Modern Wedding Cakes

Designs for the New Millennium

Brides and grooms no longer stick to the traditional round white cake with buttercream frosting designs. When it comes to the cake, almost anything goes. The cake often reflects the personality of the couple or the overall theme of the wedding.

Mini Individual Cakes

An offshoot of the popular cupcake wedding cakes trend, couples are now choosing to have single serve miniature cakes to each guest. A one or two tiered cake is used for the ceremonial cutting and the wedding party.

Guests receive an individual mini cake that is decorated to match the larger cake. The mini cakes can be multiple or single tier wedding cakes.

Works of Art

Because modern wedding cakes have become a major attraction at the reception, couples want their cakes to look like a work of art. From Monet inspirations to art deco designs, almost anything goes. Edible paint and molded chocolate and gumpaste help make cake designs come to life.

Personalized Designs

Monogrammed wedding cake toppers used to be a way to personalize a cake design. Now, couples have a more intimate option. Cakes can be designed with text that wraps around each tier, perhaps with a favorite Bible verse, quotation on love, or romantic song lyrics. Another way to personalize cakes is to print engagement photos (with photographer’s release) with edible ink onto special paper than can be used on the cake.

Brides who spend hundreds of hours trying to find the perfect wedding gown are now looking to incorporate their dress design into the cake. Swatches of fabric and detailed photos provide cake decorators inspiration for matching the cake to the dress.

Sculpted Cakes

In recent years, round cakes have given way to square wedding cakes and other shapes. Now, even the shaped cakes are being pushed aside in favor of sculpted cakes. Cake “architects,” or people who can turn even the Sears Tower into a luscious dessert, are cropping up at bakeries everywhere. Castles, animals, flowers, seashells, and more are no longer cake decorations—they are the actual cake.

Couples who choose this option often have sheet cakes for serving, as sculpted cakes may prove difficult to cut while maintaining structural integrity.

Modern Wedding Chocolate Cakes

Tradition usually puts white cake front and center, with a chocolate grooms cake offering an alternative for people with a super sweet tooth. Today, upscale versions of chocolate wedding cakes are being offered to discerning couples everywhere.

Chocolate Fondant Cake

The modern chocolate cake is not any ordinary cake. Bakers have been experimenting with flavorings that make plain old chocolate a true treat for the tastebuds. Consider chocolate cakes with the following flavors and fillings:

• Mint chips
• Raspberry
• Chai spice
• Coffee
• Dark cocoa beans
• Marshmallow
• Cinnamon
• Champagne
• Ginger spice
• Coconut cream
• Cayenne pepper spice

Couples often get caught up in the wedding cake design, overlooking the “wow” factor in getting a special recipe chocolate cake. A dark chocolate wedding cake with orange cream filling will be remembered just as fondly as a unique cake design.

Frostings for chocolate cakes offer the same versatility for designs as other frostings. Both buttercream and fondant can be made with a chocolate flavor. A rich ganache poured over the cake is an alternative to traditional icings.

Budgeting a Modern Wedding Cake

The cake may have been originally included in the entire wedding catering costs when everyone sat down to set out a budget. With the rise of specialty bakeries and more extravagant requests, many couples need to figure out how much to spend on the cake alone. The amount spent depends on the overall budget, the design of the desired cake, and how important having a particular baker or cake is to the bride and groom.

Outrageous requests, such as a life-size cake version of the bride or the use of edible gold, are not unheard of in the modern cake business and will send the price skyrocketing. Even more reasonable requests, such as a unique flavor combination with text scrolling across the cake, can end up costing extra due to expensive ingredients and labor costs.

To help keep budget in check, many couples are opting to rent a fake cake, which is usually a frosting covered Styrofoam mold, and serving sheet cakes to the guests. Other couples have been keeping their cake a single tier with a stunning design, instead of having a larger cake.

The actual wedding cake tradition will never go out of style, no matter how modern wedding cakes embrace trends. Whether or not a couple has a cake made with organic ingredients, is decorated in bold colors, is transformed into a cheesecake or candy bar, or is made of Krispy Kreme donuts, you can be sure that a tasty dessert will be a mainstay of wedding menus for years to come.