Wedding Planning, Part IX

Have you thought about your wedding cake yet? Well, if you haven't – get crackin'! (Or else risk serving a mermaid-themed ice cream cake from the freezer section of your local grocery store...) Not only will it take you some time to make all the necessary wedding cake decisions, but the average wedding cake baker will also need at least a few days to actually create the thing. (If not longer – many bakers need a month or more to plan and prepare the final confection.) So when it comes to ordering your wedding cake, be certain to start the process early. And, I know that can be a daunting thought. Let's be honest here, with so much already on your to-do list, who really has time to decide between buttercream or fondant; vanilla or chocolate; cake or styrofoam? But don't worry. Today, I have a few tips that should make developing your perfect wedding cake a cinch.

First, ask yourself a few questions. How many people does the cake need to feed? How large do you want the cake to be? Where and when will it be served? How can I store the cake until it is served? Answering these questions should help you decide many factors about your wedding cake. For instance – if you are only going to have 30 people at your wedding, but want a 5-tiered cake that's large enough to serve an army, tell your baker this. He or she can easily frost a couple blocks of styrofoam and insert them into your wedding cake to give it the height boost it needs to meet your grand expectations. (Just be certain that when it comes to cutting the cake, you know exactly which layers are cake and which are styrofoam...) These question will also help you decide which icing is best. If you can't refrigerate the cake, you'll probably want to use fondant, marzipan, or some other icing that will stay fresh at room temperature.

Second, find inspiration for your wedding cake design. It's your cake, it should look the way you want it to. But if you have no clue how you want it to look, then find something you like and take it to the bakery with you. You'd be amazed how a creative baker can draw inspiration from a roll of your favorite toilet paper and a can of your preferred beer and transform those ideas into the beautifully quilted, beer can-shaped wedding cake of your dreams.

And third, keep is simple. This rule particularly applies to the type and favoring of your cake. Face it, this cake will be feeding a crowd. And unless you want to hear people grumbling all night because you decided to put raisins in the cake, I recommend keeping things basic. Doing so will satisfy the tastes of your more boring wedding guests. Plus, let's be honest here, that slice of freezer-burnt one-year anniversary cake is going to taste funny enough without all the shriveled raisins, candied kumquats, and pickled ginger that you might be thinking about baking into your wedding cake... Keep it simple.

Well those are my wedding cake tips for this week. I hope they help. And until next week, I wish you good luck with all your wedding day plans!