The funny thing is, when you start planning a wedding, most people want to get the deets on The Dress. But for me, it was The Cake. “Who’s making your cake? Oh, YOU are?!” Everyone said I was crazy for wanting to do it myself. And indeed, I was. But who else could I trust to envision what I had in mind? Nuh uh, this one was my baby.
Because I knew the spotlight was going to be on The Cake, I decided to make not one, not two, but THREE cakes that all had varying designs I was dying to test out. Yes, I said test. On my wedding cake. Rule #1, do not TEST anything for your wedding day – do it before! You wouldn’t hire a make-up artist without having a run-through before, would you?! What a div I was.
Anyway, I spent hours poring over cake magazines, Pinterest, and wedding blogs trying to pin down the ultimate cake designs that would complement everything about my wedding. But in particular, I wanted it to be a nod to my dress. My most-favourite-ever cake maker Mich Turner released a book called ‘Cake Couture,’ where she literally designed cakes, cookies and cupcakes inspired by wedding dresses and jewellery. I even met her at a cake exhibition (yes, they exist), and she signed my book, telling me that it was obviously well-used! (By this, she meant it was a bloody state – covered in chocolate smudges and other sticky substances!). I was so proud.
Sorry, I’m digressing. I don’t need to tell you exactly what designs I used etc., you can see for yourself in the photos. However, I ended up turning my vision into a dessert table and set aside time and ingredients for other baked goods to grace the cake table, too. It was going to be a sponge like no other! This is a good way to go if you’d like to save money somewhere on the food. Liaise with your reception venue, and perhaps you could serve cake as your dessert, meaning you only have to fork out for two courses (not that you have to have a sit-down meal, of course!). Be careful though – some venues have cottoned on to this, and may actually charge you a “cake-corkage” - yes, really!!
 |
| Note to self: Never again. |
Another popular option is to host your own Bake Off style competition – put the word out that you’d like your very best cake-makers to step forward and present a cake to be served at your wedding! You’d be surprised at the lengths some people will go to in order to impress other guests, and they could make it as their wedding present to you, too.
Cakes can be as expensive or as cheap as you’d like them to be. I would highly recommend a tasting session, as some pieces of artwork can look amazing but taste like cardboard. If you can’t afford a reliable baker in your town, look at places like M&S – they stock some absolutely gorgeous (and tasty) cakes for a very reasonable cost! Otherwise, naked cakes are also extremely on trend, and extremely cheap, too. Naked sponges decorated with fresh flowers you can pick up in the supermarket alongside your flour, butter, sugar and eggs are adorably stunning.
However, what I will say and suggest you take notice, is not to make your own wedding cake. This is one part of the wedding day process that for as much planning and preparation as you can do, you can’t do anything about until a couple days before your wedding. And you DO NOT want to be stuck in some hot and stuffy kitchen 36 hours before your vows, crying on the floor because the buttercream is melting off the cake. Or because your brother decided that the box carrying the main tier of your masterpiece was a good place to dump his laundry on top of (yep, he did that).
Suffice to say, it did not go well. I smushed one side of the main cake in the car on the way to the venue, and then found out that the reception staff had smushed the other side of the cake when they were storing it overnight. In a fridge. Who stores sponge cake in a fridge?! Hello?! Can you say “dry cake??” I never had time for the other bits and pieces I’d intended to bake as part of the dessert table, so I recruited my bridesmaids as flapjack and rice-cripsie treat bakers. Thank god they were able to help the day before, I wouldn’t have known what to do without them!
In a final nail to the proverbial cake coffin, our venue also threw away about a third of our wedding cake after our evening reception. J and I hadn’t even had so much as a lick of buttercream, let alone a slice of each cake, and when I returned the next day to pick up the rest of the cake, it was gone. Apparently, someone thought it was a good idea to throw away the bride’s masterpiece. I was devastated. I created three cakes, comprising of four different flavour tiers, a batch of white chocolate and raspberry cupcakes, plus all the other treats... and I didn’t get one bloody crumb of it.
If all else fails on the cake front, just go with Colin the Caterpillar. Everyone loves Colin.
KEB x
KEB x
Post a Comment