How
To Shop For Your Wedding Cake
- by KissMeGoodnight.com
Few jobs within the wedding planning process
are as much fun as this one. Scouting out cake bakers, flipping
through their glossy pages of masterpiece confections, and
tasting little samples of wedding cake to find the right flavors
has to be one of the most enjoyable parts of the process. The
prices, though, can make that entire sticky sweet icing sink
to the bottom of your stomach.
Wedding
cakes are big business these days, with some bakers
charging $1,000 or more for the most beautiful of cake designs.
The most lovely, architecturally sound cakes piped to lacy
perfection can cost more than your first car. So read up here
before you fall in love with a true piece of wedding cake art
and find out how to buy the wedding cake of your dreams for
less.
The
right cake baker can make a world of difference in the
appearance, taste, and cost of your cake. So invest some time
in scouting out the best cake baker for you. You might choose
to hire the professional at the bakery where your family has
gone for special family cakes for years. You know they make
great desserts, so you trust them to create the cake of your
dreams. Add this well-known professional to your list of contenders,
subjecting this baker to the same kind of interview process
you'll use for other bakers. After all, making a wedding cake
is an art of its own, and even though you know your favorite
bakery makes a mean French roll and a cannoli to die for, you
will need to be sure that their wedding cake will meet the
high standards you expect for a purchase of this magnitude.
Your other contenders might come from recommendations from
recently married friends, your coordinator, and recent wedding
guests who rave about a cake they've just enjoyed at one of
their friend's weddings. Just ask for a referral to the baker
in question.
Cake Design
Those structured wedding cakes with four balancing layers
and miles of piped-on icing in intricate patterns always cost
more than a pretty, stacked cake with pristine white frosting
and fresh flowers as decor. With cakes, you will always pay
more for the amount of time and effort your baker spends on
the design. So keep your choice simple and elegant, pass up
those rolled fondant covers and the sugar-paste, hand-rolled
flowers and cherubs. Your guests will be just as thrilled by
the sight of your beautiful cake cascading with flowers as
they will at a cake that looks like the Taj Mahal. Keep it
simple, and your price tag will be simpler as well.
You might want to reconsider offering a wedding cake whose
tiers balance on pedestals. These designs can cost more, and
they're trickier for shipment, arrangement, and stability throughout
the reception especially if yours is an outdoor reception where
rising temperatures could cause melting and tipping of your
cake. Choose instead have the layers rest directly on top of
one another for a more sound structure.
Save Money By Decorating Yourself
Since the greatest expense with wedding cakes is the time
it takes to decorate them, why not order a plain round or sheet
cake and the decorating yourself? Some brides do have the time
and talent to actually bake the cake on their own or have a
relative do it, but it's not too much of an expense to get
a professionally made sheet cake and do the labor-intensive
accents yourself for far, far less. If you'd like to decorate
your own wedding cake, at a savings of up to 50% depending
upon your choices, you have several options:
1.
Visit a florist to find out which fresh flowers are safe
to use as decor on wedding cakes. Then place an order for a
selection of fresh flowers to be picked up and arranged on
the cake on the day of the wedding.
2.
Take a cake-decorating course at a local adult night school
or culinary school to learn how to pipe sugar-frosting accents
onto your cake, create lovely flowers or pearl drop designs,
and master other decorating methods.
3.
Ask a friend with proven cake-decorating skills to perform
her artistry on your cake as her wedding gift to you.
4.
Forget the piped-sugar roses or rolled fondant sculptures
and decorate a plain store-bought cake with thoroughly washed
and dried objects that fit your wedding theme. Some ideas:
seashells, mini conch shells, starfish, crystal wedding bells,
porcelain figurines, and even flags from your country of heritage.
These personal touches are very inexpensive and make great
conversation pieces for your guests.
5.
Decorate a plain, store-bought cake with your favorite
candies, chocolates, or even inexpensive chocolate-dipped fruit.
The cost for this might be $20 to $40, rather than $100 and
up (way up!) for a standard wedding cake.
Click
here for the ultimate wedding planning guide.
It answers over 250 of your top questions, 150 cost saving tips and
everything you could possible stress over is resolved. Simple
website, but very popular. It's my KissMeGoodnight recommendation.
Are
you planning a wedding on a very tight budget? I've got a
solution for you. Click here. It's also a KissMeGoodnight
recommendation.
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by KissMeGoodnight.com
: 2007
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