The Icing on The Cake Complementing Your Wedding With The Right Cake
Kate Middleton is class and elegance personified. She's also quite the trendsetter, so will her choice of fruit cake for her wedding cake give this much maligned cake new life? In England, the fruit cake bears little resemblance to the dried up, hard, fruitcake of the US. The royal's cake will be moist, loaded with spices, grated oranges and lemons, currants, raisins, and roasted nuts. It will also be soaked in brandy and have decadent, creamy frosting. That sounds a little better than the brick-like object that shows up around Christmas, doesn't it? English fruit cake may be traditional across the pond, but it would be a very unusual - and delicious - choice here. What other unique cake options can you consider to make your special day stand out?
Gingerbread. This is a great choice for holiday weddings, but why limit the goodness of gingerbread to just one season a year? A cute idea for favors is to make gingerbread cookies in the shape of a tiered wedding cake and decorate it with royal icing and small embellishments, like candy pearls. If you do not want to commit to an entire cake of gingerbread, use gingerbread people cake toppers for a fun, fresh touch.
Similarly, spice cakes work beautifully for fall weddings. Why not try pumpkin or orange spice with a creamy buttercream frosting?
Espresso. This is a popular color for weddings, but it can be a great choice for your cake's flavor as well. Try a chocolate espresso cake with layers of coffee liqueur and espresso-flavored buttercream. Other coffee flavors are excellent choices too: try a cafe au lait cake filled with creme brulee custard and frosted with milky buttercream. Rich and delicious.
Hazelnut. Slice into a hazelnut-coriander cake with whipped praline ganache, chocolate cake with hazelnut filling, or even Mexican Wedding Cakes (which are shortbread-like, melt-in-your-mouth cookies made with finely ground hazelnut).
You can also forgo the cake completely. Many couples are opting to go with cupcakes, or fairy cakes, which are a smaller version of the cupcake. Others are doing dessert buffets with a wide variety of tasty treats, while still others are choosing a candy buffet.
And for the people who cannot decide? Instead of using the traditional tiered cake, you can place each layer on its own stand (and vary the heights) to make a wonderful presentation. This allows you to try a variety of different flavors. You can, if you like, use a common frosting to tie them together, but you are certainly not obligated to.
The big theme in wedding cakes is to have your cake and eat it too; choose tastes you love, think outside ordinary white on white concoctions, and be creative. Not only are cake decorations getting more vibrant and bold, so too are the flavors.
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