The Perfect Celebration Cake
Although I am not able to accept any further commissions at present,
I hope the information below will still be helpful.
For inspirational design ideas, please browse my galleries,
and do check out the range of new services and downloadable tutorials
created especially for home cake decorators.
You may already know exactly how you’d
like your cake to look, what you want it to taste like, and how
big it needs to be. But in case you don’t, the following
may help you towards your decision:
Things to Consider
Types
& Flavours of Cake
Most cake decorators will offer traditional rich fruitcake, golden Madeira, darkly delicious chocolate and moist, fruity carrot cake. Many also offer other delicious alternatives (if you're having more than one tier, why not choose a combination of flavours?) and some cater for special dietary needs.
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Icings
& Fillings
Madeira and other sponge-type cakes are usually filled with your choice of vanilla or flavoured buttercream, and / or quality preserves.
Rich fruitcakes are covered with a layer of marzipan, and are then coated with soft sugarpaste icing or the firmer, more traditional royal icing. Madeira and sponge cakes are generally covered with sugarpaste icing over a layer of buttercream or marzipan.
Chocolate cakes can be covered with plain, milk or white chocolate couverture, rich dark ganache, chocolate marzipan, sugarpaste icing, chocolate curls, fans, flakes, handmade chocolate roses, and more — just take a look at my Totally Chocolate cake gallery!
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Colour
Schemes & Themes
Floral decorations can mirror the flowers in your bouquet or table decorations, while icing, ribbons and other decorations can all be matched to your chosen colour scheme. Wedding cakes can be designed to reflect the style and fabric of your wedding dress, or to follow a chosen theme, however unusual!
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Shape, Design & Decoration
The following are all popular shapes for wedding cakes - the choice
is yours. With multi-tiered cakes, 2 or more shapes can often be combined very effectively.
|
Round |
Diamond |
|
Square |
Heart |
|
Oval |
Petal |
|
Hexagonal |
Teardrop |
With design and decoration, the possibilities are limitless. Choose from a floral theme (handmade sugar flowers, fresh or silk flower arrangements), delicate piping and lacework, feathers or butterflies, jewels, brooches, hand-painting, modelling, fabric effects, texturing and much more!
Please look at our “Inspirational
Wedding Cake Designs”, “Handmade
Sugar Flowers”, and “Special
Occasion Cakes” for just some of the ways to enhance your cake. Then let your imagination go!
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Ways to Display
The assembly and display of a wedding cake is as important as its shape, colour and design. These days, ‘stacked’
wedding cakes are very popular, but other options should not be ignored, and the following can all be used to very good effect:
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Pillars |
Dividers |
|
Separators |
Candlesticks |
|
Multi-tiered stands |
Glassware |
|
Base stands |
Porcelain |
For more options and suggestions please look
at “Inspirational Wedding Cake Designs”.
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Size of Cakes & Number of Tiers
Most cake decorators will be happy to help you work out how much cake you will need, if you tell them the number of guests you will be serving. But be assured, this needn't restrict your choice of cake design, or the number of tiers you would like to have.
If you have more guests than your ideal cake could accommodate, additional “cutting cakes” can be provided to make up the extra portions. Conversely, if the cake you'd love will provide too many portions for your wedding party, one or more tiers could be “dummy” cakes, which (obviously!) wouldn't be cut and served.
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In Summary
I hope the above has been helpful, but please browse through the
rest of my website for more ideas and information.
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