How To Decorate A Wedding Cake

Tips And Tricks On How To Put Fresh Flowers On A Cake

For the best results, dont add the flowers until the day of the event. For a wedding, it is best not to add the flowers until arriving at the venue. This will keep them as fresh as possible.

If you are using straws, bubble tea straws are the best option to go with. They are larger than the average straw and are sturdy. They will make it easier to place into the cake and will help keep your flowers in place.

If you dont want to put your flowers directly into the cake, you can just place them on top instead. Frost a small piece of cardboard on top of your cake. Then, place your flowers on the frosted cardboard.

When ready to serve, simply remove the piece of the cardboard with the flowers. This way, you wont have to worry about cutting around the flowers. In addition, you dont have to worry about the flowers actually touching the cake.

Be sure to keep the flowers in water until you are ready to use them. This will help keep them fresh and beautiful.

Applying The Crumb Coat

The next step is to frost the cake. Start with a crumb coat. This light, initial coat of frosting acts as a base coat, latching onto crumbs that form when you first apply frosting to a cake, ensuring that the final coat will be neat and crumb-free. Chill the cake for 30 minutes, so that the crumb coat sets, before applying the final coat of frosting.

If you’re filling your cake, you need to do this before applying the crumb coat. To start, spoon a dollop of frosting onto the bottom of the cake board to act as glue. Place the bottom layer down on top of the cake board and pipe a buttercream dam around the perimeter of the top layer. This will help to keep the filling from leaking out.

If you’re not filling your cake, simply apply a layer of buttercream to the bottom layer, spread it around, then place the top layer on top. Remember to position it with the bottom of the cake facing up for that flat edge.

Now apply the crumb coat, then chill for 15 to 30 minutes. Don’t go longer than that. If your cake gets too cold, condensation will form and the second frosting layer won’t adhere well.

Fresh Floral Wedding Cake Topper

Instead of the traditional cake topper, why not use flowers to create the cherry on top?

Take inspiration from the colour scheme, the bridal bouquet, or the tablescape and make it an extension of the overall design theme, emphasizing the bridal couple’s look and feel for their wedding.

The venue or season can also inspire the cake topper. Using seasonal foliage or foraging from the venue can be a great addition to the cake topper. This can bring vibrancy and vivaciousness to the cake, giving it life.

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Simple Homemade Wedding Cake Recipe

Here youll find a full recipe and cake decorating video tutorial for a DIY homemade wedding cake. This simply decorated and elegant vanilla wedding cake has 2 tiers and comes with full assembly instructions. With the help of this carefully detailed post, this wedding cake recipe is perfectly manageable for any home baker.

By the request of many readers, let me present you with a homemade 2 tier wedding cake recipe. Adapted from my trusted vanilla cake and 6 inch cake recipes, this from-scratch wedding dessert is not only beautiful it tastes remarkable, too.

Fully equipped with complete details and recipe instructions to make this one-of-a-kind dessert, you will wow the bride, groom, and wedding guests alike. This post has it all.

Creative Ways To Decorate A White Wedding Cake

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Courtesy of Heather Kincaid

It doesn’t get more classic than a tiered white wedding cake. The traditional confection is wholly symbolic of weddings and will never go out of style. The only hard part about choosing a white wedding cake is deciding how you should embellish it to make it unique to you and your partner. Luckily, we found some pretty cool ways to decorate a white wedding cake to suit your wedding style and aesthetic.

If you want to make a white wedding cake more suited to your bohemian wedding, draping simple greenery along the tiers will add a relaxed and organic vibe to the dessert. Want to make a white wedding cake a little more modern? Try including geometric elements, like square tiers or a 3D-printed cake topper. If your wedding aesthetic is soft and romantic, then try adding fresh, full blooms in blush and pink hues to your wedding-day dessert. All these options are almost too pretty to eat!

Browse all 10 ways to decorate a white wedding cake, below. Plus, get some top tips from expert bakers on how to get the look.

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Wedding Cake And Filling Recipes

To make this wedding cake you’ll need 24 cups of cake batter: 4 cups for the top tier, 7 to 8 cups for the middle tier, and 12 cups for the bottom tier. Remember, each tier consists of two layers.

This fluffy homemade vanilla cake recipe is formulated to make exactly 4 cups of batter, so it’s just right for making the top tier. To make the middle tier just double the recipe, and for the bottom tier make sure to triple it.

Likewise, you’ll need between 12 and 18 cups of buttercream frosting. This basic buttercream frosting recipe makes 6 cups, so simply triple it to make the appropriate amount.

Finally, if you’re planning to split the layers and fill them, you’ll need about 5 cups of your chosen filling. Possibilities include jam or preserves, lemon curd, chocolate mousse, vanilla custard, Bavarian cream, whipped cream, or pastry cream.

Choose The Right Frosting

Taste of Home

Not all frostings are suitable for filling and topping cakes, but the good news is there are still a lot of delicious options. Buttercreams of all kinds work well for decorating. You can also use cream cheese frosting and ermine frosting. Essentially, you want a thicker frosting that can hold up under the weight of the layers of cake and will also stick to the sides.

In general, when it comes to decorating you want to avoid whipped cream frosting and very thin frostings.

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Tools You’ll Likely Need

When ready, first assemble all of the tools you will need. Make sure you double-check the recipe and read it all the way through to see if there are tools besides these:

• All ingredients for baking and icing the wedding cake
• 12″, 9″, and 6″ cake pans, each 3″ tall. .
• Parchment paper to line the pans
• Large serrated knife
• Cardboard cake boards in 12″, 9″ and 6″
• 10 non-flexible straws
• Offset spatula
• A platter to serve the wedding cake on
• To add decoration: a pastry bag with a round tip between size 3 and 7 for piping, and a toothpick for tracing
• Lazy susan to use when decorating the cake

Minimalistic Wedding Cake Florals

For the right occasion or bride, less is more. Dried flowers and other elements, such as a pinecone, can work wonders for the minimalist.

You can also use the bridal bouquet’s central bloom to repeat on the wedding cake to bring unity to the wedding’s overall design. However, there is no need for a simplistic theme to be boring or ordinary. A person’s creativity can really come out to play and bring attention to the detailed beauty of the natural elements in a simple design.

Heather Payne Photography

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How To Decorate Cake With Wedding Flowers

First, consider your wedding theme. Are you going for a rustic, country style wedding or opting for a sleek modern wedding aesthetic? Do you love vintage looks that invoke the vibe of the 1920s or do you just want a classic, romantic wedding? Whatever your theme, fresh blooms on your wedding cake will make that dessert table a hit at the reception. To take it to the next level, use edible flowers.

Tips For Decorating A Cake With Flowers

Now for the inspiration! Here are a five of my favorite cake decorating trends!

Enowen Photography

Design: Bundles & Blooms

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How To Smooth Frosting

A palette knife does an adequate job of smoothing the frosting, but for a really sharp finish, an icing smoother comes in handy.

It’s basically a piece of metal with a flat edge and sometimes another, serrated edge. While rotating the cake on your turntable, run the edge of the smoother along the sides in the opposite direction of the cake’s rotation.

For a rustic finish, hold the tip of your palette knife against the sides of the cake while rotating it to produce a swirl effect. For a so-called “naked” cake, apply the crumb coat, and instead of chilling, apply the outer coat immediately, then use the scraper to scrape most of the frosting off.

Choose A Color Scheme And Flower Type

First consider the type of cake you chose. Are you going with a classic white wedding cake? Maybe you picked an extravagant three tiered cake or maybe you prefer a naked wedding cake. Whether youre going for a classic simple wedding cake design or a themed out design, take this into account when choosing colors and flowers. Remember that flowers can elevate an otherwise simple cake into a memorable photo opp for your guests and wedding photographer.

A wedding cake should always stand out, but its colors shouldnt clash with the rest of the ceremonial decor. Look for hues that align with your theme, then search for flowers that match. For example, a sunflowers vibrant yellow pairs nicely with a summer wedding theme, while blush garden roses for weddings add a romantic touch to a pastel-inspired palette.

After settling on a color scheme, consider the flower type. Lilies have wider petals, while a ranunculus is a tighter wound. Each blossom has a different look while placed on a cake. To balance out the flowers, you can add greener elements like seeded eucalyptus or silver dollars. Balancing your florals will make for a more well-rounded aesthetic for wedding cakes. Once youve assembled an ideal assortment of flowers and foliage, its time to go find them! The Bouqs Weddings offers loose stem flowers in our DIY packages and separately in our wholesale catalog.

Bonus: Take a look at our pre-arranged bundles to see which flowers and colors complement each other.

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Writing And Piped Designs

Taste of Home

Part of the appeal of bakery-bought cakes is the perfect penmanship that those cake decorators have. But its really not too hard to replicate at home. All youll need is a piping bag, a fine piping tip, a toothpick and some patience.

To start, write or print out the message or motif youd like to be featured on the top of your cake. If youre very new to piping, do a test run on a sheet of parchment or waxed paper to get used to how the frosting flows out of the piping bag.

After a little practice, trace the design onto a sheet of parchment or waxed paper and lay it on top of your cake. With a toothpick or sharp skewer, prick the design until you have a dot-to-dot of your message. Carefully remove the paper and connect the dots with your piped frosting. Thats all it takes to write on a cake! And once you have a few cakes under your belt, you can do this freehand.

Baking Cakes In Advance

Baking cakes in advance and freezing them saves time and helps break the overall task into smaller, more manageable steps.

Once cooled, wrap the cakes tightly in plastic and transfer them to the freezer for up to a week.

Working with frozen layers is easier. They won’t crumble as much, and the crumb coat will go on more easily.

Note that it’s best to freeze the cakes before you level them. Likewise, if you’re planning to split the layers to fill them, wait until after you take them out of the freezer. For one thing, you’ll save the trouble of having to wrap extra layers. But more importantly, less exposure to air will keep the cake fresher. Just make sure you have enough room in your freezer.

You can also make buttercream in advance. Just store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator, where it’ll keep for up to a week.

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Delightful & Delicious Spring Wedding Cake Ideas

So far on our weekly saunter through Spring weve looked at the most perfect palettes, gorgeous groom ideas and beautiful seasonal bouquets. Well, for this weeks Snippets, Whispers & Ribbons I have been making my mouth water with some of the most delightful and delicious ideas for Spring wedding cakes. Decoration and design ideas that are fresh, pretty, perfect for the season and sure to leave a lasting impression on your guests as well as some beautiful portrait photos.

Foliage & Greenery Decorated Wedding Cakes

Foliage and greenery has never been so on trend in wedding cake decorating.

We have a collection of some of the most beautiful greenery decorated cakes for you this week and whilst most are decorated in gumpaste foliage, there are some decorated in fresh greenery so we have tips for you on how to select safe foliage for cakes.

For those of you interested in making leaves, you can check out our tutorials on how to make fondant leaves on wire.

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Safe Greenery For Cakes

When deciding on foliage and greenery for cakes, we often tend to overestimate the leaf size needed when a smaller leaf size often looks much better on the cake. Most common foliage and greenery tends to have a leaf size that is too big to look good on a cake.

For this reason, and because they are edible and guaranteed food safe greenery for cakes, herb leaves often work best. For instance, bay leaves, sage, thyme and rosemary all look amazing on cakes.

Citrus leaves such as those from a lemon tree, as well as fig leaves and olives leaves are also good choices and considered food safe greenery.

All of these can last for hours on end out of water so you dont need to worry about inserting water tubes/florists vials into your cake.

Little white jasmine flowers and foliage are a beautiful and safe decoration for wedding cakes. Check out what it looks like in our Croquembouche Wedding Cake recipe feature.

As for what are the options when it come to edible greenery for cakes, Peruvian marigold leaves, pineapple sage leaves, purple sweet potato leaves, mint leaves, fennel, lemon verbena and blackcurrant leaves are all great edible leaves for cakes. And all work well for creating the very on-trend boho style pressed flower wedding cake. You can check out our tutorial here: Wildflower Wedding Cake Tutorial with Pressed Flowers

One of the most common questions we are asked here at Cake Geek is: can you put eucalyptus on a cake? Is eucalyptus safe for cakes?