The Cake

The Cake is a very distinctive and important part of any wedding, in my humble opinion, and there are two kinds of wedding cake: cake that is meant to be eaten and cake that is not really meant to be eaten but is more of a decoration. We knew from the beginning that we wanted a cake that would be eaten and enjoyed.

I will not be getting into the logistics of making wedding cakes although, ever so briefly, we did consider making our own in order to save money. For the bride who is seriously thinking of making her own cake I would like to recommend Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Cake Bible and any of the Wilton brand cake decorating books. Between these two resources, she should have everything she needs to make a wedding cake except, perhaps, experience. I strongly suggest making a trial cake or two before committing to making The Cake, which is what we did, and which is what convinced us to leave such an undertaking to those who knew how to do it well.

Normally, my aunt makes the wedding cakes in our family. She has been doing this for decades and definitely knows how to make a delicious and beautiful wedding cake. She is in her late 70’s, however, and it’s become too difficult. She announced last year that she would no longer be making the family wedding cakes. My main reason for mentioning this is to assure brides that a homemade cake is perfectly acceptable! As I stated in an earlier entry, we simply could not justify spending $4 to $6 per slice to have a professionally made wedding cake no matter how stunningly beautiful it would be. On the other hand, if this is a high priority for a bride, I will not fault her for wanting a gorgeous tower of a wedding cake. Just be aware, the price can be astounding.

Since we did not deal with a professional baker who specialized in making wedding cakes, I don’t have much advice to offer here except do your homework. Research the kind of cake you want beforehand and have pictures ready that show exactly what you want. Research the kinds of questions you’ll need to ask the baker. From refrigeration space to cake stands, there are many exacting details involved when you use a professional. Some wedding web sites provide a list of questions to ask. I suggest that a bride familiarize herself with them.

Some other things to consider:
Fondant frosting is gorgeous but it can be chewy and kinda tasteless. Personally, I love the look of it but a bride should be sure to taste it before she decides on it, especially if she actually wants the cake to be eaten rather than simply admired as a piece of potentially “edible” art.

My daughter and I have been to many weddings where we saw a lot of cake uneaten on plates or thrown away in trash cans. There are two reasons for this. One, the cake isn’t all that tasty – perhaps it’s one of those sugary white cakes which delight some palates but leave others wishing for something with more flavor. And two, a standard piece of wedding cake by most baker’s standards is around two by three inches or larger. That’s a very generous slice of cake. We decided to cut our pieces of cake smaller, one by three inches, and if guests wanted more they could come back for seconds.

The bakery section at Oliver's Market on Stony Point Road. Taste testing was one "chore" we all enjoyed!

Having said all that, we knew that we wanted a delicious cake so we approached the bakers in a local grocery store known for its outstanding cake. Compared to the cost of a “wedding” cake, the price of their cake was not only reasonable, it was a steal! We looked over the bakery menu, sampled several of the cakes by purchasing individual slices, and settled on chocolate raspberry mousse cake.

There it is! The indescribably scrumptious Chocolate Raspberry Mousse Cake!

My daughter wanted “floating tiers” so we purchased a three tiered cake stand at a craft store that sold Wilton cake supplies. Using the measurements from the stand, we purchased a six inch, eight inch, and ten inch round from the bakery. We asked if these could be frosted in white buttercream instead of chocolate and the bakers were more than happy to accommodate us. It cost slightly more so we decided to have only the three round cakes frosted in white. I ordered three additional half sheets with the regular chocolate frosting. By the time these cakes were cut and plated, it would be irrelevant whether they had white or dark frosting.

We provided fresh flowers the day before the wedding and the bakers used them to decorate the rounds. We also provided a swatch of fabric so they could match the bridal colors. I must say, they did such a wonderful job, I would recommend fresh flower decorations over frosting or paste flowers any day.

We ordered the cakes a week in advance and picked them up the morning of the wedding then stored them at the reception hall until it was time to display them. Total for the cake stand, cake “topper”, and cake to feed 200 guests = $415. Yes, we had leftovers and they were delicious.

Our wedding cake -- beautiful and delicious! Thank you, Oliver's!