Wedding Cakes - Top 5  TOP

Finding the perfect wedding gift can be difficult--but here are a few ideas that might help get you past your gift-buying brain fog!

	1. Grapevine Cake This grape-themed cake is frosted with buttercream the color of antique linen—shapes and textures reminiscent of the Tuscan countryside. Real grape leaves were used to mold the chocolate ones sprouting from the tiers of this cake, but any smooth nonpoisonous leaf can be used. Caramel-coated grapes and caramel "tendrils" complete the theme.
	2. Rose Cake: This three-tiered cake is covered in swirls of brown-sugar meringue, then wreathed and topped by berries and bronze roses—“Orange Unique,” “Leonidas,” and “My Lovely”— for a result that is quintessentially autumn.
	3. Appliqué Cake: Techniques used by dressmakers to turn fabric into flowers inspired this sophisticated cake. A combination of fondant and white chocolate both envelops the cake and decorates it. Prim buttercream dots frame the designs.
	4. Meringue Bouquet: Any cake frosted in buttercream can be decorated with crisp meringue flowers in shades of white. On this cake, some flowers are piped in one piece and baked in the oven, while others are piped petal by petal, baked, assembled with more meringue, and baked again; the overall effect is that of a heavily embroidered bodice. The finished flowers, which are easy to cut through, add a delicious crunch to each slice.
	5. Petal Shower Cake: A pristine white cake, piped with tiny beads around each tier, is sprinkled with a flutter of red rose petals.

Wedding Cake Dictionary  TOP

Do you want fondant, royal, or buttercream for your wedding cake? Will it have dragees, marzipan, or ganache? If you're trying to order your wedding cake and have no idea what your baker is talking about, walk in like a pro armed with your dictionary of wedding cake terms.

Icings

Buttercream: The traditional icing served on every store-bought birthday cake you've ever had. It's rich and creamy and is easily colored or flavored, and is used for fancy decorations like shells, swags, basketweaves, icing flowers, etc. Since it's made almost entirely of butter (hence the name), buttercream has a tendency to melt in extreme heat, so it's not recommended for outdoor weddings.

Fondant: Martha Stewart's favorite. This icing looks smooth and stiff and is made with gelatin and corn syrup to give it its helmet-like appearance (it's really very cool looking). It looks the best when decorated with marzipan fruits, gum paste flowers, or a simple ribbon, like Martha likes to do. Although not as tasty as buttercream or ganache, fondant does not need refrigeration, so it's the perfect icing to serve at your beach wedding.

Royal Icing: A mix of confectioner's sugar and milk or egg whites, royal icing is what the faces of gingerbread men are decorated wtih. It's white, shiny, and hard, and does not need to be refrigerated. It's used for decorations like dots and latticework.

Ganache: This chocolate and heavy cream combination is very dark, and the consistency of store-bought chocolate icing. It can be poured over cakes for a glass-like chocolate finish or used as filling (it stands up beautifully between cake layers). Due to the ingredients, however, it's unstable - no heat or humid weather, or the icing will slide right off the cake.

Whipped Cream: By far the most delicious and by far the most volatile, fresh whipped cream is usually not recommended for wedding cakes because they have to be out of the fridge for so long. If you must, it looks beautiful with fresh flowers and extremely white and fresh -- just keep it in the fridge until the very last second.

Decorations

Marzipan: Italian paste made of almonds, sugar and egg whites, molded into flowers and fruits to decorate the cake. They're usually brightly colored and very sugary. Marzipan can also be used as icing.

Gum Paste: Gelatin, corn starch, and of course sugar make this concoction that produces the world's most realistic, edible fruit and flower decorations. Famous cake designers like Sylvia Weinstock are huge fans of the gum paste. The cool thing is, you can keep decorations off your cake for centuries and they'll never fall apart or decompose. Creepy, but true.

Piping: Icing decorations like dotted swiss, basketweave, latticework, and shells. Icing comes out of a pastry bag fitted with different tips to create these different looks, which can range from simple polka dots to a layered weave that you'd swear is a wicker basket.

Pulled Sugar: If you boil sugar, water, and corn syrup it becomes malleable and the most beautiful designs can be created. Roses and bows that have been made from pulled sugar look like silk or satin, they're so smooth and shiny.

Dragees: Surely you used to beg your mom for these when you were in the baking aisle of the grocery store like I did. These hard little sugar balls are painted with edible gold or silver paint, and they look truly stunning on a big ol' wedding cake.

Be sure to look at lots of different styles of cakes before you go to your baker so you have a pretty good idea of what you want. The more froo-froo you get on your wedding dessert, obviously, the more it will cost, so sometimes the simpler way is better. And, don't forget to ask for a taste test!

Wedding Cake Tips  TOP

Trying to figure out a way you can have that castle of a confection when your pocketbook can't even afford the moat? Check out these tips to cut corners and still get the cake of your dreams.

Price Per Piece. If you're checking out cakes at traditional bakeries, most charge per piece of cake. After you find out the cost per slice, ask about delivery charges, accessory rentals, or additional charges, too. You'll find most bakeries charge between $3.00 and $7.00 per slice, but the really fancy (or famous) cake designers can ask up to $15.00 per precious piece of their creation.

Time Frame and Deposit. Ask about how soon you need to order, and how much deposit is required at the time of the order.

Surprise Costs. Want a unique decorating twist, want each layer to be a different flavor, or do you want the cakes to be filled with cream or fruit? This usually costs extra, so get the lowdown before you order.

Sheet Cake Backup. Save cash by ordering a smaller showpiece wedding cake, then ask your caterer to cut slices of sheet cakes made of the same stuff in the kitchen to bring out to your guests.

Decorate Yourself. Save lots of money on sugar flowers and marzipan fruits by ordering your wedding cake plain, then adorning it with fresh flowers or rose petals once it shows up at the reception site.

Decorate Separately. You can find sugar flowers, ribbons, dragees, and marzipan at cake decorating and pastry shops. Cut the cost by decorating with these sweet confections yourself once the cake arrives on premises.

Weather Restrictions. Inform your baker about the weather conditions of your wedding. If you're having a beach wedding in July, for example, you will have certain restrictions, because many icings and fillings will melt in the heat.

Baker Who's A Friend. Know anyone who's great in the kitchen? Why not ask them to bake a cake for you? Especially if you're having a small wedding, a homemade cake from talented friend is personal as well as cost-cutting.

Anniversary Cake. Ask your baker about freezing the top layer for your first anniversary. Some have special recipes that freeze better, or she may be able to give you some tips for optimum flavor a year from now!

Wedding Cake Traditions  TOP

It may come as a surprise to most brides that, originally, the wedding cake was not eaten by but thrown at the bride! It developed as one of the many fertility traditions surrounding a wedding. Luckily this custom evolved into actually eating the cake.

There are some wedding traditions, honestly, that do make you wonder about the sanity of the people who started them. Maybe we're just sticks in the mud when it comes to fun and frivolity, but olde tyme wedding cake traditions are kind of wacky. We don't recommend that you try any of these at your wedding, unless you want to watch your mom go into cardiac arrest.

Throwing Wheat
Before rice was the big have-lots-of-babies food (yep, that's why you throw a ton of it when the wedding's over), wheat was the fertility food of choice. Wheat used to be showered at the happy couple, and single men and women (so we're told) then scrambled for a grain or two to ensure their own betrothals. And we think throwing the bridal bouquet is demeaning??

Breaking Bread On The Bride's Head
Wheat was the first wedding cake component, and the Roman Empire was responsible, we are told, for beginning the wedding cake tradition. But for eating? No. Loaves of wheat bread were broken over the bride's head, usually by the groom, and guests were encouraged to eat the crumbs that fell for good luck. Again with the guests digging crumbs of lucky cake off the floor. Wedding guests today are treated much better, we think, and at least get a first shot at the wedding cake without having to scrape for crumbs.

Check Out Their Sweet Buns
During the Middle Ages, wedding wheat loaves became sweet buns, and the guests were responsible for bringing some to the bride and groom as a gift. For fun, after the ceremony the mini sweet cakes were piled up and the bride and groom attempted to kiss over the enormous pile - the taller the pile, the more prosperous the couple, so the story goes. Tricked again, after being trampled on and salivaed by the bride and groom, the guests weren't too eager to snatch a bite of sweet wedding cake.

Things Turn Around
Finally, somebody with some sense. Supposedly, an anonymous French chef working during the reign of King Charles II in the 16th Century visited London, and was appalled by their gross wedding cake traditions. Not only was the pile of buns unsanitary, but anyone who's had English pastry knows that they were probably the most tasteless cakes in the whole world. So he rushed home to France and baked up something that looked like a pile of buns (multi-tiered), actually tasted good and slathered it with tons of icing. A significant step up for the guests: finally they got to have an actual piece of cake that had not been thrown on the floor, stuck in the bride's hair, stepped on or drooled on at the wedding.

Today's Traditions
Most people don't associate the wedding cake with having lots of children anymore, instead the wedding cake has become kind of a first meal for the bride and groom. Today's couples cut a slice before anyone else and feed it to each other, symbolizing the support they'll provide through their many years together. In addition, the confections themselves have become a showpiece instead of a symbol - you can get a wedding cake with a fountain in it, pieces of infrastructure (bridges and such), or cakes that you could honestly mistake for a present or a hat or other inanimate objects.

What do you want your wedding cake to symbolize? Here are some ideas for a fertility symbol your guests will go ga-ga over:

Luscious fruits and fresh flowers make a beautiful decoration that's also edible.

Head back to your roots - different cultures have different wedding cake traditions. A tradtional Italian wedding cake is white and creamy, while the traditional Greek wedding cake is a kind of fruit cake. Find out your family traditions and delight your guests with international flair.

For a cake topper, find your mom's and dad's old cake topper, or a piece that's significant to you. Our friend Jen from NYC used the first gift her husband ever gave her, an antique Venetian glass.

Plain Jane? Ask for fondant icing instead of buttercream. Fondant makes that glass-like smooth surface that is both incredibly simple and undeniably elegant.

Choose your favorite cake and buck tradition. Who says that wedding cakes have to be white? Our friend Faye tells of a gingerbread wedding cake she made that sounds absolutely delicious.

Ask a kitchen-talented friend to make the cake for you. Talk about a personal touch.

Wedding Search Ideas  TOP

Here are some of the most popular terms used to find wedding information online--any things for your wedding you might have missed?