what types of wedding cake are there?
4 Most popular types of wedding cake
In a modern wedding there’s now room for many different styles of wedding cake. Gone are the days of concrete hard royal icing covered fruit cakes, couples can have cakes and sweet treats as individual as they are. Many cake makers have a style they love to work on, and have perfected their craft in order to specialise in a particular finish, and other love to experiment with lots of different styles. Below is an insight into the most popular styles and who/what/where they are suited.
Buttercream Wedding Cakes
Buttercream is a delicious mixture of butter and sugar, I personally use a beautiful silky Swiss meringue buttercream thought the layers of my cakes. Swiss meringue is created using flavoursome British butter, egg whites and sugar. It creates a soft, not overly sweet buttercream that really brings a level of luxury to your wedding. Some wedding cake designers also cover their cakes with buttercream. I don’t however advise this as buttercream has a low melting point and can often have a slight yellow tint to it which isn’t always desirable. They are only really suited to the winter months or a venue with air conditioning.
Buttercream cakes are usually the least expensive option when budgeting for your wedding cake. The usually have a more rustic finish to them, making them slightly quicker to make than other options. Often decorated with fresh flowers too. This type of cake suits rustic venues but with a closed display area, some barn or tipi style venues can have open doors which allow flies and wasps to get in, this isn’t ideal for any cake, but certainly not a buttercream cake.
Semi-Naked style wedding cakes
You will no doubt have come across the slightly alarmingly named semi-naked wedding cake when searching for your dream cake. These have been popular for some time now and don’t seem to be going anywhere just yet. The are usually a stacked sponge cake with a thin swipe of ganache or buttercream covering the bare minimum, leaving a sneaky peak at what lies beneath. Some people really don’t like them, stating that they look unfinished, others love this about them. They are certainly a rustic cake, but actually with the right styling they can suit many different venues, although I personally recommend barns, tipis, and industrial style venues suit them best. It’s a myth to say that they are quick to do, they do actually take some time to get looking perfect, and there’s nowhere to hide if they are wonky. That being said couples who choose this style of cake often don’t mind a more unpolished finish. They are, like full buttercream cake, usually decorated with fresh flowers, foliage or fruits, and suit any season when finished with ganache, those finished with buttercream would be recommended to winter weddings.
medium 3 tier semi naked wedding cake covered in white chocolate ganache and decorated with fresh flowers and macarons. Set up at the beautiful Iscoyd Park.
Ganache covered wedding cake
Ganache is not usually a term most couples are aware off, but it is used by professional cake makers the world over. Simply it is a mixture of chocolate and a liquid, where my cakes are concerned it is a mixture of white chocolate and cream, the ratio of these two ingredients depends on the finish I need to achieve. When covering a cake in ganache I want it to set hard in the fridge but to soften but not change shape throughout the wedding day. Ganache can be applied to your cake to create a textured finish as well as a smooth finish, it is very versatile. It also tastes delicious. All of my cakes are finished with white chocolate ganache, whether they are semi-naked or fully covered, it is the perfect medium to sit for long periods on display. The downside to ganache is that it’s hard to fully achieve a truly white finish without adding lots of colouring, but most couples don’t mind a slightly creamy look. They suit fresh flowers, but can take sugar or wafer paper flowers if positioned thoughtfully. They suit any venue as the designs are endless. Chocolate is a very luxury ingredient and therefore ganache cakes are usually a higher price point, so bear this in mind when budgeting.
small 3 tier ganache covered cake, with decorative coloured swipes and gold leaf, finished with fresh and dried flowers. Set up at the stunning Foxtail Barns.
Fondant finished wedding cakes
Fondant is probably the Rolls Royce of the wedding cake world. Some couples are worried that fondant means traditional white cake, often fruit cake with fuddy-duddy decorations, but todays cake designers are amazing at creating texture, colour, pattern…you name it we can usually find a way of doing it with fondant. A fondant cake starts off as a sponge (or fruit) cake, layered with buttercream and other fillings, covered with white chocolate ganache (or marzipan if a fruit cake) then covered with a thin layer of luxury fondant. The fondant will set firm but not hard like royal icing does, you will dent it if pushed, if should be firm enough to hold it’s perfect shape throughout the wedding but soft once bitten. Fondant cakes on average take 4 days to make, not including the decorative details, so understandably these are the most expensive wedding cake. They look beautiful decorated with sugar or wafer flowers, but can also take fresh flowers and other decorations like wafer paper sails, origami style sugar work, relief patterns, the styles are endless. One of my favourite thinks to add to a fondant cake is a simple elegant bow as there’s no risk to the oils spoiling the look of the ribbon like there might be from say a ganache or buttercream cake.
These cake stay delightfully fresh even though they take a few days to make, you’ll be able to eat them a few days after the wedding and they’ll be absolutely yummy, although I still highly recommend eating it all of the wedding day for the best flavour.
medium 3 tier fondant wedding cake, with marbled fondant, wafer paper sails, sugar flowers and dried flowers. Set up at Alrewas Hayes.
I hope this goes someway to helping you to understand the types of wedding cake that are the most popular in the UK at the moment. These are the finishes that are seen widely available, but the overall design can be very different, anything from the Lambeth style wedding cake, to just a plain filled Victoria sandwich can be beautiful wedding cakes. The main thing to keep in mind is to set a realistic budget for the style of cake you like. Wedding cakes are an expensive luxury piece of edible art, and something that shouldn’t just be bought because you think it’s the ‘done’ thing. Cake artists spend days if not weeks and months on a cake design, perfecting each element so it’s perfect for you and your guests. It is usually the first piece of art you and your partner will commission together, and enjoy with your guests. I know lot’s of my couples enjoy their cake so much that they go on to order baby shower cakes and anniversary cakes over and over again. The design choices range from the traditional to the modern and sometimes totally abstract, speak with your designer to work out which is best for you and your venue, the season and the budget. We’re here to help make it easier.
Heather xx