General tips for any wedding cake
Keep them inside. The last thing you want is for the beautiful creation you paid for to end up a melted mess. “Butter and the sun don’t always agree” Brooks warns. “It’s buttery. It’s cream. It’s heavy. You have to consider the weight that is sitting on the front of the cake once it warms.”If your wedding is outdoors, arrange for the cake to be brought out shortly before it gets cut — though that may negate the point of a statement cake.Consider the size of the event space. The last thing you want is for your beautiful cake to be dwarfed by a large event space, or vice versa. This can be combated with false tiers of cake, which add to the “wow” factor without destroying your budget.“And of course,” Brooks adds, “the asthetic is important. You wouldn’t want something too crazy and modern in, say, The Read House.”
Go metallic, go lacy, get colorful or even ruffle-y - you could even go naked. No, we aren't talking about bridal dresses. We're talking about something even more important: the cake.
Though the days of traditional, white-on-white tiered and iced wedding cakes are still very much alive, classic and conventional are certainly not the only options to characterize your big day.
Kenya Brooks, owner of Signal Mountain-based Yellow Cake Company, which opened in 2012, says several years ago she found that brides were beginning to become interested in something a little bit out of the ordinary. One of her business's first cakes was a geometric-inspired three-dimensional cake covered in bold hues of green, pink and blue.
"They just wanted something fun," Brooks says. " The couple was just really fun. They loved simple and modern and it fit with their reception at The Crash Pad."
One such non-traditional cake style trending is the "naked cake" look, which forgoes the typical frosted exterior and uses the cake layers as a standalone form of decoration. The concept is credited to New York City's Momofuku Milk Bar, and began to gain traction a couple of years ago with celebrities like Angelina Jolie popularizing it through leaked photos from her wedding to Brad Pitt in 2014.
For the faint of heart or anyone who wants to retain tradition without sacrificing personality, a groom's cake can be the easiest place to compromise, suggests Toni Repko, owner of Sweet Angel Cakes on East Brainerd Road.
"I think in bigger cities like Atlanta, people are more likely to take risks and do big things. I don't know why, but I don't think it's as acceptable to go far out of the norm [here]," she says. "You're allowed to get a little bit crazier with the groom's cake, I think."
Having done everything from a sculpted Yoda cake to a basketball shaped cake that was so life-like someone tried to pick it up during the wedding reception, "a bit" crazier might be an understatement, she clarifies.
"I had a guy who owned a funeral home who was getting married who wanted a hearse cake with a grave pushing up daisies that said 'RIP bachelor life,'" says Repko.
One of the most memorable cake Brooks has ever done was a groom's cake as well: a giant turkey standing on a box of Jet's Pizza, for a hunter and, obviously, pizza-lover.
"It was probably the most intense cake I've ever done," she says, adding that a close second was a whiskey barrel replica with bacon and a shot glass on top.
Brooks says what it all comes down to is creating cakes that are representative of the couple involved and the space they've chosen.
"Just be brave and trust your vendors with their jobs," she says. "I tell my clients, 'You've selected me for a reason. Have faith in me.'"