Everyone loves wedding cake, but choosing what to serve is no cake walk!
From picking flavors and designs to alternative desserts and when to serve them, we’ve rounded up some of the top wedding cake questions to help you choose the perfect sweet ending for your wedding day.
“I love chocolate, but my partner prefers fruitier flavors. Do we have to pick one?”
Why limit yourself to one cake flavor when you can have two—or more? Bakers today are frequently crafting tiers that feature different cake and filling combinations to satisfy both halves of the couple, as well as their guests. So if you’d rather have a dark chocolate cake with peanut butter filling, while your partner is all about that salted caramel or seasonal peach preserves, have both! Talk to your baker about strategizing which tiers feature each flavor to get a more even divide, and consider a slightly larger cake—your guests will want to try both offerings!
“When should we cut our cake?”
While it might seem arbitrary, the timing of your cake cutting actually plays a big role in your reception. In the past, the cake cutting was the very last moment in the reception—signaling to guests that they were welcome to head home. Though it usually happens much earlier today, cutting your cake still serves that same purpose (especially for older guests). These days, the cake is usually cut toward the end of dinner, just before dancing begins, and is the last “official” event of the evening. Slicing on the earlier side will let your grandmother or great uncle know they’re welcome to depart whenever they’re ready, and will signal that they won’t miss any of the formalities if they choose to head home.
There are a few other bonuses to cut the cake early (even before you take your seats for dinner!). First, it ensures your photographer gets those pictures. If you’ve scheduled your photographer to leave around 9pm, cutting the cake at 7pm means they won’t miss it. It also makes slicing and serving easier for your catering staff. If you cut the cake before dinner, they can work on slicing it once entrées have been served, and can pass out pieces as a plated dessert course before dancing gets underway.
“What’s the best way to cut a wedding cake?”
Have you and your partner practiced cutting a cake together before? Probably not, and we don’t blame you! Having two sets of hands on that cake knife can definitely be tricky. The neatest methods are either the box or wedge options. With the bride closest to the cake and the groom behind her, place both of your hands onto the knife. Cut an inch into the cake and slice down cleanly. Then, make a connecting cut for a wedge, using the cake knife to lift the wedge out and onto the plate. Skip the serving spatula, which is much larger than the slice should be and will just make a mess. For an even neater option, go with the box method: After you make that first slice, make a second parallel cut an inch over. Then, insert the knife vertically at the back of your two cuts and use it to push the slice out onto the plate.
“I want to surprise my new husband with a groom’s cake. What should it look like? When is it served?”
Traditionally, groom’s cakes were the wedding favor, not another dessert. The cake was sliced, boxed, and given to guests to take home. Single women would then sleep with the cake under their pillow, hoping to dream of their future groom—hence the cake’s name. These days, a groom’s cake is a chance to add something special for the groom to a celebration that can often feel like it’s all about the bride. Displayed alongside the wedding cake, a groom’s cake can take any form and be any flavor, whether a traditionally-shaped cake in rich chocolate with a liqueur filling or the funfetti of his childhood, carved into the shape of his prized grill or emblazoned with his favorite team’s logo.
Since the cake used to be used as a favor instead of dessert, there aren’t any hard-and-fast rules about slicing and serving. Most couples opt to slice the groom’s cake immediately after cutting the wedding cake, and serving slices alongside pieces of the wedding cake so guests have a choice of flavors. If the cakes are both large enough, you could plate a duet of slices for each guest, or simply put one flavor on each plate and let your family and friends choose what they’d prefer.