The Wedding Cake Breakdown...Layer By Layer - Part II

Yesterday's venture into all things wedding cake was only a SMALL slice out of the towering tiers of cake knowledge. No one likes just a SMALL slice of yummy dessert, so get ready to DIG into Part II of The Wedding Cake Breakdown and enjoy another layer of goodness!

After yesterday's read, you may have decided on the spread and the fill...but what good are those without a cake underneath?! One of your most important decisions you face is what flavor of cake are your guests going to bite into! Are they going to have a mouth full of German Chocolate, Vanilla Sponge, Tres Leche, or are guests' tongues going to turn red with your daring Red Velvet? These are tough, taste bud determining decision that you will LOVE making (especially since you usually get to taste all your choices!).

Cake Flavor

Sponge

Sponge cake is a classic choice whether it be a wedding, birthday, and any cake in between. Sponge cake is light and airy, with a semi-sweet taste. The most appealing thing about sponge cake is that it easily can transform into many flavors...chocolate, vanilla, strawberry,

Pound Cake

Now this, I must say, is my personal favorite! There is nothing better then a old fashioned southern pound cake. Its dense (but moist) texture makes it a perfect base structure to withhold all the icing and multiple tiers. Little known fact, traditional wedding cakes were always made using dense cake such as pound cake; however, modern bakers tend to encourage a sponge cake base since the cost of ingredients is much less to them (I would demand the dense-stuff!). Pound cake can also come in several flavors - cream cheese, vanilla bean, lemon, poppy seed, marble, and more! Check out Southern Living Mag for awesome recipes!

Miscellaneous

Oh the lists I could come up with for this category...it is going to make me crave sugar, I just know it! Lets just put it this way, whatever your taste bud's fancy falls in here. Choose from Red Velvet, Peanut Butter Cake, Carrot Cake, Spice Cake, Angel Food Cake, Rum Cake, Almond Cake, Pumpkin Cake...I mean seriously people, I could go on, but I would just be torturing us all! Bottomline: choose your favorite flavor, these days, anything can be done!

Decorating Options

I have sifted through the YUMMY stuff, now it is on to the fun things - decorating! Think of your cake as a canvas at your wedding - your one piece of true art at the big event. Translate the ambiance of your wedding onto the cake through the choice of decorations. There are seriously about a gazillion designs available out there - although I do not have enough blog space to go over every one, I have picked out some of the most popular decorating styles. An "eye candy" picture board below illustrates some truly artistic cake features: 

 

1. Quilted Fondant

2. Antique Scrolls

These lovely accents can be done all over, or in a line wrapping around alternating tiers. These are great ways to add color to any cake.

 

3. Sugar Flowers

Sugar flowers are beauties in their own right - and are painstakingly handcrafted by each baker. Little know note: save a few of the flowers and put them in a shadow box for a wedding memory!

4. Sugar Frosted Fruit

Bakers dip fresh fruit into large granulated sugar to create a refreshing elegance to any cake

5. Icing Pearls

Small dots scattered across your cake create the illusion of pearls. These accents easily create a simple elegance! 

6. Casual Icing

Casual icing is a style that is done exactly how it sounds - casually! The cake is iced without worrying about perfection - but definitely not sloppy wither! It really creates a cake that make guests want to DIG INTO! It can be casual iced in swirls or in vertical lines (as shown above). 

 

7. Miscellaneous Embellishments

Tip of the day: use pictures such as this one to take to your baker! The best advice is to look around the web for pictures of designs you love! if you like something, print it out - your baker can surely duplicate it! 

8. Ribbon Accents

Adding a satin ribbon around a tier of the cake is an easy way to incorporate your wedding colors!

Again, this list could be endless - and the pictures of gorgeous cake designs is limitless around the weddingsphere! Check out The Knot, Style Me Pretty, and Junebug Weddings for yummy pictures! Be sure to check out Part III of The Wedding Cake Breakdown...Layer by Layer tomorrow..for an even BIGGER slice of goodness! Enjoy!