Wedding cakes with flair!

Wedding cakes are so much fun to design. You can really express yourself and make it very personal…from fun and whimsical to gracefully elegant.

I will share some general information and information on a few bakers that I am familiar with. Feel free to check out the bottom of the page for other listings that have been submitted!

Update for July 4, 2011: Maine wedding business owners see how you can advertise here free!

What should you think about when it comes to your cake?

• Size, shape and the number of tiers
• Cake flavors and fillings
• Frosting Flavors
• Decorations

Overall cake structure

From a shape perspective, the most standard shapes used are the square and circle shaped tiers. A square cake will feed more people, so keep that in mind if you are budget crunching.

The number and size of the tiers will usually correlate to the number of guest you will be serving. Working with your baker, they will be able to give you some general guidelines to go by.

When it comes to cost for wedding cakes here in Maine, $3.50 per slice is a pretty average price.

Cake flavors

You can get into some very interesting flavors for wedding cakes. The most common flavors of course are white, chocolate and marble. Quite few people choose other flavors such as lemon or even carrot cake.

If you like the idea of a couple different flavors for your guests, you can use a different flavor for each layer. You can also experiment with different fillings as well.

We selected two tiers of lemon and one tier of white, with all three layers including a raspberry filling! Yum!

Frosting

Most people choose to go with just a basic vanilla frosting since it goes with just about everything. However, some choose to do butter rum or other flavors like that.

What is “Fondant”? – It is a kind of frosting used on wedding cakes. It comes in two forms…pourable and rolled. The rolled kind does not have very much flavor. It is very different then butter frosting which is like homemade frosting!

Decorations

What to place on the cake to make it pop?

You may choose, like a lot of people do, to use a traditional style cake with a standard cake topper. There are so many beautiful ones to choose from. I even found a website that makes custom designed ones!

How about fitting your theme or your love of something special that you two share into your cake design! Wedding cake designers are so creative and can come up with some pretty unique cakes.

You may also like the idea of real flowers! You can have your florist do a floral arrangement using some of the flowers used in your bouquet as a cake topper.

When using real flowers, keep in mind that you don't want to use real Calla Lilies as they are poisonous. Check with your florist or cake baker for other types of flowers to be cautious of.

This is a photo of our wedding cake (created by Casual Cakes and photographed by Matt Mishkin of Matthew Mishkin Photography).

We used fresh flowers for our cake topper. When talking with our baker, she mentioned that she could either place the flowers right in the cake or leave them in the little bowl they come in.

After talking with my florist, I found out that they actually just use a small disk meant to rest on top of the cake and it won't be seen, so went with that option.

If you would like to check out Casual Cakes, which is my baker, Chrisanne is wonderful to work with!!



I also have another recommendation for you. Shauna Osteen of
The Bakers Confections , she is incredibly talented!!! I have seen many cakes she has baked and they are amazing.

Tips:

• When pricing out cakes, don’t forget to ask about any extra fees like set-up and delivery fees.
• Some cake flavors and frosting flavors may cost more, so be sure to ask.
• Your baker should invite you to taste test a couple flavors of cake you may be interested in.
• Don’t worry about freezing the top layer and eating it on your first anniversary…it will taste disgusting!

Tidbit: Enjoy your wedding cake and forget about fat and calories!

(above photographs courtesy of the following from left to right: 3 sisters chocolate factory, Rebecca "popsie", Irresistible dessert, Grace of cakes, Maxine’s catering, Evie’s cupcakes)

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