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Cake Decorating for Weddings
Cake Decorating Tips for the Most Amazing Wedding Cakes
Your skills and artistic talents will be tested to the fullest while decorating wedding cakes. The sheer size of these cakes can be very intimidating. However, wedding cake decoration uses the same set of techniques and skills as do smaller cakes on a much grander scale.
You want to give yourself plenty of time to complete every step, before you commit to decorating a wedding cake. You should be thinking days, rather than hours while planning such a task. You will need to make many decisions whether you are working from you imagination or from a clipping from a wedding magazine.
If you are decorating a tiered wedding cake as many are today, you need to make a cake that has the mass and flexibility, such as butter cake to support the weight that comes for multiple cake tiers. You will then need to plan the construction of your cake.
You can stack wedding cake tiers for either a Victorian or more modern appearance. On the other hand, you can always separate them with pillars to create an air of gracefulness. Below are some tips for planning how you will decorate the wedding cake.
Your wedding cakes will draw even more requests, with patience and practice. If the design is your choice, follow the lead of some leading cake designers and draw inspiration from fashion, nature, location, the bridal gown, the menu and the wedding theme.
More than likely cake ornaments and flowers will be chosen for decoration, whether you are decorating with sweet buttercream or a chic fondant.
Flowers
Many brides request the use of fresh flowers on their cakes; you can use water filled flower spikes to keep them from wilting.
Remember to use caution while using real flowers. Make sure that no toxic flowers, stems or leaves you use are not exposed to the cake. You want non-toxic, pesticide free edible flowers.
Gum paste flowers are popular; gum paste offers staying power when using royal icing to create the realness of fresh flowers. It dries hard and you can use gum paste molds to create life-like flowers with very fine details. You can find gum paste molds online or at your local cake-decorating supplier, such as Michaels or www.CandylandCrafts.com
Buttercream roses are beautiful and delicious as well as a classic wedding cake decoration. If you find roses challenging, be sure to read our article, Icing Roses.
Flower size should be proportional with the size of the cake; whether you are using sugar crafted or fresh flowers. Small cakes will be dwarfed by the use of large flowers such as bird of paradise and minute flowers are lost on a larger cake. However, you can use them to accent larger flowers.
You should also consider the wedding formality and style. For instance, roses are more formal than daisies, yet you can easily incorporate stephanotis into either.
Flowers often play the starring role on many wedding cake designs; however, they can also provide the supporting cast. Here are a few examples of how you can use flowers as a gorgeous part of any cake design.
You can convert the top tier of a stacked tier cake into a flower basket created with white-on-white basket weave piping and fresh or sugar crafted flowers, while decorating a tender and romantic wedding cake. Then to create the appearance of blossoms gracefully fallen from the basket, you can arrange clusters of flowers here and there on the lower tiers of the cake.
If you are decorating a tropical theme wedding cake with larger tropical flowers, such as bird of paradise, you can keep the fresh flowers in holders, fixed between the tiers by cake separators.
Wedding Cake Ornaments
Wedding cake toppers are a traditional part of this category. They have evolved since the days of using plastic brides and grooms with statue stiff poses. Here are a few sampling of the choices available today:
- Tiara
- Flower bouquet
- A beautifully framed photograph of the bride and groom
- Romantically humorous figurines in the likeness of the bride and groom
- Thematic toppers, such as the use of snowflakes for a winter wedding cake
Most often, the bride will choose the cake topper since they usually keep it as a wedding keepsake. Allow her to plan with you, since you want the topper and decorations to match well. Cake toppers often feature wide bases to keep them form sinking into the cake.
Smaller ornaments may include using silver or gold leaves, edible pearls and butterflies. Cake jewelry are a modern and sophisticated type of decoration, such as using jeweled or silver monograms or stylized silver and Swarovski crystal flowers.
You can find these wedding cake decorating tips in our "Cake Decorating Made Easy!"
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One more wedding cake decorating tip you can use: While decorating using flowers, you want to choose a color or colors that compliment the cake. You do not want them to stand out or fade into the background. While decorating using a monochromatic color scheme, make your flowers either slightly paler or brighter in shade so they are noticeable. You can create realistic icing flowers, while using shading with color dust as well as adding leaves.
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