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Wedding Cake Tips & Trends

by Shelley Waugh
THE RIGHT CAKE FOR YOUR  WEDDING
The perfect picture - the newlyweds cutting their wedding cake. Next to the bride's gown and the ceremony, the wedding cake is high on the list of photo opportunities your photographer and guests will be taking advantage of. Often brides have pieces of their wedding cake put in dainty boxes for their guests to take home as mementos. You'll want your wedding cake to be the cake of your dreams. The more you know about it and your choices of cake toppers, the better you are.

Creating the dessert for a couple’s wedding is one of the most satisfying duties of Laura Wilcox's job as Pastry Chef for Special Events at The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in Napa Valley, California. Wilcox offers the following trends and tips to help you create the right cake for the type of wedding you are creating.

TRENDS:

• The flavor of the moment is chocolate. Wilcox says currently everyone wants chocolate cake with chocolate filling.

• Couples are becoming more playful with the colors used in a cake. The brides and grooms she works with often want a lot of color, especially fall colors including orange, burgundy, greens and browns.

• People are opting for simple and elegant cakes. Fancy shapes and elaborate decorations are not requested as often as clean and simple designs.

• Individual desserts are a big trend. Or sometimes the couple does away with cake altogether in favor of a plated dessert like a fruit tart or a chocolate lava cake. Another popular choice is to offer mignardise: a selection of small bite-sized desserts that may include truffles, cookies and other desserts.

TIPS:

• Laura suggests couples should have an idea of what they want when they meet with their cake designer. Pictures are worth a thousand words, so it’s a good idea to bring some photos of cakes that catch their eye.

• Think about the flavors they’d like. Do they each have a favorite? Could they be combined?

• Decide where the cake fits in with the decoration of the wedding. Will it be the center of attention? Or will it play a smaller part, as an elegant accessory?

• Laura makes it a practice to remind couples that this is their day, and to stay true to the kind of cake they want. People often get distracted by what their friends and family would like, and that can make the decision harder. Laura says it’s absolutely fine to serve a cake that might be out of the ordinary. It expresses the couple and adds to the celebration. For more information please visit www.ciachef.edu/greystoneweddings

BANQUET HALL AND HOME MADE CAKES
Today, wedding cakes come in all shapes, sizes and colors - round, square, heart-shaped, petal-shaped, hexagon or oval. Some come with flowers, birds, pearls or your own customized "theme" decorations. Some cakes come complete with waterfalls. Depending on your nationally, you might want your own traditional cake. The top tier is usually stored until the first anniversary or a christening.

Cut out ideas for your cake and put them in your wedding binder. A wedding cake baker, pastry chef or a local cake decorating shop will help when you are shopping around.

Wedding cakes can be fruit cakes, soft cakes and artificial cakes. They are filled with all kinds of flavors - chocolate raspberry, buttercream, whipped cream or lemon, etc. Often each tier has a different filling. The list is endless - choose whatever is your favorite.
• Fruit cakes are aged for several months. For extra flavor, brandy or rum is brushed onto the cake from time to time during the aging process. Before decorating the cake, it is covered with marzipan followed by a covering of rolled fondant or royal icing.
• Soft or sponge cakes are soft and small. They are baked in different flavors such as vanilla, chocolate, strawberry or coffee. The texture is light. Therefore, a rich filling is recommended, such as whipped cream and/or fresh fruit. This cake should be made as close to the wedding day as possible and refrigerated until a few hours before serving. The topping should be a light buttercream or whipped cream.
• Artificial styrofoam cakes are popular and used for show - where the look of a larger cake is desired. It may be coated with rolled fondant and decorated with royal icing. Often the top layer is a real cake so that the bride and groom can cut it. A separate fruit cake or soft cake slab is usually served to the guests.
• For people who are wheat-intolerance please click on the gluten-free recipe link above.

BANQUET HALL WEDDING CAKE
If you are having your reception in a banquet facility, ask to see their selection of wedding cakes. You can usually have your own selected bakery bring a wedding cake into a reception facility. If you are planning this, the following should apply:
• The time of arrival should be listed on the reception contract as well as on your wedding cake contract. Make sure the cake is delivered at least one hour before your reception starts.
• The accessories for your cake should be spelled out on your contracts as well, such as a cake table, decorations, keepsake knife, a server and other items.

HOME BAKED WEDDING CAKE
If a relative has volunteered to make your wedding cake, make sure you really want this before you agree to it. But, depending on the size of your wedding and the nature of your family, it might be the perfect thing. There are several good wedding cake books on the market with step-by-step instructions on the different types of wedding cakes - how to make them and decorate them. Just reading one of these books enlightens you on some of the ideas you might want to ask a wedding cake baker.

ICINGS
The icing on the cake should be chosen carefully. It will be on display until it is time for the both of you to cut it. Therefore, the icing has to hold up for pictures! There are several types of icings. Rolled fondant, soft or rolled buttercream, royal, or marzipan are the major ones.
• Rolled fondant or sugar paste is a dough-like substance giving the cake a smooth, shiny finish. It can be decorated with buttercream or royal icing. It does not dry out completely. Fondant can be made from scratch or purchased from your local cake decorating shop.
• Soft buttercream is the preferred icing for wedding cakes. Many buttercream recipes have their own texture and flavor. It is excellent on white, chocolate and other types of soft cake.
• Royal is an ideal icing for making long-lasting sugar decorations. It is most often used to decorate rolled fondant wedding cakes or to cover fruit or artificial cakes. It can be made with either egg whites or meringue powder. Royal icing mixes are also available in cake decorating shops.
• Rolled buttercream combines the taste of regular butter cream with the application of rolled fondant. It has a smooth and shiny finish and it is usually used to cover the whole cake.
• Marzipan is an almond icing which can be used for covering cakes and making decorations. Fruit cake is always pre-coated with marzipan. This covering seals the cake and prevents any moisture from seeping through and staining either the rolled fondant or royal icing. It also provides a smooth surface for the final covering while adding a rich flavor.

CAKE DESIGNS
The traditional wedding cake can be either stacked or separated. Different layer sizes of stacked cakes are placed on top of each other, most of the time with fillings in between. Cakes are decorated with flowers, gold and silver decorative little balls or leaves made out of candied sugar and caramelized spun sugar which gives the cake a golden glow. White or dark chocolate pulled sugar has the consistency of gum paste which allows you to pull and shape it into any type of decoration you want.

Separated cakes use decorative items such as pillars to separate the tiers so that they are not touching. Cake stands are very decorative. Several are made from plexiglass and become invisible. Plastic or stainless steel dowels and pillars are used to separate the layers of cake. Wine or champagne glasses turned upside down and balanced are also used to support the tiers.

Traditionally . . . when newlyweds cut the first piece of cake together, it symbolizes their first meal together. They usually tie this in with a toast to each other. Some carry the ceremony further and use it as a photo opportunity by shoving cake in each other's faces. This is one of those silly traditions that no one knows how it started. You don't have to continue it.

Cake Photo: www.proflowers.com.

CAKES FOR CELEBRITY WEDDINGS

Napa Valley, CA ... The Pavilion, a multi-million dollar 16,000-sq.-ft. outdoor event facility on The Vintage Estate in Yountville, 45 miles north of San Francisco, in Napa Valley, uses Perfect Endings for their wedding cakes, pictured left.

CAKE CONTACTS:
Ontario
• London - Cakewalkers
• Toronto - Cake Opera Co.

www.WeddingsHoneymoons.com | Wedding Cakes | November 21, 2011