, frosting.

No longer reserved for the groom’s cake, rich dark chocolate has made its way to center stage on the main wedding cake. It is being used in elegant cake designs which feature architectural detailing, fresh flower accents, and a swanky use of ribbons.  Chocolate cakes are one wedding trend which your guests are guaranteed to love!

Streamlined geometric wedding cakes are also in style for 2010. A three or four tier cake with square layers will look chic this year. Motifs with clean lines suit this modern cake design, as do bands of horizontal stripes. Emphasize a minimalist chic by keeping the cake itself pure white. Festive touches of color in the motif will keep the cake from looking too plain. Symmetry is also in, by the way, so stack those square tiers with the same orientation; none of that topsy-turvy stuff that was popular a couple of years ago. The Dr. Suess look is definitely out this year.

They say that three is a magic number, and that is true for wedding cakes in 2010. A pretty way to make a statement with a simple cake is by making it in multiple. Make one medium sized cake with several tiers as the centerpiece, and then flank it with two matching mini-cakes, one on each side. This is a great idea for brides who want to keep the design of their cakes clean and modern, yet want to have a cake display with some “oomph”.

Modern Mixed Pattern Wedding Cakes

One of the hippest new trends right now is modern mixed pattern wedding cakes. The mixed pattern wedding cake is a simple enough concept. Rather than having each tier of the cake look the same, couples are opting to do a different design on each layer. The result is fresh, fun, and funky. It looks absolutely contemporary, yet can be used with very retro or classic patterns. The best part of a mixed pattern cake is sitting down with your baker to decide which designs you would like to combine.

A wedding cake with a few different patterns on the tiers will allow you to put your own personal stamp on your reception, much like custom bridal jewelry does for your wedding attire.  In fact, the bride’s attire can be a great inspiration for the cake design. If you were wearing a lace gown, the top and bottom cake tiers could be decorated with a fondant “lace” design to match your dress, and the middle layer could be a crisp stripe design.

Mixed pattern wedding cakes can also draw their inspiration from the wedding colors. Let’s say that you were having a wedding based on one of this year’s hottest colors, turquoise.  If you want to make your cake elegant, choose a turquoise and cherry red damask design mixed with medium width stripes. Or go with a summer tropical flavor, and make one tier a turquoise and fuchsia hibiscus print, one with lime and turquoise surfboards, and a third tier with a turquoise and white graphic wave pattern. The three designs are all funky and unique, yet will still have a nice flow based on one shared color and a common theme.

Preppy gals have long adored combining different patterns in similar color palettes, so a mixed pattern cake is a natural for the preppy bride. Picture a cake created all in pink and green. You can have an argyle tier, a striped tier, and a polka dot tier. Or have one of your favorite Lilly Pulitzer designs used as inspiration for the largest tier, and accent it with a striped middle layer, and a monogrammed top tier. Sheer bliss!

The mixed pattern cake trend is so much fun that it is destined to become a big hit. The possibilities for creativity and personal expression are truly limitless. Why not get in on the fun and design a mixed pattern cake for your wedding this year?

Winter Wedding Cake Ideas

A great way to make your wedding extra special is with a gorgeous wedding cake. The cake is much more than a dessert, it is one of the key decorative elements at the reception. These are some fantastic ideas for winter wedding cakes.

Snowflakes are one of the loveliest motifs for winter weddings. They can be used in everything from your crystal wedding jewelry to the invitations to favors. Snowflakes also look great on a wedding cake. This motif works beautifully in an icy color like white, pale blue, or silver. A simple fondant cake with ice blue frosting can be decorated with piped snowflakes in white or silver, scattered around the tiers like falling snow. Mix up the sizes and designs of the snowflakes for the best effect.
Speaking of the Winter Wonderland idea, you can use it as a terrific point of inspiration for a wedding cake. An all white cake is always a classic; for a formal winter wedding, it can be personalized with a heavy dusting of a shimmer powder to give it glitz and glamor. A wide silver satin ribbon can be wrapped around the base of each tier, then top it all off with a crystal monogram cake topper. The effect is elegant and modern, yet festive and not at all plain. This style of cake is gorgeous with crystal wedding jewelry, especially when done with the crystal cake topper.

If you are looking for something truly unique, ask your baker to design a winter scene on your wedding cake. Think about how incredible it would be to have a handpainted scene of horse drawn sleighs in snowy meadows or ice skaters circling each tier of your cake. You can personalize this one of a kind cake even more by representing scenes of your favorite winter activities, whether they are skating, snowshoeing, or even ice fishing. Your wedding cake will be such a work of art that it will be hard to cut into i

There are just as many wonderful ideas for winter wedding cakes as there are for the more common summer cakes. It is simply a matter of using your creativity and featuring a theme that highlights something unique to winter. The resulting winter wedding cake will be so special that it will be almost too good to eat.