There's an amazing choice of wedding cakes available today, in a huge variety of styles and flavours. Organic wedding cakes and
cakes for people with allergies or food intolerances eg. gluten free, wheat free, nut free, dairy free or lactose free are also available.
Styles
Whether it's
contemporary, vintage,
traditional or themed or novelty style, there's definitely a wedding cake for you! If you need some inspiration, try our
Wedding Cakes Ideas Wall, where you can select images you like and save them on your own Wedding MoodBoard.
Types & Flavours of Wedding Cake
Types
Wedding cakes are normally chocolate, sponge, fruit cake or sometimes cheesecake. Cakes can also be constructed from a mixture of
these, though fruit cake is usually advised as the bottom layer because it's the heaviest. Cupcake wedding cakes are really popular and wedding cakes made from cheese or pork pie are becoming more popular now too.
Flavours
Lots of scrumptious flavours are available, including carrot, ginger, chocolate, orange, lemon, lime, vanilla, coffee, coconut,
banana, rum to name but a few.
Colours
Maybe white or ivory to match the wedding dress or the colour(s) to match your own colour scheme - the choice is yours.
Tiers or Layers
2, 3, 4 or perhaps 5, 6, 7 or more different sized tiers can be placed directly on top of each other for a contemporary look or
separated by narrow pillars for a more traditional style. There's a wide variety of stands and cake separators available in different colours and shapes; metallic rings to hold each tier, acrylic tubes that can be filled with flowers or petals and all sorts
of wedding cupcake stands. Round, square, heart shaped and hexagonal shapes are commonly available. Various icings can be used depending on the look and taste desired.
Wedding Cake Toppers & Decorations
Wedding Cake Toppers can become a real talking point on the day and don't necessarily have to be placed on the top of the cake. For more information, see our
Wedding Cake Toppers & Decorations article.
The choice of decoration is endless: ribbons, bows, sugar flowers and pearls, petals, edible sparkles, hearts, stars, butterflies, foliage, spun sugar, chocolate, intricate royal icing, baubles, sparklers, feathers, chocolates, truffles, marshmallows and sweets,
fruit such as strawberries and raspberries and much, much more.
Bespoke Cakes
The ultimate wedding cake can be designed and created to match your dreams. This will involve more time and effort by the cake designer and so is a more costly option.
Fake Wedding Cakes & Dummy Tiers
Fake wedding cakes can be hired or made specially. Fake tiers are created with polystyrene and are then iced and decorated just
like a real wedding cake. Just remember not to cut into it when you pose for photographs – just place the knife on top of it. A separate "cutting" cake can then be used behind the scenes to serve to your guests.
Alternatively, one or more dummy tiers can be incorporated into a real cake and decorated to match.
DIY Wedding Cakes
Either completely bake and decorate the cake yourself or buy pre-iced tiers of varying sizes from supermarkets or M&S, then construct and decorate, or get a cake supplier or designer
to do this for you.
Cutting the Cake
If you're serving your wedding cake for pudding, it'll need to be cut before sitting down for the meal. This will allow enough time for it to be divided into portions for your
guests. Consider serving it with ice cream or chocolate sauce. If it's purely for guests to take away then it can be cut after the speeches.
What size Wedding Cake do we need?
| No. of Guests |
Sponge Cake |
Fruit Cake |
| Round |
Square |
Round |
Square |
| 10 |
6” (15cm) |
5” (13cm) |
5” (13cm) |
5” (13cm) |
| 25 |
9” (23cm) |
8” (20cm) |
6” (15cm) |
5” (13cm) |
| 50 |
11” (28cm) |
10” (25cm) |
9” (23cm) |
8” (20cm) |
Budget
Obviously with such a wide variety of wedding cakes available, the cost can vary enormously. However, expect to spend from
£100 upwards for a cake that has been specially made.
Larger cakes and more intricate decoration will cost more than smaller cakes simply decorated. If you are on a very tight budget it is possible to buy a single tier iced cake for around
£40 for 40 portions but you'll have to decorate it
yourself.
Choosing a Wedding Cake Designer or Supplier
-
View their portfolio of previously made cakes
-
Ask to taste samples
-
Are there any additional charges such as delivery and set up, also costs if hired items are lost or damaged or not returned by the agreed time?
-
Get clear written costs including hire of cake stands, accessories, toppers etc.
-
What are the payment terms including the deposit to be paid
Useful Links
Find a local Wedding Cake Supplier,
Find a Wedding Cake,
Wedding Cake Deals,
Inspire me