How To Choose A Wedding Cake For An Informal Wedding

Step 1: You Will Need

Step 2: Where To Wed

You want your cake to mirror your reception location and the style of your wedding. So it's best to start considering the cake only after you've chosen your reception site. You may want a very different cake for a traditional, formal wedding, than for an informal wedding at the beach.

Step 3: Shapes and Sizes

Specialized bridal and wedding cake magazines have the best photos and examples for this sort of thing. Take your time and browse for inspiration.

Think about what style cake will best fit this setting. Should you use the beach as a cake decorating theme? Wedding cakes come in numerous shapes, and each variety can either be stacked, or tiered.

The basic wedding cake shapes include: the very popular round wedding cake (sometimes referred to as an “antique” cake), the square wedding cake (which is the easiest cake to cut, by the way), the hexagonal wedding cake (whose shape is often so stunning it needs little adornment), the square off-set cake (or off-kilter cake…a little Alice In Wonderland feeling here), the sculpted cakes (like those in the shape of flower petals or, in this case, hearts), and the table cakes (which take the place of traditional flower centerpieces at each reception table).

Step 4: Time For Tastings!

Traditionally, wedding cakes come in two basic types: white and yellow. The difference here really isn't flavor but color, based on which is made with either egg whites (white cake) or egg yolks (yellow cake). Both cakes usually have a vanilla flavor, but they can be requested in a large variety of delectable flavors such as liqueur-based cakes, citrus flavors and even cappuccino.

Today, the most popular three cake and icing combinations are white cake and vanilla buttercream icing, chocolate devil's food cake and vanilla buttercream icing, yellow butter cake and chocolate buttercream icing.


At the tasting, ask the pastry chef questions like these: Can you supply references? Can I design my own cake? If I have budget concerns, can you adapt your cake designs? What ingredients do you typically use? What kind of icing do you use? Is cake delivery included in the cake estimate?

Step 5: Close The Deal

A day or two of tastings and maybe some anti-acid later, and you can settle on the pastry chef, and your cake's flavor, decoration, and style.
Now all you have left to do is iron out the details, sign the contract and make a deposit.