Wedding Cakes & Food Forum

Guidance from start to decide my cake for wedding

Hello my wedding is on 1st Jul 2021 and the location would be Florida. I am excited about my wedding cake. Right now I don't have any clue about the same. Also can someone help me with steps I shall take to decide my cake. Beside date finalization, I have not done anything yet

Re: Guidance from start to decide my cake for wedding

  • MesmrEweMesmrEwe member
    Knottie Warrior 2500 Comments 500 Love Its 5 Answers
    edited December 2020
    Just a head's up if you post the same question in two locations to put an "XP" in the headline so people know you cross-posted it...  I responded in "Chit Chat" and will copy because this is the food board...  

    Once you have your venue and caterer booked, then book your cake.  The sooner the better, although with all things Covid, even though we should be out of the woods by then, remember to have flexibility in the contract just in case!  Depending on where you're at in Florida there are some AMAZING cake decorators there.  

    This reply reminds me of the (late knottie) CMG days!

    First - start with your budget.  Remember, you don't get a decent piece of cake at a restaurant for $2, you can't even get a wedding size portion of cake at Walmart for $2/slice, SO, plan on it, that unless you're ordering from a big box store that they'll literally decorate your cake in 15 minutes or less, you're going to be spending an appropriate amount likely in the $6-10+/slice range depending on the design plus the cost of delivery/setup, leave that job to the professionals as transport is a big deal, but also, if you want a certain proportion size cake if you're having a smaller wedding the cost won't be a per-slice but the overall size of the cake involved.  Also, do your homework and ask "What is your slice size?" because for example, the big box stores use a wedding size slice that is less than half that of the "Wilton cutting guide" which can also be smaller than your baker may be using, so ask the portion size and if they provide a cutting sheet for whomever cuts the cake.

    From there...
    - Chef Keegan Gerhard once told me when we were chatting outside of a filming years ago of Food Network Challenge (he knew the people I was sitting with) "M.I.D! People will forgive flaws in a design but they will never forgive any of it if you don't Make It DELICIOUS!" Delicious cake gets eaten, if it tastes like crap no one will eat it, everyone will remember it, and you've just wasted tons of money!
    - Order the same portion/quality of slice for ALL of your guests!  No single-layer flat aluminum pan kiddie slice or cupcakes for some guests while others get a four-layer filled with posh flavors and 3x the portion, all guests MUST be treated equal in the portion/quality of slice department!  If you're serving all your guests cupcakes is fine as long as you aren't serving some guests cupcakes and others a four-layer slice of goodness!
    -Order enough for everyone PLUS your DJ, Photographer, and those working your wedding.  It is better to have more than enough cake which can be cut up and left on the cake table for guests to either take a slice with them or have as a late night snack than it is to not have ordered enough for your guests accounting for mis-cuts by whomever is doing your cake cutting.  I wouldn't stress this, but it has happened to me at at least FOUR weddings where the person sitting next to me is served the last slice of cake and I was told "The couple didn't order enough cake for everyone!" by the caterer while the person sitting next to me took one bite and said "I'm full!" while I planned ahead for the cake.. 
    - Find out from your venue or caterer if there is a cutting fee for the cake and what it includes (some will provide everything, others will do it for a flat fee, others do it for a per-slice fee, some don't provide plates/forks, etc.)..  Cutting a wedding cake gets to be a mess in a hurry!
    -Plan that your baker may have exclusivity built into their contract meaning if you order cake from them you will not be able to order cake or desserts from another vendor without permission.  Many will work with you if you're providing something that they do not offer/provide, but you need to check on this ahead of time.  I used two bakers but only because neither one could handle both the centerpiece/photo cake and the 40 table cakes we needed, they'd both do one or the other, but not both and since the centerpiece wasn't being served, they both agreed no problem, BUT we were up front on it from the start!
    -Order a 6" filled cake from the vendor to try, you'll get a sense of the skill of the decorator and how the cake/icing taste, is it fresh/homemade or did it come out of a 5 gallon tub, that's not ripping on one over the other, the importance is still on the taste, a mouth full of crisco still tastes like a mouth full of crisco, but an icing made with butter, unless you're lactose intolerant/dairy allergy is going to stick out above the rest.  Some places offer tastings, which is a good idea, be aware, you may have to pay for this because of previous brides/grooms cancelling or no-showing.  Many bakeries will also let you put the cost of the tasting toward your deposit should you book with them.  Yes, plan that if you book there will be a deposit to hold the date and you'll need to pay for it up to a month or more in advance.  Some decorators require full payment at the time of booking and have rules for adjustments to the order in terms of size and/or design.  In some cases they're ordering the materials to make your cake a month or more in advance depending on its complexity (gumpaste flowers for example can sometimes need to be shipped in from overseas or handmade which takes time)...  
    -Order accordingly - if you're planning to keep the top tier for your 1st Anniversary, let your baker and person doing the cutting know.  Many bakers will provide a box and instructions for you to properly freeze it.  Also, make sure your caterer knows if there's extra cake at the end of service that it's either to be put out for the guests to have an extra slice (You may need to provide disposables for this since they'll still be enjoying it after the caterers are likely to leave for the evening!) or you to take home with you. 
    -The easier the cake is to decorate for your baker the friendlier it is going to be on your budget.  Yes, take pictures in of inspiration cakes you've seen and like, but also remember to go in with an open mind and trust that if a baker tells you they don't know how to do something, that they don't know how to do it.  Our baker didn't want to work with fondant, fine, but the faux fondant she said "would look just like fondant" in our cake for photos you can see her full hand prints in it along with the borders she put between the tiers which there was not to be (I'm not a fan of borders on tiered cakes), and not only that, she botched the flavor the cake was suppose to be as well!..  Also bring in photos/prints of relevant details to your baker for them to use for inspiration (get a color swatch of your BM dress colors from Home Depot since Behr Paint coordinates with AmeriColor icing colors if you want anything color matched), ad for your dress, bridesmaid dresses, flower designs, etc.
  • Thanks a lot on detailed reply. Can you please explain this as I am not clear..
    "get a color swatch of your BM dress colors from Home Depot since Behr Paint coordinates with AmeriColor icing colors if you want anything color matched"
  • Thanks a lot on detailed reply. Can you please explain this as I am not clear..
    "get a color swatch of your BM dress colors from Home Depot since Behr Paint coordinates with AmeriColor icing colors if you want anything color matched"
    If you want any borders or piping on the cake to be color matched to the colors you're using for your wedding, a paint swatch allows your baker to know the proportions of each base color to use to create the match.  For example, candy apple pink BM dresses, a color swatch from the paint store lets the baker know which shade they're specifically working with to get a match instead of "dresses are pink, cake is a woefully wrong shade of pink" because what your baker may think of when they hear the "color pink" is going to be different from that specific shade that your BM dresses are without some reference point.  
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