Article

THE WEDDING CAKE
July 24 2009

Typically, a professionally made wedding cake will run you from $300 to $500, depending on the style and the number of people you will need to feed.  Now keep in mind that you can always make your own cake or have a friend or family member create one but you want to ensure the final product will look fantastic and not like a cake just thrown together, as a way of saving money.

MAKING YOUR OWN CAKE
   
If you have ever baked a cake, you can bake a wedding cake.  It may not be the five-tier cake made by a professional cake maker, but it can still look elegant and taste delicious.  The one thing to consider for making your own wedding cake is that it does take time and patience.  Therefore, if you are planning a large wedding or simply do not have the time to dedicate to such a project, then you might leave this aspect of the reception to the professional.  However, if you do want to make your own cake, you will need to determine the following information:

• Size of cake needed to ensure every guest will get a piece
• Flavor of the cake as well as any fill and topping flavors
• Design, whether you want a large sheet cake or layers that will be suspended

When it comes to flavors, you can choose a cake right out of the box if you like.  While a cake made from scratch would be great, boxed cakes are so delicious today that it is almost impossible to tell them apart.  Additionally, you will have a choice of all kinds of flavors, and can mix and match them.

The same would be true for the frosting.  You can choose from a variety of flavors to coordinate with the cake but the one flavor you cannot go wrong with is butter cream.  The downfall of using commercial frosting is that it is very thick.  Because of this, piping it onto the cake is very difficult.  In this case, making frosting from scratch would be a better option.

CUSTOM CAKES

The design and flavors of wedding cakes have made dramatic changes over the past several years.  While you can still choose a traditional, white cake with white icing, the choices you have today are much more elegant and flavorful.  Keep in mind that when it comes to your choice of wedding cake, there is no wrong or right, merely what you prefer, and what coordinates best with your type of wedding.

One option to consider is to have a pastry chef create a custom cake for your wedding.  This professional is specially trained, making unique cakes.  Another outstanding option, although a bit more expensive, is to hire a confectionary artist.  This art dates back to England and spans over the past 150 years.  More and more couples are turning to this option in that the designs are breathtakingly beautiful.  Rather than ice or decorate the cake, a confectionary artist actually sculpts the cake.  If you think you might want to go this route, remember that demand is high.  Therefore, you need to book as far out as possible.

The confectionary artist focuses on one or more different forms such as a garden, flowers, stained glass, or abstract designs.  As a means of developing this skill, these confectionary artists travel around the globe to learn all they can about this very special art form.  They will attend gardening shows, flower exhibits, study books, and so on, all to perfect their skill.

DECORATIONS

The nice thing about today’s wedding cakes is that they can be decorated in literally hundreds of ways.  One very popular method is using fresh flowers.  Using a fresh or candied flower topper along with other flowers is an inexpensive way to enhance your wedding cake.  If your wedding will be formal and ultra elegant, then exotic flowers could be used for adornment.

Instead of candied roses and ribbons, you might consider a clean look, by incorporation Zen into the design.  For example, you could choose a unique octagon-shaped cake that includes sugar paste orchids or other exotic flowers along with an edible vase or cube-shaped tiers embellished with lily pads and water lilies.
 
Whimsical designs are also very popular.  For this type of cake, you could choose a beautiful cake with pink icing that is decorated with edible, silver stars, colorful polka dots, or some other fun design.  As touched on, the shape of today’s cakes are amazing.  While you could still choose the traditional, round tier, cake makers also make cakes that are shaped as hexagon, octagon, square, and so on.  Oval shaped tiers are also popular, being designed with various types of flowers made of sugar paste that are carefully stacked between the layers.

The cake’s trimmings also count.  If you want a sure thing, you can always choose fresh and sugar paste flowers, edible butterflies, dragonflies, basket weave designs, fresh fruit, marzipan designs, Swiss dots, scrollwork, and even family monograms.

Depending on the formality of the wedding cake, the decorations can be simplistic or quite elaborate.  Some considerations include:

• Dragees – These hard sugar balls are painted gold or silver and edible
• Gum Paste – Made from gelatin, corn starch, and sugar, you can make realistic looking fruit or flower decorations that will withstand heat or humidity
• Marzipan – This Italian paste is made from sugar, egg whites, and almonds.  The consistency is perfect for creating fruits or flowers that can then be used to decorate the cake.  Typically, Marzipan is brightly colored to make the decorations look incredible great and can be used as cake icing and looks chic when smoothed on the sides and then raked with a fork to create straight or wavy lines.
• Piping – This icing is placed in a pastry bag and used with different tips to make whatever look you want such as latticework, basket weave, seashells, and more
• Pulled Sugar – By boiling water, sugar, and corn syrup, you can create a type of pulled sugar that is perfect for creating bows, roses, and other decorations.  Because the sugar is pulled, it has a shiny look of satin that gives the cake an elegant appearance.

 ICING

Even cake icing has been transformed.  White or off-white icing remains a popular choice but today, couples are choosing color.  A great example would be ordering a café latte cake with a dark, brown icing.  Another option would be a pina colada cake with ice blue or light pistachio color, or a cherry cake with pink and red icing or bright red.  As you can see, the possibilities are endless.

You will find that you have some incredible options when it comes to icing.  The following are a few to consider:

• Butter Cream – This is the traditional icing that you find on cakes purchased from the store.  Typically, it is very rich, creamy, and can be colored easily.  Cake makers use this type of icing for piping flowers, leaves, seashells, and so on.  The one drawback is that the main ingredient is butter, which melts when it is too hot.  Therefore, if you are having an outdoor wedding, you should probably avoid using butter cream icing.
• Fondant – Many famous cake makers prefer this type of icing.  Made from corn syrup and gelatin, the texture is smooth yet stiff enough to work with.  Fondant is not as tasty as butter cream icing but flavoring can be added to enhance its taste.
• Ganache – This rich, chocolate icing is made from chocolate and heavy cream and has a nice smooth consistency that makes the perfect choice for a glass-like finish.  Additionally, Ganache can be used in between cake layers and for some decoration.  The only downfall is that it does not provide enough stability so excessive heat or humidity will cause the icing to slide off the cake
• Royal Icing – Made from powdered sugar and milk or egg whites, this icing is shiny white, dries hard, and does not have to be refrigerated.  Although not good for the entire wedding cake, it is perfect for decoration.
• Whipped Cream – Of all the icings, this is the most wonderful.  Whipped cream can be used on a wedding cake if refrigerated for a long time to give it stability.  Additionally, whipped cream can be flavored and even mixed with other icings to give them a light, fluffy taste and texture.

FLAVOR

This is where the wedding cake becomes very exciting and fun.  Again, at one time, you had your choice of a white, chocolate, or perhaps a marbled cake but today, that has all changed.

Cake makers now offer just about every flavor imaginable and if the flavor does not exist, then you can be sure most will do whatever they can to create it.  Some of the most popular flavors you will find include:

• White Chocolate
• Strawberry
• Raspberry
• Pina Colada
• Mango-Papaya
• Spice
• Lemon
• Butter Rum
• Chocolate Mousse
• Coconut Cream
• Amaretto
• Grand Mariner
• Passion Fruit
• Praline

The cake should be moist and have a mouth-watering aroma.  Another option is to choose a cake and in addition to the base flavor, have a coordinating filling.  Additionally, many couples are now offering guests a tiered cake made from several different flavors.

Even if you are on a budget, you can have a two-tiered wedding cake made of flavors that are your favorite, and then have several sheet cakes made of the same flavors.  This ensures the guests are still being offered the same wonderful flavors as what you will enjoy but with the sheet cake option, you save money.