Let Them Eat Cake!

Yesterday marked 10 months until our wedding!  I'm pretty busy right now with trying to finish my thesis and TAing, so we're hunkering down (read: no traveling) for another 2 months or so.  At that point, I think it's fair game to start looking at invitations and cakes!  (I am always a couple months ahead of the "suggested timeline," but it's easier to get your first-choice vendors that way.)  Cake isn't super high on our priorities list; we want something to cut, that's non-ugly, reasonably priced, and above all, tastes decent.

Looking around at bakeries online, there are essentially 2 ways to decorate a wedding cake: buttercream and fondant (I'm leaving out the naked cake trend, because I think it's unattractive and lazy).  It can be harder to get clean lines with buttercream, but it's delicious.  Fondant doesn't taste very good (it's gummy and flavorless, if you've never had it), but you can use it to mold all kinds of shapes, and it gives a hard surface that you can paint on.

Most cakes tie into the rest of the wedding in some way, whether it be replicating the fabric or details of the bride's gown:

The one above is a little too vintage for me, but the lace detail is amazing!

Or the bridesmaids' dresses (the start of the now-ubiquitous ribbon cake):

Or the flowers:

Sugar flowers are pricey because they are difficult and time-consuming to make.  Gorgeous, though!

Beautiful sugar flowers!  It's easier to use fresh flowers, but you have to make sure you don't choose poisonous ones.

Or some unique feature of the venue:

Love.

Or the wedding theme:

Or the season:

This one is covered in tiny white birch leaves!

Pearlized candy "snowing" from the top of each tier.

Sugar snow drifts on each tier.  :)

Or the wedding motif:

 Quatrefoil!

You'll notice that the majority of these cakes are white.  Not only is white the go-to "classic" color, it tastes better than some of the dyed icings (and won't stain your dress!).  Also, you can hide little fun details in white-on-white cakes.  This one has tiny crosses on it, but I've also seen MLB team logos snuck onto white cakes, which is fun.

Not all cakes have toppers these days, but occasionally you'll see vintage bride-and-groom ones, silver lettered monograms, themed figures like birds or bride-and-groom avatars, or sometimes just flowers.

You can have these custom made on Etsy.

I think these would be adorable on a simple white cake!

As for us, I am obsessed with the stained glass cake above.  I think it would be cool to paint just the middle tier of a 3 or 5 layer cake to look like the stained glass of our church.  Or, we could frame a quatrefoil window on the middle tier using raised scrollwork:

and paint the stained glass in there!  I also like the idea of using white rock candy to create an "iced-over" look:

I love the details on my dress, too, so I wouldn't mind going that route... but it makes it difficult for Lance to help design the cake, and we generally like to do these things together.  Finally, if we decide to go basic, I think the ribbon cakes are pretty safe and non-ugly.  We've picked out a few local bakers to meet with based on their reviews, personal recommendations, and photos of their work online.  We will probably pick the one that tastes the best and work within their staff's talent constraints.  :)

Baby's breath cake stand--so romantic!

Finally, after you pick out your cake, you have to find a place to display it so that people actually get to look at it before you cut it!  Our venue typically puts cakes right in the middle of the dance floor until they are cut, but I don't think anyone would bother to visit it, because the dance floor is so big.  We also wanted the photos of the cake to turn out well, so we're going to put it near the entrance with some white-lit Christmas trees behind it.  Most bakeries will rent you one of those beautiful antique-y silver cake stands (seen several times above), and I really like those, but I also thought that it would be fun to use an antique sled as a cake stand!  These sleds have become popular as winter decorations in the past few years, so I think I should be able to find one.  I might even be able to borrow one!

We can't wait to go to a tasting!