As we get to know each other on this little wedding planning blog, you’ll come to realize that we enjoy breaking a tradition or two around here. In fact, sometimes we like to smash them like a dinner plate at a “BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING!” One of the “timeless” traditions we’ve got our sights set on is (you guessed it) THE WEDDING CAKE!
The questions we’re asking today are: should you feel obligated to get a wedding cake? If you don’t get a wedding cake, what should take its place? If you do decide you just can’t live without a wedding cake, what are the best practices? What about homemade cakes?
So grab a plate and a fork, and let’s dig in!
The first and most obvious question we should ask ourselves is: do we really NEED a wedding cake, and what are the associated costs? The costs of a wedding cake can vary wildly. Variables that can affect the cost of a good wedding cake can include; the number of tiers, decoration (elaborate or classically simple), construction, delivery, even the city or region you’re shopping in. The truth is a wedding cake could cost as little as nothing (your grandma made it!), or over $1000.00 for the elaborate, multi-tiered cake of you dreams. Given the associated costs, you should make sure that the wedding cake really is an important tradition for you and your partner, and if it is important, exactly what part of the wedding cake tradition is important to you?
Maybe what’s most important to you is getting that perfect photo of you and your partner cutting the cake together. If that’s all you really care about, consider getting a smaller cake or even just a single tier wedding cake. This allows you to sink more of your cake budget into an elaborately decorated single tier show stopper that will look great on film.
On the other hand, maybe you and your fiancé are just the kind of wedding mavericks that enjoy breaking with tradition! More and more couples are deciding to break with wedding traditions in ways that may have seemed unthinkable in previous generations. Some of our favourite alt-wedding cake creations over the years have included: wedding pies (delivered to each guest table and a single elaborate pie cut by the happy couple for pictures), an “All Canadian” butter tart tier with a giant tart topper, a giant French macaron display, and the gourmet donut tier pictured here with the big wedding donut topper!
But what if you just skipped the wedding cake altogether? More and more couples are doing just that! Does the sky fall at these cake-less weddings? Are couples greeted by news vans at the end of the night and reporters trying to solve “the mystery of the missing cake?” Not based on our experience. In all of the weddings we’ve hosted over the years that have opted not to have a wedding cake, we’ve never once been asked by a guest about a “missing” wedding cake at the end of the night. Our guess is that your guests are up for whatever kind of party you want to throw, and if there happens not be a wedding cake that night, then they just assume that was your choice and roll with it (if they notice at all).
Ok, so you absolutely shouldn’t feel obligated to shell out for a wedding cake if the idea doesn’t excite you, but what about those couples that have always dreamed of having the perfect wedding cake? What are some best practices?
First (and this is important), have it professionally made. While we have seen some excellent home bakers over the years, we have also seen some cakes that just didn’t hold up. There’s a reason why wedding cakes are so expensive. Cake baking is an art, and a good baker can help you pick the cake design of your dreams, and one that is an appropriate size for your number of guests. They will also construct the cake in such a way that it will hold up to the rigours of the day. The cake shouldn’t lean, and should be appropriately supported internally if it consists of multiple tiers. The cake should consist of an appropriate crumb (fancy baker talk for how light or crumbly the cake itself is) so that it cuts cleanly and supports the number of tiers you’ve selected. While we’ve been lucky to have some excellent home bakers over the years, we’ve also had a few cake disasters brought about by home bakers that just didn’t have the experience necessary to pull off a cake for hundreds of people. We won’t single out any examples so we’ll leave it at that!
If you do decide to have a friend or family member bake your cake as a wedding gift to you, consider having them bake a simple one or two tier cake that is meant for the cake cutting tradition and photos only. Many couples opt for these small one or two tier cakes for their cake cutting ceremony and forego serving a large wedding cake to everyone in the room. Conversely, we think you should avoid large “display only” wedding cakes, constructed from multiple INEDIBLE tiers and topped with a small real cake topper for pictures. We know that many bakeries offer this as a “cost cutting” option for couples who want a large cake on display, but we think it sets up a false expectation in the room. Having displayed a giant wedding cake in the room, your guests may well wonder at that point, why wasn’t it served?!
The cake pictured here certainly would never serve one hundred people, but it certainly looks the part, and photographs like a dream! In fact, take a minute to google “wedding cake” pictures and notice how many of the professionally photographed images contain smaller one or two tier wedding cakes. We think you will be surprised at how great the smaller cake looks in pictures. You may even prefer it (as we do).
What if you really do love the tradition of the large multi-tier wedding cake that will feed all of your guests? A good question to ask is: when during the night should it be served?
In our experience, the wedding cake is best served as a part of the desert course. We think our reasoning is sound. You’ve spent all this money on this great big wedding cake, so you want people to eat it! That means serving it to a captive audience as part of a desert course. Once dinner is over, you will start to loose some of your guests. Often the elderly in the room may not stay to dance the night away with you and your DJ (although we’ve known many super cool grandmothers who were the last to leave!). Likewise you may loose some of the parents in the room with young children, or people with early commitments the next day. Putting off the cutting and service of your cake makes it more likely that you will look around the room at the end of the night and see a whole lot of uneaten wedding cake. Given the associated costs of your wedding cake, and how much planning went into it, it would be a real shame if it was uneaten.
So cut that cake early and get it out the door and into your guest’s hungry mouths at desert! You should also ask your venue how much time they will need to cut and plate your cake before the desert course so that you can plan your cake cutting ceremony appropriately. If in doubt, ask the professionals at your venue.
Lastly there’s the matter of the bill. Specifically the fee for cake cutting at your venue. Many venues will charge what is known in the industry as a “cake cutting fee.” From the venue’s perspective this is completely understandable, and so common as to be standard. The venue in this case must hold on to kitchen staff, and dedicate dishes, flatware, dishwashing time and labour, all to serve someone else’s product which they haven’t been compensated for. As such we recommend asking your venue up front about any possible cake cutting fees so you’re not surprised later.
Some venues may not charge you at all! Here at Fantasy Farm there are never any cake cutting fees. For us it’s all part of the service!
