Category: Helpful Advice

Welcome back to part 5 of my series on ‘What style wedding cake do I want?‘ Luxury wedding cakes – fondant cake.
If you haven’t already head over and check out the other four parts where I will talk about other styles of wedding cake.
This blog however will look at fondant cakes and all the possibilities available. 

What is fondant?

Fondant or sugar paste is soft unlike royal icing but you are able to do so much more with it than buttercream. Along with flower paste the possibilities are pretty much endless! From five tiers to just one, from white to colourful, from plain to detailed its all possible with fondant. The five tier below, can you tell which two tiers are cake and which three are actually polystyrene?

No? Exactly, this couple only had 50 guests coming to their wedding but wanted that big show stopper cake. The best way to achieve that with out eating cake for the next year is to use dummy cakes! That’s a polystyrene cake covered in fondant and then decorated like a normal cake. Its the bottom three if you are still wondering! I then added ruffles to the base tier and quilting on the fourth, two effects only possible with fondant wedding cakes. Piping, although I pipe with royal icing is a great way to personalise your fondant wedding cake, you can add a monogram or a hand piped lace design.

Don’t want a white wedding cake?

No problem, fondant can be coloured, painted or even airbrushed. Add a bit of subtle colour like the wedding cake below where I have hand painted silver around the base. Or for a more bold look, I airbrushed the rose gold and coloured the royal blue icing for the four tier wedding cake. I’ve then stenciled in the alternate colour again using royal icing. Finishing the cake off with fondant swags and a few pearls.  

If you want to have white wedding cake but still want some colour, think about the flowers and the ribbon you can use. For example handmade sugar flowers in peach and yellow to match your colour scheme. As they are handmade I can make them in any colour and I can make most flowers. Or to match the flowers used in your bouquet or centre pieces. You can add fresh flowers in a variety of arrangements, just ask your florist. Or you could even add feathers to tie in your theme. Another option is to use silk flowers. 

Edible lace like the photo below can be made in any design and any colour. Its such a pretty affect!

​Or if you want something completely nontraditional, why not have a half and half wedding cake. Superheroes, football or Disney there is lots of different options, choose your favourite and have them hidden on the back!

I hope you have enjoyed reading about the different options that you can have in this blog and over the entire series.  If you would like to discuss the options for your wedding cake get it touch!

The fourth part of the what style wedding cake do I want series. Looks at luxury wedding cakes – buttercream or ganached cake.
Most know what buttercream is but what is ganache? Ganache is a mixture of cream and chocolate. Ganache is what I mainly use on my wedding cakes unless otherwise asked. You can have white, milk or dark chocolate ganache. I find that it is less sweet than the traditional buttercream.

Why would you choose a buttercream wedding cake?

Ganache works exactly like buttercream so you can have it flat or ridged like the photos below show. If you want some something more rustic you don’t need to have it smooth. You can leave it with a more textured look. ​As you can see from the photos you can no longer see any of the cake like the previous two styles. This seals your cake inside and keeping it nice and fresh! 

Lots of choices of decoration for a buttercream cake, from hessian ribbon and fresh flowers, to sugar flowers and fruit.
The cake below opted for buttercream roses piped on the side. With a hint of pink to tie in there colour scheme.
If you want more colour one couple opted to have a purple ombre cake to match their colours.

Wedding cake toppers

​As always adding toppers is the perfect way to make it personal to you. There are lots of different types of toppers and I love to see what the couples choose. I’ve seen Funky Pops to haybales over the years. I cant wait to see what I get asked to place on top of your wedding cake!

Add extra height to your wedding cake

To add height to your cake you can have separators between the tiers. Then fill them with fresh flowers like the picture below. You don’t need to have white chocolate ganache. You can opt for milk or dark chocolate as well. I hope that has helped you learn about buttercream or ganached cakes.

​There is a lot more choice once you start fully covering the cake. Check back for the next and final part of the series to see all the possibilities with fondant!  

The third part of the what style wedding cake do I want series looks at luxury wedding cakes – semi-naked cakes.
​So what is a semi naked cake? Unlike the naked cakes where you can see the sponge fully. These have a scraping of buttercream on the sides. So the sponge is slightly hidden but you can still see some parts. 

Why would you choose a semi-naked wedding cake?

Semi naked cakes are again great for a rustic wedding. You can style the display around them to suit your theme. Or even set up a dessert style table. Paired with fresh flowers, fresh fruit or your custom topper they are the perfect addition to your wedding. As all my cakes are handmade. You can request how much buttercream or ganache you have on the side.  Plus with the extra buttercream around the side. Unlike the naked cakes these are less likely to dry out.

However I still only buttercream the cake on the morning of your wedding, so that your cake is as fresh as possible. Similarly to the naked cake you will still be able to see the different flavours in each tier unless you opt for flavours that look similar. However I can fill your cakes with filling the same flavour as the sponge and then coat the outside in one flavour so that it all looks the same. I also advise that if your having chocolate that its the middle tier to keep it even.

I love how this couple personalised their semi naked cake with bunting, Lego flowers, bride and groom. You can really tie in the theme of your wedding with small touches like the topper or flowers on your wedding cake. 

So I hope that has helped you find out more about semi naked wedding cakes. The next blog will be about buttercream or ganached wedding cakes.

Following on from part one, what style wedding cake do I want?
This blog will look in more depth at luxury wedding cakes – naked cake. So what is a naked cake, don’t worry it has nothing to do with being naked! Simply put it is a cake where you can see the layers of sponge and filling of each tier. 

Why would you choose a naked wedding cake? 

Naked cakes are hugely popular at rustic weddings. By adding fresh fruit, fresh flowers or both you can create a centre piece for your rustic wedding. Added bonus is they are great if your not fan of the fondant icing found on a more traditional cake. 
You can easily personalised a naked cake by adding bunting. Or for a bit of colour add macarons and chocolate drips.

Naked cakes are not just for barns…

Just because your having your wedding in a hotel and not a barn or marquee. Does not mean you can’t have a rustic themed wedding. I have previously set up a naked sponge at The Park Hotel, Barnstaple. The couple had tied in the rustic theme by using a log cake stand and log centre pieces. Then with fresh flowers that match the bouquet and centre pieces we tied the cake in as well. 
However most of the rustic style cakes I deliver go to marquees or barns. That have been decked out in bunting, hessian and other rustic decorations. 

Downsides to a naked cake

There are a few downsides to a naked cake. First is that it has no icing to stop it from drying out! To reduce this I cook your cake the day before the wedding, its then cling filmed over night. Then an early start to the day of your wedding to sugar syrup and fill your cake. I then cling film it ready for transport. I always set up your wedding cake on the morning of the wedding. So your cake has only a few hours to sit before being eaten. 
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Secondly you can see the flavours and filling. Now the cake above still had four different flavours (vanilla, lemon, salted caramel and strawberry). But if you wanted a chocolate tier you will have a different colour sponge. This can cause the cake to look mismatched. Unless you have three tiers and pop it in the middle like the cake below. Similarly the cake at the bottom of the post has raspberry as the bottom tier. You will notice the pink tinge to the buttercream from the fresh raspberries. 

So I hope that has helped you find out more about naked wedding cakes. The next blog will be about semi naked wedding cakes.

With so many styles to choose from nowadays, which wedding cake style should you go for?
I’m going to break this down in to naked, semi-naked, buttercream and finally fondant covered cakes.
​This blog however will cover them all slightly. Then I will go in to further detail over the next few blogs. Now I have mentioned the four main types of cakes I make. But do you even know what they refer to? Here are some pictures below to avoid confusion!

In the following blogs I will delve deeper in to the each style of cake. However, you can see from the photos that the style of your wedding usually reflects what type of cake you will have. 

The royal iced traditional cakes are a thing of the past. Fruit cake has definitely had its day! Although I still do the occasional one, but never all three tiers.

I also find a lot of couples mention that they find the fondant icing too sweet. It’s your day so have it your way if you don’t like fondant stick with one of the other three. 

Obviously lots of things will affect your choice of wedding cake. The theme/colour scheme, your invitations, sometimes your dress but your venue usually has the biggest influence. You will want to think about where you are going to place your cake. If your in a marquee is the floor level or will your table be slightly wonky? Not the best place if you would like a cake separated with pillars. Your safer to go for a cake that is stacked together to avoid any potential disasters. We can discuss things like this in your consultation. 

Rustic Weddings

If your planning a relaxed rustic, hessian and bunting galore themed wedding. Then naked, semi naked or buttercream cakes are going to be what you want to look at. I’ve personally found an increase in the naked, semi naked and buttercream cakes. With these being the main choice from my couples over the next few months and in to next year. I believe this is due to the increase in rustic themed weddings, with more barns becoming wedding venues. Which means the rustic style cake fits the rustic barn theme of your day perfectly.

Traditional Weddings

If your choosing a more traditional themed wedding. Where you would like to wow your guests with a show stopper cake. Then fondant designs will give you the creativity you will need.

Check out the other blogs in this series on the four different styles in more detail. Helping you to create your bespoke wedding cake. Hopefully this has helped you decide which cake is best suited for your wedding. Then you can get to the exciting bit of choosing the flavours and design.
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Check out my Pinterest for more inspiration.