Wedding Cakes – Sweet Disposition

If you’re looking to add something unique to your wedding cake, then these tasty trends may hold the answer. Jemmah Kelly reveals this season’s coveted confections.

Today, wedding cakes come in a vast range of styles, shapes and sizes. While traditional, multi-tiered wedding cakes remain a popular option for many, an increasing number of couples are embracing a less structured look, stripping back the thick fondant icing to reveal intricate layers and textures that offer visual appeal and mouth-watering flavours.

Decadent buttercream creations paired with fresh fragrant flowers and eye-catching metallic tones are also taking this wedding season by storm, and like all wedding trends, these delectable delights can be tastefully tailored to suit what’s best for you.

Here, Melbourne Wedding & Bride speaks with head pastry chef and owner of Regnier Cakes, Melina Heraud, who reveals this season’s sought-after flavours and design elements, and discusses why these wedding cakes are proving too tasty to resist.

The Bare Necessities

While the traditional frosted wedding cake won’t be going out of style anytime soon, many brides-to-be looking to add a rustic twist on the classic look will love the latest culinary trend: naked wedding cakes! Available in varying shapes and sizes, these frosting-free cakes will appeal to the alternative bride, particularly those seeking a more rustic look.

“The newest trend is the naked-style cake, [which involves] taking the old traditional sponge and draping it with lots of flowers and fresh fruits – perfect for a rustic-style wedding,” she says.

Naked cakes are characterised by a more natural and unstructured look, because unlike traditional frosted wedding cakes, the flavours are completely exposed. With this in mind, it’s important to choose fillings with complementary colours and textures to create a look that is cohesive.

The Buttercream The Better

According to Heraud, another look that is increasingly popular is buttercream icing paired with fresh flowers. She explains that flowers can range from beautiful, bright luxurious blooms to romantic pastels with lots of foliage.

Unlike traditional fondant icing, fluffy rich buttercream is incredibly diverse and can be styled to look clean and refined, or rough and textured. Another advantage of opting for a wedding cake finished with buttercream icing is that its colour can be tailored to complement the hues of your chosen wedding theme or décor.

“We are finding that brides are heading towards a more intimate wedding style [and] opting for outdoor, garden, or barn-style weddings. These cakes are perfect for a small intimate wedding or location wedding to add something special,” says Heraud.

For the bride who wants to make a beautiful and bold statement, suspending your buttercream wedding cake from the rafters or archways and finishing it off with just the right amount of fresh fragrant flowers is a great idea.

Metallic Matters

If you’re looking to add a little luster to your wedding cake, gold, silver, bronze and copper accents will complement most styles and colour palettes. Whether you opt for delicate gold or silver leafing or a bold all-metallic look covering the entire cake, these gilded hues will add a stylish touch to any wedding cake.

Shimmering metal-inspired tones paired with more traditional accents are a particularly wonderful idea for couples looking to maintain a classic look, while simultaneously experimenting with the latest culinary trends.

A pairing of white fondant icing and silver leaf is a great way to add a little sparkle to your wedding cake, while Heraud reveals that gold, bronze and brass combined with tones of pink, ivory and white are also popular colour combinations.

A wedding cake with an opulent gold finish can also create a spectacular centerpiece for a vintage-themed wedding, exuding old-world glamour and sophistication. Heraud suggests adding subdued pastel colours, feathers or even large flowers to accentuate this look.

“Lace work and pearls add a little bit of extra luxury to this style,” she adds.

To give your cake a little more presence, lift it up with a cake stand – particular one of the metallic variety – to create a centerpiece that will undoubtedly be the glimmering focal point of your wedding décor.

Savour The Flavour

As the old saying goes, it’s what’s on the inside that counts. This is certainly the case when it comes to choosing the internal flavours and fillings of your wedding cake, and today, couples have more options to choose from than ever before.

“Blueberry lemon-swirl white mud cake and raspberry lemon-filled sponge cake are two of the most popular fruit flavours. Lemon is [also] huge at the moment and I have to thank my mum for this as she keeps handing me bags and bags of lemons to use!” says Heraud.

“Our new dark chocolate caramel nut range is also proving to be a hit. My husband’s invention of a chilli pepper mud becoming more popular for the dark, more indulgent flavours. Saying this, I will always get plenty of orders for raspberry white chocolate mud,” she adds.

With more than 60 different flavours of mud cakes and fillings to choose from, Heraud’s flavoursome range of fillings is guaranteed to impress the most discerning connoisseur.

“Remember it’s your choice; create something that matches your wedding theme, your style and [is] a flavour that you love. Most cake designers are happy to spend time creating that perfect cake and offer multiple flavour tiers so that both the bride and groom get something they like,” says Heraud.

The Icing On The Cake

While the aforementioned styles and flavours are a great indication of what confections you can expect to see this wedding season, it’s important that you speak to your cake maker about what will work best for you, your guest list and your style of wedding.

As Heraud advises, the more information you can give to your cake maker, the more he or she can design a wedding cake – whether naked, metallic or clad in buttercream – that is perfect and unique to you.

“Make sure you always request a tasting and appointment with your cake designer. This will insure you are both on the same track and your cake will be everything you dreamed of inside and out.”