Advice from a Cake Baker

Posted by Darcy Miller

Elisa Strauss, owner of Confetti Cakes and author of The Confetti Cakes Cookbook: Spectacular Cookies, Cakes, and Cupcakes from New York City's Famed Bakery recently got married and I love what she did with her three wedding cakes. There are so many things to consider when choosing your cake (or multiple cakes) and Elisa has some great tips:

1) Do what you love...if you like cupcakes, have cupcakes, if you like ice cream, have an ice cream cake. Dessert buffets are great for those who love all things sweet.

2) Fondant is a great choice, it comes in great tasting flavors now, it holds up in all conditions and you can achieve greater detail with it.

Here are some more great wedding cake ideas. How are you deciding what cake to have on your special day?

Comments

[ShopLittleGifts]

That is a beautiful table. I once threw a 50th birthday party and had a dessert buffet: cakes, tarts, cookies. It's really breath-taking for guests and they get to nibble on what they like. A few years later, I threw a wedding anniversary party and used the inspiration from your magazine (the one with the blue cupcakes) -we had opera cupcakes (chocolate/hazelnut) - it was both delicious and a beautiful sight. I think for my wedding I might do a dessert buffet with all the exotic flavors I love: japanese petit fours, french eclairs, thai mango and coconut rice, chinese sweet sesame dumplings, old fashion chocolate cupcakes...hmm...

[laura]

I knew I wanted chocolate. Not just chocolate cake, but chocolate icing. I found a picture in a magazine of a cake that was entirely covered in black rolled fondant with pink flowers piped on it and decided to copy the design, but with poured chocolate ganache instead of the black fondant. At the cake tasting at the bakery my husband and I decided on vanilla cake with raspberry filling, chocolate buttercream icing and the poured chocolate ganache. The cake was beautiful and tasted even better than it looked. People raved about it. We also had our caterer pass chocolate covered strawberries after the cake was served. People raved about those too. You can see my cake at my blog: http://cultofdomesticity.blogspot.com/2007/12/my-wedding-cake.html

The bakery I used also provides a replica of your wedding cake for your first anniversary so you don't have to save the top. I get mine in a few weeks!

[Wendy]

I so love the cupcake weddings, but haven't yet been asked to do one!

I wanted to share that I'm hosting a giveaway on my blog for Wilton's new 3-D cupcake pan! Really cool pan!

[Nicole]

I am having a dessert buffet featuring many different cakes baked by some of my dear friends. In order to still have a focal point at the table, we have decided to do a "cake" made up of three tiered wheels of cheese. Do you have any suggestions for what would be appropriate choices to please a crowd?

[Melissa]

What an absolutely beautiful display! I love that more and more people are willing to break from the tradition of having a wedding cake and going for fun alternatives like this. There's nothing wrong with a beautiful, elegant cake, but it's great that we have more options to choose from now.

[Rachelino]

Nicole- do you mean choices of cheese to please a crowd or the different cake flavors for the 3 cakes?
If you mean the three cakes, I would definitely do at least one devil's food (or other rich chocolate) cake with poured chocolate ganache. Shiny, beautiful and delicious Carrot cake would be the second biggest crowd pleaser - with real cream cheese icing. Everyone loves it. Than I might do a rvanilla cake with lemon or raspberry filling.
If you mean cheese, I would vote for manchengo!
:)

[Alabama Beach weddings]

Oh my Gosh!! Look at all those goodies. Almost too pretty to eat. Almost.