What's the best wedding cake flavour?
This is a good question, and personally I think the answer can come down to what season you’re getting married in. So let’s look at the most popular…
Summer wedding often suit a fresher flavour profile, such as Lemon and Elderflower, or a delicate Vanilla and Strawberry to give a feel of a traditional English cream tea. Once the weather turns cooler come Autumn the spices come out to play and I know my couples love my warmly spicy Sticky Biscoff cake, or my Spiced Orange and Pistachio.
It’s important to remember that you are catering for many guests at a wedding, on average most wedding have around 100 guests made up of children and adults, so it’s worth making sure that you have flavours throughout the cake that appeals to this mixed crowd. Children often love a classic flavour pairing such as Raspberry and White Chocolate (this is my most popular flavour), while a more grown up gathering may appreciate the boozier flavours such as Tiramisu or Chocolate, Cherry and Amaretti.
Spring Weddings are a great opportunity to have a play. Give your guests something exciting to talk about. Rhubarb & Custard is a tangy playful flavour that isn’t regularly seen on cake designers menus, but i have such fond memories of being my my Granny’s garden and sticking this sour stem in sugar, and them poached with lots of vanilla custard poured over, that I just had to add it to my menu. Lemon is also a great flavour for Spring weddings, paired with squishy blueberries they are perfect for any occasion.
Christmas and Winter weddings are perfect for the richer flavours such as Chocolate Orange (I had one in my stocking every year!) or Hazelnut and Chocolate, and traditional boozy Fruit Cake. Speaking of fruit cake this is a firm hit with the more traditional folk. This can be served as a cutting cake or used as a shorter decorative layer in your cake design as they don’t bake as tall as sponge cakes, and don’t have buttercream layers.
Luckily with wedding cakes you can have multiple tiers of different flavours, so if you and your fiancé don’t agree on flavour choices at least you can have a tier each. Be sure to ask your venue/cake designer to save you some.
The perfect flavour combination is completely personal and that’s why many cake designers offer complimentary tasting boxes for you to choose your perfect combination. To help I’ve listed some of my most popular flavour combinations from past couples.
Raspberry & White Chocolate / Lemon & Blueberry / Almond & Mixed Berry - this is perfect for a Summer wedding, the white chocolate adds a depth of flavour and indulgence to an otherwise traditional flavour. The lemon cake is beautifully tangy and refreshing, and the pop of the baked in blueberries is delightful. Almond and berry is a flavour that many people have fond tea-time memories of, eating Bakewell tarts with a cup of tea, this is taken to a new level with a sour mixed berry compote, this one will go down very well with guests.
Chocolate Orange / Sticky Biscoff / Tiramisu - this flavour combination is so rich and delicious for a Winter wedding. The addition of Marsala wine in the Tiramisu cuts through the rich coffee flavour and adds a warm depth to this sponge cake. The Sticky Biscoff is a firm favourite with my couples, it has added crunch from homemade chocolate crumble, and a sticky layer of caramel, it’s rich but perfect in a small wedding slice. Chocolate cake is always popular but lots of couples like the added flavour of orange, making a regular chocolate cake feel a bit more special.
Of course there’s no perfect flavour combination, it’s totally personal to you and your partner. My advice is to choose the flavours you love the most, your guests will love it because they love you. Have fun choosing, get your friends and family round for a cake tasting, some couples even have score cards to add more fun to the process.
Don’t stress over it, just enjoy eating it…anyway I’ve never met a cake I didn’t like!
Heather xx