What is your wedding all about? The Groom? The Dress? The Food? The Band? How about the Wedding Cake
I defy you not to have a wedding themed around your cake, that is, if you have had your cake made by Andrea Webster.
Just check out some of these fabulous creations to inspire your 'cake wedding'! People dont always think of Northern Scotland as a trend setting region, but this Superwoman's approach to cake making and decoration is fun, innovative, original and ahead of its time. And......very importantly, absolutely scrumptious!
We spoke to Andrea to find out the emerging trends for cakes in 2010
Edible Painted Cakes
Andrea started painting on wedding cakes in 1995 when a couple, who were passionate about collecting Japanese Imari porcelain, asked her to replicate the design on their cake. Her hand-painted cakes have since been popular and often feature floral still lifes or even landscapes. She has decorated cakes with the works of Gaugin, Matisse, Picasso, van Gogh, Degas, Gainsborough and even Hockney & Georgia O’Keefe. Couples love them so much they often don’t want to cut them!
Inspiration from Bridal Gowns
What a bride will be wearing often inspires the wedding cake design, shape, colour and texture. Edible satin ribbons, lace, beading, appliqué flowers, pleats or ruffles lend themselves to creating a gorgeous and unique wedding cake
Dramatic Color
Many couples looking for something refreshingly different and modern opt for a colourful cake, either in the form of coloured fondant icing or a white or ivory cake with splashes of colour. Keeping the palette simple and dramatic will always guarantee a sophisticated yet fun cake. You can also let your wedding cake be your “something blue".
Buttercream Cakes
Lately brides and grooms have been choosing meringue buttercream icing over traditional rolled fondant. Andrea’s melt-in-the-mouth meringue buttercream contains white chocolate and is not as sweet as fondant. Buttercream-iced cakes can feature sharp edges rather than rounded or beveled edges, giving the wedding cake clean lines and a more contemporary look.
Unique Shapes and Themed Cakes
Stacking different shaped tiers, some circular, some square or hexagonal, creates a modern look. Uniquely shaped wedding cakes are fun and memorable. These can include tiers stacked at odd angles for a Mad Hatter effect or an entire cake comprising, for example, a Caribbean island, complete with palm trees and hummingbirds. These cakes are highly personalised and tell a story about the bride and groom. The choices are endless – all it takes is a sense of fun and a wild imagination.
Wedding Cupcakes or Individual Cakes
These continue to be popular and are a fun departure from tiered cakes. There is no limit to colour and decorations can be sophisticated, such as the couple’s monogram, or playful, such as sugared flowers. Some couples are choosing alternative confections, such as individual cheesecakes or small tarts.
Other exciting trends she told us about:
Much to the delight (or sometimes the chagrin) of brides, their grooms are becoming more interested in wedding planning and being involved in wedding cake design. This has led to fewer girly cakes in pinks & pastels and more modern, edgy or humourous cakes. Men who are happy to let the bride have her way with the cake design will often express strong opinions about flavours – most just want a yummy cake. Those who are completely indifferent become less so when they find out that Andrea made basketballer Michael Jordan’s 40th birthday cake!
Back-to-Nature Cakes
Tying in with green and eco trends, a popular new look for wedding cakes is rustic and unfussy. Cakes can be completely uniced and adorned with seasonal berries, fresh fruit, wildflowers or leaves, looking simple and untortured yet inviting at the same time.
Cake Calligraphy
Beautiful writing inscribed on fondant cakes can tell a story about the bride and groom or feature a favourite meaningful poem or verse. The couple may wish to design a monogram of their initials or a new family crest to symbolize their union. Some couples prefer a single word, phrase or quote for a simple yet dramatic effect.
The Sweeter the Better!
Those who love sweets may consider a wedding cake decorated with their favourite: liquorice allsorts, marshmallows, candy floss or chocolate truffles. Or the cake itself could be a stack of three giant liquorice allsorts!
Introducing Black (or Dark Brown)
White or pretty pastel icing with black detail – lace, ribbon, dots – are becoming more fashionable. Black & white cakes can be livened up with a splash of colour, hot pink being extremely effective.
Bejewelled Cakes
Large pieces of sugar costume jewellery are replacing flowers as a fashionable way to adorn a wedding cake and the availability of edible diamantes and gems makes bejewelled cake ideas almost limitless. This trend is good for evening weddings where the jewels will sparkle under lighting.
Metallics & Pearls
Metallic themes are in and the availability of edible powders and dusts in gold, silver, bronze and pewter enable the cake designer to go to town with exciting metallic details on wedding cakes.
Alternative or Non-Cake Wedding Cakes
Cheese Wedding Cake
Those who don’t care for sweets may consider a “cake” comprising a variety of stacked cheeses – Stilton, Brie, Morbier, Cornish Yarg, etc – as an alternative to a wedding cake. A cheese wedding cake could be decorated invitingly with grapes or fresh figs and surrounded by crackers and condiments. Or for something really different, you could try a Sushi Wedding Cake! It will be the talking point of your wedding!
Flavours
Tasting and selecting wedding cake flavours is one of the more enjoyable parts of planning a wedding. When choosing flavours consider whether the wedding cake will be served as the pudding (larger portions) or after the meal (smaller portions). In the latter case, the flavour chosen should complement the dessert. If the dessert comprises chocolate then avoid serving a chocolate wedding cake as well. If the wedding cake is the main pudding there will be no restrictions to flavour choices. Many couples will order a tier of fruit cake for traditional purposes or to keep, a tier of sponge cake to accommodate those with simpler tastes and a layer of a third, more decadent flavour, quite often chocolate, for the largest tier. Lemon curd cake, hazelnut chocolate and carrot cake with cream cheese icing are further favourites. If you have a favourite recipe or would like to replicate a cake you’ve enjoyed let your wedding cake designer know. It’s impossible to please every one of your guests so Andrea’s advice is to go with what you as a couple really love. As well as the design of the cake, the flavour you choose will be one of the opportunities you have to express your own personal style.
For help coordinating your
'Cake Wedding', or any type of wedding, contact Premier Wedding Planners Scotland for your free consultation.
Labels: cake wedding wedding planner wedding coordinator Scottish wedding
It is tradition for a Bride to offer her Piper a drink at her wedding. Once Spud has piped the newlyweds to the Top Table, he will take a drink from the Quaich. The Quaich is a special kind of shallow two-handled drinking cup. It is seen as the Cup of Friendship, and it is said to bring you good luck. Tradition has it that this is the cup which is referenced in Auld Lang Syne: “For auld lang syne, my dear, for auld lang syne, we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet, for auld lang syne”. This is Sir Sean Connery with a Quaich. (Unfortunately Spud doesn't take Sir Sean with him, just a Quaich!) 
